Illustration: George Boorujy When I have to avoid getting too close to a bird because it might kill me, I know I’m not in Somerset anymore, Toto. I’m actually nearly ten thousand miles from home, in “TNQ” – Tropical North Queensland. During my whistlestop tour of Australia’s most bird-rich state, I saw well over 200 different species – almost half of them new to me. But among the bowerbirds and boobies, whipbirds and woodswallows, fairy-wrens and fig parrots, there’s one bird that I want to see more than any other. And now it’s standing just a few feet away from me, on the terrace of the aptly named Cassowary House. The southern cassowary rivals another Aussie giant, the emu, for second...
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