Rhea (bird) many people. The gaucho people traditionally hunt rheas on horseback, throwing "bolas" or "boleadoras" — a throwing device consisting of three balls joined by rope — at their legs, which immobilises the bird. The rhea is pictured on Argentina's 1 Centavo coin minted in 1987, and on the Uruguayan 5 peso coin. Rhea (bird) The rheas () are large ratites (flightless birds without a keel on their sternum bone) in the order Rheiformes, native to South America, distantly related to the ostrich and emu. Most taxonomic authorities recognize two extant species: the greater or American rhea ("Rhea americana") and the
Cuban flightless crane Cuban flightless crane The Cuban flightless crane ("Grus cubensis") is a large, extinct species of crane that was endemic to the island of Cuba in the Caribbean. The remains were found in Pleistocene deposits in Pinar del Rio. Probably derived from an early invasion of sandhill cranes from North America, it differed from that species by, as well as larger size, having a proportionately broader bill, stockier legs, and with reduced wings and pectoral girdle indicating that it may have been flightless. Currently, the only extant Caribbean crane is the Cuban sandhill crane, "Antigone canadensis nesiotes", an endangered subspecies of