On Mon, 22 Feb 2010, Erik Boehm wrote:
Now look at turkeys.... when do you observe themflying? basically never except when threatened. Indeed. But they can launch vertically at albatross grade body weights. That does not strike me as poor.I have never observed this behavior in the wild turkeys I see, they always seem to attempt to run away first, and then start to fly, it may be dependent on the nature of the threat.Also- from other threads on here(mainly pterosaur vs bird launching), it seems with birds, a large portion of the initial impulse comes from the legs of the bird, if that is what allows this supposed behavior, I wouldn't say that makes them good flyers, but good "launchers". And if that ability is correlated to the leg muscles, that makes sense for birds that walk rather than fly when given the chance.
Run First, Then Fly (RFTF) or Run First Fly Second (RFFS) hmmm If the lifestyle is mostly grounddwelling, then walk/run from danger might also make sense.