Those of us who work at Birdlife Australia get asked a lot of questions about birds. Usually, it’s to ID a mystery backyard bird. (Nine times out of 10 it’s a butcherbird!) Occasionally, we get thrown a much curlier question such as “Is a cassowary a bird?”, “Do birds have penises?” or “What’s your favourite bird?”.
The answers are: “yes”, “females don’t, but neither do males of most species – they have a cloaca, which is a topic for another day”. And the last question is almost impossible to answer. How can you possibly choose?
