Elephant bird determined that "Vorombe titan" reached weights of and stood tall, making it the world's largest bird, slightly larger than the much older "Dromornis stirtoni". Elephant birds have been extinct since at least the 17th century. Étienne de Flacourt, a French governor of Madagascar in the 1640s and 1650s, mentions an ostrich-like bird said to inhabit unpopulated regions, though it is unclear whether he was repeating folk tales passed on from generations earlier. In 1659, Flacourt wrote of the "vouropatra – a large bird which haunts the Ampatres and lays eggs like the ostriches; so that the people of these places
North Island piopio North Island piopio The North Island piopio ("Turnagra tanagra") was a passerine bird of the family Oriolidae. The North Island piopio is now considered to be extinct. For many years, the North Island piopio was considered to be conspecific with the South Island piopio, but the two are now regarded as two separate species due to their pronounced differences in external appearance and osteology (Olson "et al.", 1983). An alternate name for the North Island piopio is the North Island thrush. The North Island piopio was endemic to the North Island of New Zealand and was described by Walter Buller