Extinct & Rare Birds

Have you ever used the expression ‘as dead as a Dodo’? The Dodo is one of the most well known extinct bird species. Sadly, the Dodo is not the only bird that has been classified as extinct. When we refer to an extinct bird we are referring to a bird species that is no longer [...]

Why the Dodo Bird?

In the last 400 years, at least 75 bird species became extinct. Of all these tragic species, the dodo is the best known. How did the dodo gain so much popular attention, when it went extinct way back in the 1680’s? Well, when Europeans first landed on the island of Mauritius, in 1598, they encountered a strange bird. It was a gigantic, flightless pigeon with a huge bill and no apparent fear of predators. They named it after the Portuguese word “duodo”, meaning simpleton.

Flightless Birds

Not all birds can fly. Though many people think flying is what defines birds as a group, in actuality several bird species are flightless birds.