Tuesday 3 March 2009

Extinct Bird Goes, Well Extinct,

the bird known as Bye-Bye Birdie,

(what a great name given the circumstances) is otherwise known as Worcester's buttonquail , (Turnix worcesteri) scientists believed it had died out years ago and the only evidence of its existence was in illustrations based on dead specimens discovered centuries ago, however, a television crew inadvertently filmed a one of the birds while recording a documentary on traditional methods of bird trapping in the mountains of Luzon in the Philippines, by the time the film was spotted by a stunned ornithologist from the World Bird Club of the Philippines, the bird had already been sold, cooked and eaten, club president Mike Lu said: 'We are ecstatic that this rarely seen species was photographed by accident, 'It may be the only photo of this poorly known bird, but I also feel sad that the locals do not value the biodiversity around them and that this bird was sold for the cooking pot, 'What if this was the last of its species?'

well the answer to that is that it would not have breed anyway! if you want to watch the Iwitness-Bye-Bye-Birdie video go here.

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