Steve Zack, WCS's Coordinator of Bird Conservation, wrote: 

From the time of Magellan, there has been a fascination with the birds that "laid their eggs in volcanoes." Those birds, megapodes as a group, are in the news again as our Bronx Zoo has hatched young from a captive pair of maleo, the national bird of Sulawesi. The media coverage has stressed the "bizarre" nesting of these birds; I prefer to call it exceptional.

I had the chance last fall to visit tropical Asia for the first time, as part of my journeys to help enhance some of our key conservation efforts. Of particular excitement for me was the opportunity to travel to Sulawesi and see maleos in the wild.