The dodo (Raphus cucullatus) was a flightless bird endemic to Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. Driven to extinction by the late 1600s, it was killed off by human activities, including overhunting, habitat destruction, and the introduction of non-native species that preyed on its eggs. The dodo is one of the earliest recorded cases of a […]
Category: Extinct
Hawai’i Oo (Moho nobilis): Hawaii’s extinct royal bird
The Great Auk in Penobscot folklore
The great auk, now almost forgotten in the world by all except the ornithologists, is still remembered among the Penobscot as one of the legendary bird chiefs. While we may hesitate a moment in believing the strict identity of this now-extinct bird with the hero character in one of the creation tales, it nevertheless seems […]
Scientists get first full look at prehistoric New Zealand penguin, the largest ever.
Story After 35 years, a giant fossil penguin has finally been completely reconstructed, giving researchers new insights into prehistoric penguin diversity. The bones were collected in 1977 by Dr. Ewan Fordyce, a paleontologist from the University of Otago, New Zealand. In 2009 and 2011, Dr. Dan Ksepka, North Carolina State University research assistant professor of […]
Ula-ai-Hawane (Ciridops anna)
The story Although it was once well known to the natives of Hawaii, by the time that Europeans began their ornithological exploration of the island, this species has virtually disappeared. The striking red, black and silver Ula-ai-Hawane is known from just five specimens, two in New York (one of which is either an immature or […]
Huia (Heteralocha acutirostris)
The story Perhaps the most celebrated of extinct passerines is the Huia (pronounced hoo-ee-ah). This strange, funereal-looking creature fascinated all of those who came into contact with it. First, it caught the imagination of the Maoris, who accorded it a special place in the natural order of things. Among the great treasures of ethnology are […]
Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius)
The story The celebrated Passenger Pigeon has, perhaps, the most extraordinary story of any extinct bird. It may once have been the most numerous bird on Earth, and at the start of the nineteenth century vast flocks of this species blackened American skies. Yet during the course of 100 years the tremendous numbers dwindled until […]
Kona Grosbeak (Chloridops kona)
The story The Hawaiian honeycreepers form one of the most striking illustrations of adaptive radiation, but, unfortunately, so many of them are extinct that the example is now historical rather than living. At some point in prehistory an ancestral honeycreeper stock somehow arrived at the Hawaiian Islands and found a situation that was ripe for […]
Kauai Oo (Moho braccatus)
The story The fourth species ‘o’o clung to survival for much longer than the others. It was also the most divergent of the four. Whereas the other three are very similar looking creatures that show their close affinity quite clearly, the Kauai ‘O’o was comparatively aberrant. By no means so flashy in appearance, it was […]
Piopio (Turnagra capensis)
The story The Piopio, or New Zealand Thrush, may have been two species rather than one. Two quite distinct kinds existed, and they are usually regarded as races of the same species: nominate capensis of the South Island; and race tanagra of the North Island. There are good reasons for supposing that they should be […]