Menu Close

Articles on Extinct birds

Displaying all articles

A flock of vultures (Cryptogyps lacertosus) and Australian ravens watch and wait (left), as an adult eagle Dynatoaetus pachyosteus feeds on the carcass of a dead Diprotodon (centre), while a younger bird seeks to join in. In the nearby treetops, a second adult D. pachyosteus feeds its hungry chick (right). John Barrie

Giant eagles and scavenging vultures shared the skies of ancient Australia

New fossils reveal Australia was once home to a much greater diversity of huge eagles and vultures, which died off alongside ‘giant wombats’ and ‘marsupial lions’.
The extinction of important animal resources such as the moa reverberated culturally for centuries after the birds’ extinction. John Megahan / Wikimedia Commons

Dead as the moa: oral traditions show that early Māori recognised extinction

Tracing extinctions that happened centuries ago is difficult. But in New Zealand, the last place to be settled some 750 years ago, ancestral Māori oral traditions retain clues about lost species.

Top contributors

More