Wildlifeof Sulawesi
Orange-footed Megapode
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Photo: (c) Stella Fish, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY (May be cropped or resized)
Megapodius reinwardt
Basic stats
Diet
Seeds, fallen fruit and ground-dwelling invertebrates
Habitat
Forest floor and other sites with deep sand or decomposing plant material
Range
Lesser Sundas, southern New Guinea and northern Australia
Clutch size
Eggs laid individually in an incubation mound
Size
Approximately the size of a domestic chicken
The orange-footed megapode is a chicken-sized, ground-living bird with dark plumage, powerful orange legs and a pointed crest at the back of its head. Its strong feet rake through leaf litter while it searches for seeds, fallen fruit and terrestrial invertebrates. The species occurs across numerous islands of the Lesser Sundas and also in southern New Guinea and northern Australia; its island populations have been divided into several named forms (Wikipedia general species account).
Instead of warming its eggs by sitting on them, a pair builds and maintains a mound of sand, leaves and other organic debris. Heat released as the plant material decomposes incubates eggs buried within the structure. Active mounds may reach 4.5 m high and 9 m across, and maintenance continues through the year. This unusual system leaves the developing chick dependent on mound temperature rather than direct parental brooding (Wikipedia general species account, drawing on the cited megapode literature).
Quick answers
- What does the Orange-footed Megapode eat?
- Seeds, fallen fruit and ground-dwelling invertebrates
- What habitat does the Orange-footed Megapode live in?
- Forest floor and other sites with deep sand or decomposing plant material
- Where is the Orange-footed Megapode found?
- Lesser Sundas, southern New Guinea and northern Australia
- How many eggs does the Orange-footed Megapode lay?
- Eggs laid individually in an incubation mound
- How big is the Orange-footed Megapode?
- Approximately the size of a domestic chicken