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
Crotophaginae Crotophaginae The Crotophaginae are a small subfamily, within the cuckoo family Cuculidae, of four gregarious bird species occurring in the Americas. They were previously classified as a family Crotophagidae. The subfamily is notable for the development of cooperative breeding where several females lay eggs in a communal nest. It contains the three anis and the guira cuckoo. Among the anis, there is considerable variation in nesting habits. One species, The greater ani "C. major" lays 2 or 3 eggs, while the groove-billed ani "C. sulcirostris" lays seven. However the smooth-billed ani "C. ani" will share one nest between several females,