Most birds use their own body heat to incubate their eggs.

But the mallee fowl makes it own smart incubator from the rotting vegetation.

The eggs are buried in a composite heap of rotting vegetation.

The male bird monitors the temperature of the incubator with its bill ( a thermometer?)

It adds or removes the covering of sand so that the temperature is maintained at 33 degree C.

The eggs are laid one by one over a period extending to six months but hatch singly.

The care given to the eggs is not extended to the chicks.

They have to fend for themselves soon after hatching.