"their attention to migratory flocks of millions of Eskimo curlews and harvested up to 7,000 birds per day. Market hunters used small cannon called punt guns in Long Island Sound, Delaware Bay, and Chesapeake Bay to harvest Atlantic Flyway waterfowl. New York, New Jersey, and Maryland market hunters sold Labrador ducks from 1840 to 1860, and the species was extinct by 1875. The last known breeding colony of great auks on Funk Island was destroyed for feathers sold to stuff pillows and mattresses. Herons and egrets were hunted for their long, filamentous nuptial plumage used in the millinery trade from"
"or eleven remaining specimens and one or two eggs in museums (e.g. in Leiden, New York, Liverpool and London). It apparently became extinct in the 1870s due to predation by introduced species such as rats and feral cats. Additionally, it was noted to taste good and seems to have been hunted for food. Reed (1980) reported the testimony of a local who claimed the bird to be extinct since 1907. However, there were unconfirmed sightings in upland rainforest in 1984 (August 22 and 23), and 2003, and in the latter year, a deep, gulping call ""ooh-ooh-ooh"" call was heard to"
"extinct. Its inability to fly and the island's geographic isolation, combined with the bird's inquisitiveness and lack of fear of humans, made it an easy victim of over-hunting. It is now known that the extinction event occurred specifically between 1942 and 1945. This was a direct result of the presence of thousands of starving Japanese troops stranded on the island after a U.S. blockade of the island took place as a direct result of the Japanese invasion and occupation of Wake Island in December 1941, in addition combined with the inevitable habitat destruction resulting from military altercations and extensive aerial"
"was followed by a rapid decline between 1870 and 1890. The last confirmed wild bird is thought to have been shot in 1901. The last captive birds were divided in three groups around the turn of the 20th century, some of which were photographed alive. Martha, thought to be the last passenger pigeon, died on September 1, 1914, at the Cincinnati Zoo. The eradication of this species is a notable example of anthropogenic extinction. Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus coined the binomial name ""Columba macroura"" for both the mourning dove and the passenger pigeon in the 1758 edition of his work"
"disappeared after the first wave of European settlement. Labrador duck The Labrador duck (""Camptorhynchus labradorius"") was a North American bird; it has the distinction of being the first endemic North American bird species to become extinct after the Columbian Exchange, with the last known sighting occurring in 1878 in Elmira, New York. It was already a rare duck before European settlers arrived, and as a result of its rarity information on the Labrador duck is not abundant, although some, such as its habitat, characteristics, dietary habits and reasons behind its extinction, are known. There are 55 specimens of the Labrador"
"Labrador duck The Labrador duck (""Camptorhynchus labradorius"") was a North American bird; it has the distinction of being the first endemic North American bird species to become extinct after the Columbian Exchange, with the last known sighting occurring in 1878 in Elmira, New York. It was already a rare duck before European settlers arrived, and as a result of its rarity information on the Labrador duck is not abundant, although some, such as its habitat, characteristics, dietary habits and reasons behind its extinction, are known. There are 55 specimens of the Labrador duck preserved in museum collections worldwide. The Labrador"
"colony initially was discovered in 1835, nearly fifty birds were present. Museums, desiring the skins of the great auk for preservation and display, quickly began collecting birds from the colony. The last pair, found incubating an egg, was killed there on 3 June 1844, on request from a merchant who wanted specimens, with Jón Brandsson and Sigurður Ísleifsson strangling the adults and Ketill Ketilsson smashing the egg with his boot. Great Auk specialist John Wolley interviewed the two men who killed the last birds, and Sigurður described the act as follows: A later claim of a live individual sighted in"
"one of the people involved in recording the songs). The final blow was two hurricanes coming within ten years of each other. They destroyed many of the old trees with cavities, and prohibited tree growth when the second one arrived, causing the species to disappear. The bird was last sighted in 1985, and the last sound recording was made in 1987 by David Boynton. It is still believed by some that the species may survive undetected, as the species had already been proclaimed extinct twice: once in the 1940s (later rediscovered in 1950) and again from the late 1950s to"
"a very gregarious bird, noted for its loud, continuous calling. While the bird was normally cautious, avoiding contact with humans, this lessened while feeding. As the bird often fed in farmers' field upon crops such as maize, this contributed to its widespread hunting. The last bird was seen in 1882, by W. W. Brown, who collected the specimen which now resides at the Field Museum in Chicago. The date of extinction is not well recorded. It was referred to as still being extant in 1905, but reported as extinct in 1950. Hunting by humans is believed to be the primary"
"the remains of these and the other birds are scattered throughout various museums in Europe today. The logbooks of the expedition did not specify from which island each captured bird originated, or even that they were taxonomically distinct, so their status remained unclear until more than a century later. Hunting pressure and fires started by early settlers on King Island likely drove the wild population to extinction by 1805. The captive specimens in Paris both died in 1822 and are believed to have been the last of their kind. There was long confusion regarding the taxonomic status and geographic origin"
"Huahine gull The Huahine gull (""Chroicocephalus utunui""), also known as the Society Islands gull, is an extinct bird, a species of gull of which subfossil bones were found at the Fa'ahia archeological site on Huahine, in the Society Islands of French Polynesia. The site is an early Polynesian occupation site dating to between 700 CE and 1200 CE, containing, as well as anthropogenic material, the remains of many species of birds now either globally or locally extinct, that were killed for their flesh, bones or feathers. The gull was described (as ""Larus utunui"") from 12 bones from two individual birds."
"a combination of the introduction of cats and weasels, habitat destruction by human settlers, and direct hunting by humans. Prior to European settlement, the bird had been hunted by Polynesian settlers of the island. When Europeans reached the island, however, the birds remained and the Polynesians did not. The Europeans took up the bird as a food source. An officer of the penal colony there, Ensign Abel Dottin William Best, recorded the species as still quite common in 1838, with his journals mentioning his successful hunting of 72 birds, including 25 on September 18, 1838. The last sighting occurred in"
"director of the conservation organization BirdLife International has stated that ""no hope remains for this species"" and blames the ""unforeseen consequences"" of human action. This extinction brought the number of confirmed bird extinctions since 1600 AD to 162. The previous declaration of a bird species as extinct was that of the Liverpool pigeon (""Caloenas maculata"") in 2008. However, that was more a problem of recognition as that species was last recorded alive in the late 18th or early 19th century. Alaotra grebe The Alaotra grebe (""Tachybaptus rufolavatus""), also known as Delacour's little grebe or rusty grebe, is an extinct grebe"
"is considered extinct. The last known specimen, named Lonesome George, died in captivity on 24 June 2012; George had been mated with female tortoises of several other species, but none of the eggs from these pairings hatched. The species inhabiting Floreana Island (""G. nigra"") is thought to have been hunted to extinction by 1850, only 15 years after Charles Darwin's landmark visit of 1835, when he saw shells, but no live tortoises there. The existence of the ""C. phantastica"" species of Fernandina Island is disputed, as it was described from a single specimen that may have been an artificial introduction"
"Nightingale reed warbler The nightingale reed warbler (""Acrocephalus luscinius""), or Guam reed warbler, is an extinct song bird endemic to Guam. It has not been reported since the late 1960s and is now considered extinct. The nightingale reed warbler was originally described in 1830 by the French explorers and naturalists Quoy & Gaimard as ""Thryothorus luscinius"". Until 2011, the Pagan reed warbler, Aguiguan reed warbler, and Saipan reed warbler were also considered as subspecies of the nightingale reed warbler until split by the IOC. The nightingale reed warbler was driven to extinction by several introduced species. These included the brown"
"higher concentrations of pollutants, causing eutrophication across Lake Tota. This destroyed the open, submergent pondweed (""Potamogeton"") vegetation and resulted in the formation of a dense monoculture of water weed (""Elodea""). By 1968, the species had declined to approximately 300 birds. Only two records of this bird were made in the 1970s; one seen 1972, and the last confirmed record from 1977 when three birds were seen. Intensive studies in 1981 and 1982 failed to find the species and it is now considered extinct. Colombian grebe The Colombian grebe (""Podiceps andinus""), was a grebe (aquatic bird) found in the Bogotá wetlands"
"of Venus, Alexandre Guy Pingré encountered no solitaires, although he had been assured that they survived. Explanatory notes Citations Raphinae The Raphinae are a clade of extinct flightless birds formerly called didines or didine birds. They inhabited the Mascarene Islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues, but became extinct through hunting by humans and predation by introduced non-native mammals following human colonisation in the 17th century. Historically, many different groups have been named for both the dodo and the Rodrigues solitaire, not all grouping them together. Most recently, it is considered that the two birds can be classified in Columbidae, often under"
"the Meliphagidae but instead belong to a group that includes the waxwings and the palmchat; they appear especially close to the silky-flycatchers. The authors proposed a family, Mohoidae, for these two extinct genera. Kioea The kioea (""Chaetoptila angustipluma"") was a Hawaiian bird that became extinct around 1859. The kioea was in decline even before the discovery of Hawaii by Europeans. Even native Hawaiians are seemingly unfamiliar with this bird. The feathers of the kioea were not used in Hawaiian featherwork, nor is it mentioned in any chants or legends. Only four specimens exist in museums. The cause of its extinction"
"had driven the birds away by the 1860s, foreshadowing its eventual total extinction due to large-scale logging which rendered this species unable to sustain the massive hunting pressure. Several species of waterbirds, formerly frequently encountered during migration, are only rarely seen nowadays. These include, for example, the common loon (""Gavia immer""), American wigeon (""Anas americana""), redhead (""Aythya americana""), canvasback (""Aythya valisneria""), and several species of mergansers. Landbirds were apparently less seriously affected; apart from the passenger pigeon, the ruffed grouse (""Bonasa umbellus""), wild turkey (""Meleagris gallopavo""), golden eagle (""Aquila chrysaetos"") and marsh wren (""Cistothorus palustris"") had essentially or completely disappeared"
"for several decades and is believed extinct. The native cicada also became extinct with the loss of the juniper forest. Other native insects survive, including the migratory monarch butterfly (""Danaus plexippus""), which has become threatened due to the loss of milkweed, which has been eradicated as a weed. The most numerous animals were, and are, birds. Several native species are related to North American species, including the eastern bluebird (""Sialia sialis""), and the white-eyed vireo (""Vireo griseus bermudianus""). Both of these were common, but have suffered from loss of habitat, from competition for nest sites with introduced house sparrows (""Passer"
"size. Total length was probably up to in female and they weighed about . The largest extinct ""Titanohierax"" was a giant hawk about 8 kilograms that lived in the Antilles, where it was among the top predators. The largest-known in this group was a giant flightless ""Sylviornis"", a bird long and weighing up to about . The largest-known songbird is the extinct giant grosbeak (""Chloridops regiskongi"") at long. The largest-known cormorant was the spectacled cormorant of the North Pacific (""Phalacrocorax perspicillatus""), which became extinct around 1850, was larger still, averaging around and . The largest-known in this group—which has been"
"the brush fires, the overgrazing by goats and rabbits and the predation by rats and feral cats. The last specimen was shot for a collection by Lionel Walter Rothschild in 1895 and it was regarded as extinct by 1900. Museums specimens can be seen in the Auckland War Memorial Museum, in the Harvard Museum of Natural History, Berlin, Chicago, Christchurch, in the Natural History Museum, in the World Museum Liverpool, in the American Museum of Natural History, in Paris, in Pittsburgh and in Stockholm. Chatham fernbird The Chatham fernbird (""Poodytes rufescens"") is an extinct bird species endemic to Pitt Island"
"succumbed to extinction. Among the ten species to have become extinct since 1600 (the conventional date for estimating modern extinctions) are two of the most famous extinct species, the dodo and the passenger pigeon. The passenger pigeon was exceptional for a number of reasons. In modern times, it is the only pigeon species that was not an island species to have become extinct even though it was once the most numerous species of bird on Earth. Its former numbers are difficult to estimate, but one ornithologist, Alexander Wilson, estimated one flock he observed contained over two billion birds. The decline"
"Talamancan montane forests in Costa Rica and Panama are endemic to this region. Several birds are listed as threatened, most notably the resplendent quetzal (Pharomacrus mocinno), three-wattled bellbird (Procnias tricarunculata), bare-necked umbrellabird (Cephalopterus glabricollis), and black guan (Chamaepetes unicolor). Many of the amphibians are endemic and depend on the existence of forest. The golden toad that once inhabited a small region in the Monteverde Reserve, which is part of the Talamancan montane forests, has not been seen alive since 1989 and is listed as extinct by IUCN. The exact causes for its extinction are unknown. Global warming may have played"
"unconfirmed reports by Pohnpei islanders there were surveys in 1976, 1977, and 1983 which unfortunately failed. In 1990 it was classified as extinct by the IUCN, but on 4 July 1995 ornithologist Donald W. Buden obtained a dead female that was shot by a native guide at a herpetological expedition during 1994. Therefore, the IUCN has reclassified it as critically endangered in 2000. In 2008, surveys produced 3 records, although these have not been fully documented. A seven-day expedition in 2010 failed to produce any sightings. The reasons for its vanishing remained unknown. Competition with other bird species and the"
"moths which formed its main food source became likewise extinct or exceedingly rare as their food plants were eaten by the rabbits, and thus the only significant food left were brine flies, which, though abundant, would also be utilized by the other land birds and the Laysan duck (""Anas laysanensis""), all of which were more aggressive than the millerbird. It is most likely that the Laysan millerbird was the first of the three avian taxa to have gone extinct on Laysan, the last individuals of the apapane disappearing in a sandstorm around April 24, 1923 and the rail also disappearing"
"of the extinction of the dodo is 1662, but some possible sightings had been made as late as 1688. The last sighting with a description was in 1662, but a statistical analysis by Roberts and Solow found that the extinction of the dodo was in 1693. The Rodrigues solitaire was killed off later than the dodo. The IUCN uses an extinction date of 1778 for the solitaire, although a more probable date would be in the 1750s or 1760s. Both birds became extinct as a consequence of human hunting and the introduction of mammals that ate the birds and their"
"the bluffs are now heavily wooded. Several species recorded at Engineer Cantonment are no longer present in the area. Two birds, the passenger pigeon and the Carolina parakeet, are entirely extinct. The local subspecies of gray wolf, ""Canis lupus nubilus"", is likewise extinct. Several more of the larger carnivores, including black bear, eastern spotted skunk, and river otter, are no longer found in the vicinity; the mountain lion vanished from the area for many years, but in the early 21st century was once again found in eastern Nebraska. Hunting and destruction of habitat have led to the disappearance of three"
"heavily hunted as it competed with domesticated animals for forage. Some were taken to zoos in Europe, but breeding programmes were unsuccessful. The last wild population lived in the Orange Free State, and the quagga was extinct in the wild by 1878. The last captive specimen died in Amsterdam on 12 August 1883. Only one quagga was ever photographed alive and only 23 skins are preserved today. In 1984, the quagga was the first extinct animal to have its DNA analysed, and the Quagga Project is trying to recreate the phenotype of hair coat pattern and related characteristics by selectively"
"arabs""), pied avocet (""Recurvirostra avosetta""), slender-billed gull (""Larus genei""), Caspian tern (""Sterna caspia""), greater hoopoe-lark (""Alaemon alaudipes"") and Sudan golden sparrow (""Passer luteus""). Nature and man combined to obliterate some species in Diawling. Some of the larger mammals perished due to prolonged drought and excessive hunting. The last remaining West African lion (""Panthera leo leo"") in Diawling was shot in 1970, and the last sighting of the red-fronted gazelle was in 1991. Today, the only mammals in the park are African golden wolves, warthogs, African wildcats, Cape hares and patas monkeys. Other species like the manatee, crocodile, and hippopotamus disappeared"
"to be swept from the face of the earth, is surely a disgrace to our latter-day civilization."" The specimen in London died in 1872 and the one in Berlin in 1875. The last captive quagga, a female in Amsterdam's Natura Artis Magistra zoo, lived there from 9 May 1867 until it died on 12 August 1883, but its origin and cause of death are unclear. Its death was not recognised as signifying the extinction of its kind at the time, and the zoo requested another specimen; hunters believed it could still be found ""closer to the interior"" in the Cape"
"of the species was abrupt; in 1871, a breeding colony was estimated to contain over a hundred million birds, yet the last individual in the species was dead by 1914. Although habitat loss was a contributing factor, the species is thought to have been massively over-hunted, being used as food for slaves and, later, the poor, in the United States throughout the 19thcentury. The dodo, and its extinction, was more typical of the extinctions of pigeons in the past. Like many species that colonise remote islands with few predators, it lost much of its predator avoidance behaviour, along with its"
"the beak was closed. As the bird became extinct before significant field observations could be made, not much is known about its behavior. The Lānai hookbill is only known to have eaten the fruit of the ōpuhe; however, it is unlikely that its unique bill would have developed to eat fruit, and it may have been a snail specialist. The hookbill has not been seen since 1918, and by 1940 nearly all of Lānai's forests were converted into pineapple fields, destroying the bird’s habitat. The combination of habitat destruction and the introduction of feral cats and rats are thought to"