The rhea is the largest native bird in the Americas, a flightless ratite with a long neck and legs, adapted to running fast in the open habitat of the pampas and savannas of South America. It has velvety gray plumage, which varies from light to darker tones, and a robust body that gives it stability during high-speed turns, using its wings not for flight but for balance and steering.
Habits
The rhea is diurnal and terrestrial, spending most of the day grazing in flocks of several dozen individuals outside the breeding season, and during the mating season it adopts a polygynous–polygynandrous reproductive system, in which males form harems and jointly incubate the eggs of several females.
Reproduction
Females are serially polygamous, laying between 5 and 10 eggs each in a communal nest dug by the male, who may incubate 20–35 eggs from multiple females; incubation lasts 29–43 days, and the chicks hatch synchronously, with the male providing exclusive care and protection.
Distribution
It is found in open regions of South America, including the pampas of Argentina, the savannas of Brazil, and the lowland areas of Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Peru, preferring lowlands with grassy vegetation and proximity to watercourses for breeding; feral populations have also been recorded in Northern Germany.
