Scrubfowl

Scrubfowl
Orange-footed scrubfowl
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Galliformes
Family: Megapodiidae
Genus: Megapodius
Gaimard, 1823
Type species
Megapodius freycinet
Gaimard, 1823
Species

14 total, 12 extant, see text.

The scrubfowl are mound-builders (stocky, medium-large chicken-like birds with small heads and large feet in the family Megapodiidae) in the genus Megapodius . They are found from south-east Asia to north Australia and islands in the west Pacific.

They do not incubate their eggs with their body heat in the orthodox way, but bury them. They are best known for building a massive mound of decaying vegetation, which the male attends, adding or removing litter to regulate the internal heat while the eggs hatch.