Non Flying Birds

There are some birds in nature who cannot do things for which their bodies were originally designed. One of them is the Hen and other one is the Ostrich. Both the birds have wings but they cannot fly at all. Their bodies are too heavy for them to fly. The fact that they do have wings implies that their ancestors did use them and flew in open skies.

But down the line as there was free availability of food, their subsequent generations somehow stopped flying. According to a research this birds got lazier and fatter with the extinction of dinosaur, the threat on the ancestors of these birds came down so they just kept eating getting bigger and ultimately lost their ability to fly.

For humans they were easy prey and we humans started rearing them and use their and their eggs as food products. Humans also used their feathers for for decoration.

The following is an example of an ostrich egg and a chicken egg . An interesting fact about Ostrich egg is the shell is very very hard. The egg is consumed by humans but one cannot break the shell of ostrich egg like the egg of chicken. In fact a drill is used to pierce a hole in the shell. The egg of Ostrich is the largest among all birds it weighs around 1.4 kilograms.

Ostrich Egg vs Chicken Egg

There are other birds as well like Ostrich and Hen that cannot fly like Emu, Kiwi, turkey. 

Nature follows a rule "If you don't use it you lose it". There are parts in the human body that are no longer used like the appendix. When the appendix is infected it is very painful and has to be removed surgically. 

However the inability of chicken to fly has been of great advantage to us , it is bird that can be easily reared and gives lots of eggs. Especially the layer chicken that are bred for their eggs. The broilers that are bred for meat take just 40 days to reach the stage of maturity where it can be culled and used as food. 

Ostrich has its utility in its meat, skin and feathers both these birds today are of great commercial value to human civilization.