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
Largest prehistoric animals "Argentavis magnificens" which a wingspan of , and a body weight of . The largest-known waterfowl of all time belonged to the Dromornithidae (e.g. "Dromornis stirtoni"). The largest-known of Ciconiiformes was "Leptoptilos robustus", standing tall and weighing an estimated . The largest-known of the hesperornithines was "Canadaga arctica" at long. The largest-known diatryma was "Gastornis" tall, with large individuals up to tall. The largest-known teratorn and the largest flying bird ever was "Argentavis". The immense bird had a wingspan estimated up to and a weight up to . It was as high as an adult human when standing. The largest-known-ever