Port Mary, Santa Ana Island

Megapode egg, Santa Ana Island, Solomon Islands

Megapodes are known as mound builders and incubator birds. These birds have large feet (hence their name) which they use to make big heaps of vegetation or shallow burrows in which they incubate their eggs. Megapodes rely entirely on environmental heat sources – solar radiation, geothermal heat, and microbial decomposition – to incubate their eggs. They harness these heat sources via two main nesting strategies: mound-building or burrow-nesting. Unusually, their chicks are quite well-developed and have their feathers by the time they hatch so they don't need parental care (precocial)