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 Birds in Australia exhibition
Ever wondered how birds fly?
The exhibition includes a replica of the striking fossil of Archaeopteryx, which points to the repitilian ancestry of birds. Fossil records show the advent, decline or extinction of different groups of birds during the last 35 million years. Among Australia's prehistoric birds were the dromornithids, which included perhaps the largest bird to ever live. Many features of birds are directly related to their conquest of the air. Of these the best known is the feather. Another is hollow bones, which help reduce the weight of birds, without loss of strength. The forelimbs of birds have also been modified as wings, to provide lift and propulsion. Some birds have lost the power of flight so their wings and other body parts related to flight, have undergone changes. A number of Australian bird species migrate, making regular return journeys between different areas at different times of the year. The why and how of migration and its navigation remains among the 'great mysteries' of the animal world. Migration for some birds is a part of the ongoing cycle of attracting mates, building nests, hatching eggs and raising young. This exhibition uses biological classification, the grouping of organisms that share similar features and a common ancestor. Organisms are classified into successively larger groups to show their relationships to one another in an evolutionary sequence. At each level, the members of a particular group are related by a combination of shared characteristics. The first unit of classification is species eg the different 'kinds' of birds. Normally, species breed only with their own species. Closely related species are grouped together into a genus (plural genera). Related genera are in turn placed in a family, families into an order, orders are placed in a class (in the case of birds Class Aves), classes into a phylum (plural phyla), phyla into a kingdom.
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The biology of birds is explained in the Birds exhibition and covers topics such as flight, behaviour, characteristics and evolution. This exhibition displays a vast number of Australia's unique and abundant bird life and is organised in taxonomic sequence. Come and see cockatoos, lyrebirds, honeyeaters, bowerbirds, an Emu with chicks and listen to an array of bird songs. Take the rare opportunity to get close to a Night Parrot - one of only 24 specimens in the world.