Is a Cassowary A Bird?

Written by Rebecca Bales
Updated: September 30, 2022
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Cassowaries are genus of large animals from Australia, New Guinea, and Indonesia. While they look like birds, cassowaries also are incredibly large and also flightless. For many, that raises the question of just what exactly is a cassowary. Is a cassowary a bird, or something else? Let’s dig in.

Is a Cassowary a Bird?

Is a Cassowary A Bird - Isolated on White Background

Cassowary

isolated on white background

©Sanit Fuangnakhon/Shutterstock.com

First off, yes, a cassowary is a bird. It belongs to the biological class Aves, which includes all modern birds.

There are some key similarities between birds and mammals

  • Both have hearts and are vertebrates
  • In addition, birds and mammals share being warm-blooded

Yet, with birds having evolved from dinosaurs (and being their closest living relatives), there are some key traits that define birds.

First, birds contain wings. While most birds fly (more on that below), flying is not a requirement to be a bird. Cassowaries are flightless birds, which makes them rare, but they still contain wings.

Birds also are feathered. While the cassowary has a “fluffy” appearance, that’s not hair on their body but rather glossy feathers that are fairly unique across birds.

Birds also have beaks, a lightweight skeleton (which most species use for flying), and lay hard-shelled eggs. Cassowary eggs are unique, they’re a lime-colored green and very large in size. Cassowaries have beaks that connect to a large “casque” on their head that gives a unique appearance. Its proposed that this casque is used to help cassowaries cut through the tress and brush when running at fast speeds.

Add it up and while flightless, cassowaries share all the common traits among birds.

The Classification of Cassowaries

Are Cassowaries Birds - Southern Cassowary, double-wattled cassowary Bird Close-up. Taken in taman the hill Sibolangit, Indonesia.

Southern Cassowary, double-wattled cassowary Bird Close-up. Taken in taman the hill Sibolangit, Indonesia.

©RonnyDesign/Shutterstock.com

Cassowaries are connected to other large, flightless birds through the clade Palaeognathae which includes ostriches, tinamous, rhea, emus, and kiwis. Overall there are 60 species in this clade, while all other birds belong to the much larger Neognathae, which contains more than 10,000 species of birds.

The closest relative to the cassowary is the emu, which belongs to the same order. There are three species of cassowaries and just a single species of emu.

A cassowary is a type of flightless bird. Additionally, the cassowary is usually considered to be the world’s most dangerous bird to humans. Although ostriches and emus are dangerous in their own right, cassowaries can cause serious injuries including broken bones and puncture wounds. One indecent also resulted in death.

Its believed that cassowaries first evolved shortly after the extinction of the dinosaurs, about 60 million years ago. The cassowary shares incredibly similar appearance to a recently discovered dinosaur, which points to cassowaries being one of the closest remaining links to a time when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

Are Cassowaries A Threatened Bird Species?

Of the 10,000 species in the world today, about 12% are currently threatened with extinction. As of 2021, all three cassowary species are listed as Least Concern.

That hasn’t always been the case as the dwarf cassowary was previously listed as Near Threatened by the IUCN until 2013, but its status has changed. Both the dwarf and northern cassowaries have relatively smaller geographic ranges that cover only a portion of the island New Guinea and some smaller surrounding islands. The southern cassowary also lives in Australia, through its range is limited to the Cape York peninsula in Queensland.

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The photo featured at the top of this post is © RonnyDesign/Shutterstock.com


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About the Author

Rebecca is an experienced Professional Freelancer with nearly a decade of expertise in writing SEO Content, Digital Illustrations, and Graphic Design. When not engrossed in her creative endeavors, Rebecca dedicates her time to cycling and filming her nature adventures. When not focused on her passion for creating and crafting optimized materials, she harbors a deep fascination and love for cats, jumping spiders, and pet rats.

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