Favoritos de damianipaolo

The Passenger Pigeon, Ectopistes migratorius, once considered the most abundant bird in North America, became extinct one hundred years ago.

I saw these taxidermized specimens at a great collection especially diverse in birds at the Welder Wildlife Foundation, in Texas.

Bluebuck

The Bluebuck (Blaubok, Blue Antelope, Blue Buck), Hippotragus leucophaeus occurred historically in the Ruens until it was hunted out at about 1800.
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It was the Fynbos congenor to the Roan and Sable: smaller than them, but with as long, but slender, horns. Fossils and bushman paintings suggest a wider distribution on the West Coast and into the Drakensberg foothills, with a high abundance during the last glacial.
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First mentioned in 1681, and described in 1776 by Peter Pallas from a specimen at Leiden collected at Swellendam. For a while it was synonomized with the Roan. Only four mounted specimens remain, in Leiden, Stockholm, Vienna and Paris Museums.
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Standing about 1200 mm tall, with horns about 565 mm long. The blue sheen that gave the animal its name is not apparent in skins: the coat was a "fine blue" in living specimens, but faded to "bluish grey, with a mixture of white" on death. The belly and flanks were pale. The forehead was darker than the face, which lacked dark markings typical of the Roan and Sable. Compared to its relatives the ears were short and blunt, but still significantly larger than other buck (and useful for ID of bushman paintings). It lacked a mane. The tail had a dark tuft.
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Based on its relatives it would have been a selective grazer. However, the premolars are longer than typical hinting at perhaps shrubs in the diet. Prevalence of juveniles among fossils has spawned speculation that breeding took place in the west in winter with a summer eastwards migration.
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Source: Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluebuck

The note in Wiki: "20 January 1774, Swedish naturalist Carl Peter Thunberg recorded a sighting in Tigerhoek, Mpumalanga" is certainly erroneous and is probably the Tierhoek near Riviersonderend in the Western Cape.

I think iNaturalist having a woodpecker week (when we haven't got any here), then a hawk week, but defining ours as not hawks, was a bit mean ... So I've just time shifted this observation by a few hundred years :-)