page_title: Flightless bird
section_title: Columbiformes (pigeons, doves)
hierarchical_section_title: Flightless bird / List of flightless birds / Columbiformes (pigeons, doves)
caption_attribution_description: Dodo reconstruction (Raphus cucullatus) reflecting new research at Oxford University Museum of Natural History
context_page_description: Flightless birds are birds that through evolution lost the ability to fly. There are over 60 extant species, including the well known ratites and penguins. The smallest flightless bird is the Inaccessible Island rail. The largest flightless bird, which is also the largest living bird, is the ostrich. Ostriches are farmed for their decorative feathers, meat and their skins, which are used to make leather.
  Many domesticated birds, such as the domestic chicken and domestic duck, have lost the ability to fly for extended periods, although their ancestral species, the red junglefowl and mallard, respectively, are capable of extended flight. A few particularly bred birds, such as the Broad Breasted White turkey, have become totally flightless as a result of selective breeding; the birds were bred to grow massive breast meat that weighs too much for the bird's wings to support in flight.
  Flightlessness has evolved in many different birds independently. There were families of flightless birds, such as the now extinct Phorusrhacidae, that evolved to be powerful terrestrial predators.
context_section_description: Dodo, Raphus cucullatus †
  Rodrigues solitaire, Pezophaps solitaria †
  Viti Levu giant pigeon, Natunaornis gigoura †
  Saint Helena dove, Dysmoropelia dekarchiskos †
  Henderson ground dove, Gallicolumba leonpascoi †
caption: Dodo
exif: {}