Watch the Viral Brazilian Bird Bouncing a Golf Ball on a Cart Path
By Elena Rostova
The bird in the clip is a red-legged seriema (Cariama cristata), a terrestrial species endemic to the grasslands, savannas, and open scrub of central and eastern South America. Standing roughly three feet tall, seriemas spend most of their lives on foot. They are swift runners capable of clocking speeds above 15 miles per hour across the Brazilian Cerrado, using flight only as a desperate escape maneuver.
Taxonomically, seriemas are among the most fascinating avians on Earth. They are the sole living descendants of the Phorusrhacidae, the extinct lineage known colloquially as "terror birds." These apex predators dominated South American ecosystems for over 60 million years following the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs. While modern seriemas are considerably smaller than their ten-foot-tall ancestors, they retain distinctive anatomical traits: heavy hooked bills, sharp talons, strong neck musculature, and a relentless focus on terrestrial hunting.
Their diet is omnivorous but heavily skewed toward small animals. A foraging seriema hunts for rodents, large beetles, frogs, venomous snakes, and bird eggs. Because seriemas lack the talons required to tear flesh like eagles or hawks, they evolved alternative methods to subdue tough prey before swallowing it whole.
Elena Rostova holds a Master's degree in Public Health Journalism. She covers groundbreaking medical research, holistic wellness trends, mental health awareness, and nutritional science.
