Cassowary - The Great Australian Bird Adventure

Southern Cassowaries are such interesting birds.   I had so much fun painting them.  

Cassowaries are native to Northern Australia, New Guinea, and surrounding islands. They are flightless birds, that still have remnants of their flight feathers…I have photos of what remains of their flight feathers. They are like emus and ostriches but not a big. They are the third largest bird, but the second heaviest bird on our planet, Ostriches are heaver.

The largest cassowaries can stand as high as 180 cm tall and weigh up to 70 kilograms.   Though Cassowaries can’t fly,  they do have extremely powerful legs that can propel them at great speeds.  Surprisingly they are strong swimmers.  Cassowaries can run as as fast as 50 km per hour through the rain forest.  Now that must be quite the thing to witness.

Their powerful legs also help them jump high, up to 2 metres straight into the air. Their legs are also used for delivering strong kicks.  They have a sharp dagger-like claw, up to 10 to 12 cm long,  that can slice and puncture any animal that is a threat, including humans.  

My Great Australian Bird Adventure is now in the painting phase of the process.  I am back in Yellowknife, going through photos and sorting out how many birds I have seen.  So far 140 different ones in Australia and I still have the photos from the whole month of April to go through.