What is the difference between the emu and the kiwi?

Answer 1

These birds, along with the rhea, are all flightless. Although they are classed as birds, they are among the very few birds that can't actually fly at all. They are members of a group of birds called ratites. Ratites have wings but the bones in their chests do not have the capacity for flight muscles, which is what a bird needs to fly.

Answer 2

Neither flies. The Emu weighs from 20kg to 50kg and if it flew, it would represent hazard. It can easily run at 50 km/h.

Both are ratites - they lack a keel bone to which flight muscles could have been attached, and never flew. They are endemic to Australia.

Kiwis are endemic to New Zealand and are the smallest of the Ratites. The largest weighs only 2.5 kg.

There are half a dozen of genera of Ratites, and are spread throughout old Gondwana.