Bird Nerd - Tumblr Posts - Page 2

Oh boy, let’s talk giant eggs! (no, really, I’m coming out of lurking for this) Ostriches do indeed lay the largest eggs of extant species. However, the largest bird egg known is the elephant bird egg. I have found an image to show a size comparison between one and a chicken egg: 

Based on the thought that the most common size of eggs in that image are probably chicken-egg sized, I’d guess that the largest eggs in the image are somewhat larger than an elephant bird egg (rough guestimate 1f-1.5f long?). Elephant bird eggs can be over a foot long, and weigh over 22 pounds. The largest subspecies of elephant bird, vorombe titan, is estimated to have weighed between 1100 to 1600 pounds (and up to a possible 1900 pounds) and is considered the largest bird that ever lived. It’s also estimated to be about 10 feet tall. 

So, yeah, the birds that laid the giant eggs in the image probably weighed over a ton. Height would be harder to pinpoint, because some birds are much stockier than others. Moas, for example are about the same height as elephant birds, but top out at 500 pounds.

Okay, but some of those eggs are really big! I don’t want to see the bird (or reptile) that laid them!

I mean, the largest egg on earth is the ostrich egg

and there are eggs in Fred’s collection that are easily three to four, even five times that size! I don’t want to meet something three to five times the size of an ostrich, okay?

bird nerd !