10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 14, 2015

I remember looking at a single skin of a Long-legged warbler from Fiji, the only known specimen or record of its particular subspecies, the sum total of all knowledge about its kind. This collection isn’t some ghastly memorial or symbol of human stupidity. New Zealand Bitterns. Bush Wrens.

Collecting 255

Collecting Solomon Islands New Zealand Fiji 255

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 7, 2014

In fact, the Dodo belonged to a clade (sometimes called Raphini) of 15 remarkable, bizarre, intriguing island-adapted pigeons, some of which are still alive today, but eight of which have been hacked from the tree of life, driven to extinction by humans. The painting above is by 17th-century Flemish artist Roelant Savery.

Solomon Islands 279

Solomon Islands Guinea Mauritius 2006 279

10,000 Birds

JUNE 8, 2011

If studying insects would lead you to suppose that God had an “an inordinate fondness for beetles&# , studying the pre-human avifauna of the Pacific would lead you to conclude that God was also quite partial to rails. The fossil record of the islands don’t show the Buff-banded Rail appearing until after humans arrived.

Tonga 171

Tonga New Zealand Samoa Fiji 171

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 11, 2014

When humans arrived, with the entourage of camp followers that always follows humans, giving up the anti-predator behavious and, well, you can guess what happened next. In a few places mammals and humans may endure, but even there, rails will become island species, albeit ones that retain some anti-predator strategies.

Hawaii 238

Hawaii Guam Mammals Fiji 238