Southern Emu-Wren

Stipiturus malachurus

Status: critically Endangered. Stipiturus malachurus requires either swamp or dry-heath, and unfortunately most of the swamp habitat in its range is on private property. This results in significant fragmentation and an inability of conservation efforts to regulate.

The oozlum bird is a creature of Australian and British folktales. It is a quirky being, large enough for a man to ride upon, and it is incredibly vain. Instead of normal flight, it flies backwards in order to admire its own beautiful tail feathers. A side benefit of flying backwards is that it can see where it has been with much more clarity, though it doesn't know where it is going. If startled, it takes off, spiraling in circles, until disappearing completely.

Reference to the oozlum bird is sometimes meant as mocking criticism of self-referential arguments that amount to just a lot of nonsense.

References:
Goodge, W. T., 1862-1909. (1899). Hits! Skits! And Jingles! [Documents]. https://jstor.org/stable/community.34595239

"oozlum bird". Oxford English Dictionary, 1858. https://www.oed.com/search/dictionary/?scope=Entries&q=oozlum+bird https://www.oed.com/search/advanced/Quotations?textTermText0=oozlum+bird&textTermOpt0=QuotText