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Pretty Parrots New Guinea also is home to some unique parrots. Some have tiger stripes. Others come in rainbow colors. For example, a male eclectus parrot has a green head, red sides, and a yellow beak. A female has a red head and a bright blue body. Unlike most parrots, the males and females don’t look alike. In fact, scientists once thought they were two different species. Pygmy parrots stand out for a different


reason. Tey’re tiny! Tey are the smallest parrots in the world. Six different species of pygmy parrots live on New Guinea and its nearby islands. Te smallest of all is the buff-faced pygmy


parrot. With yellow and green feathers, it looks like many other parrots. Yet it’s only as big as a person’s thumb. A pygmy parrot’s diet is unusual, too. Many


birds eat fruit and insects. When a pygmy parrot hunts for dinner, it looks for lichen, too. It hops along a tree branch until it spots a green patch growing on the bark. Ten it rips up a strip of leathery lichen and eats it.


The cassowary is a flightless bird.


Big Bird Pygmy parrots aren’t the only birds that stand out for their size. So do cassowaries. Unlike the parrots, though, these birds are huge. A northern cassowary can grow to be 1.7 meters (5.6 feet) tall. Only emus and ostriches grow taller than this flightless bird. Even though it’s big, it’s easier to hear a


cassowary than to see one. Many of these shy birds live in swampy areas. As they call to one another, their booms echo. Te sound is so loud and low that it makes the ground vibrate. Te birds are just as noisy as they run up to 50 kilometers (31 miles) per hour. Tey crash through the brush. Watch out if the crashing sound is close by.


Tese big birds may be shy, but they’re also dangerous. When a cassowary feels threatened, it fluffs out its shaggy black feathers and hisses. Ten it kicks with sharp claws. More oſten, though, a cassowary uses its claws to dig through leaves for fallen fruit.


8 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORER


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