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Cake day: July 4th, 2023

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  • No that’s the one made extinct by feral cats, but that’s a different episode of Tom Scott’s Citation Needed than the one where I learned about the bird I was thinking of. Completely forgot that’s where I’d heard about it!

    The bird I had in mind is the Great Auk, which was mentioned in a separate episode of Citation Needed lol

    From Wikipedia: "The last pair, found incubating an egg, was killed there on 3 June 1844, on request from a merchant who wanted specimens.[56][c]

    Jón Brandsson and Sigurður Ísleifsson, the men who had killed the last birds, were interviewed by great auk specialist John Wolley,[59] and Sigurður described the act as follows:

    The rocks were covered with blackbirds [guillemots] and there were the Geirfugles ... They walked slowly. Jón Brandsson crept up with his arms open. The bird that Jón got went into a corner but [mine] was going to the edge of the cliff. It walked like a man ... but moved its feet quickly. [I] caught it close to the edge – a precipice many fathoms deep. Its wings lay close to the sides – not hanging out. I took him by the neck and he flapped his wings. He made no cry. I strangled him.[8]: 82–83  
    

  • I’m struggling to remember the details, but I recall one account where somebody found a very rare, very endangered bird with its nest, strangled the bird and smashed the eggs within the nest, effectively just for shits and giggles. I’ll edit and update this if I can find the details.

    Edit: The Great Auk. Wasn’t killed for shits and giggles, but they were desired for their down to the point the European populations were hunted into extinction. From Wikipedia:

    The last pair, found incubating an egg, was killed there on 3 June 1844, on request from a merchant who wanted specimens.[56][c]

    Jón Brandsson and Sigurður Ísleifsson, the men who had killed the last birds, were interviewed by great auk specialist John Wolley,[59] and Sigurður described the act as follows:

    The rocks were covered with blackbirds [guillemots] and there were the Geirfugles … They walked slowly. Jón Brandsson crept up with his arms open. The bird that Jón got went into a corner but [mine] was going to the edge of the cliff. It walked like a man … but moved its feet quickly. [I] caught it close to the edge – a precipice many fathoms deep. Its wings lay close to the sides – not hanging out. I took him by the neck and he flapped his wings. He made no cry. I strangled him.[8]: 82–83