There are some linguists who think otherwise, however. They believe that the name was a case of mistaken identity. The bristle-thighed curlew, known as the kiwi in Polynesian, looks very similar to the kiwi. The first Polynesian settlers may have applied the name to the kiwi we all know and love when they arrived in New Zealand.
There are five species of kiwi, four of which are classified as vulnerable (or worse) to extinction. Two are vulnerable, one is endangered, and one is critically endangered. This is mainly due to deforestation, but now that there are large reserves and national parks, the main threat is invasive predators.
One more fun fact about the kiwi: They lay the largest eggs in relation to their bodies of any bird species in the world. It might not be surprising, then, that they are fairly closely related to ostriches.
