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In 1844, Jon Brandsson, Sigurdur Isleifsson, and Ketill Ketilsson set out for Eldey Island, off the southwest coast of Iceland. The three hunters were after a particular pair of rare birds: the great ...

Sailing near the remote Scottish island of St Kilda, Laughlan McKinnon sighted a strange bird napping on a rocky sea stack. It didn’t resemble most other birds he’d seen near these waters. It wasn’t a ...

In 1785, less than a century before great auks would be declared extinct, English explorer Cartwright eerily predicted the penguin-like birds’ swift demise. “But it has been customary of late years, ...

An image from Birds of America by John James Audubon depicting the Great Auk. Public Domain under PD-US The great auk, a large, flightless bird with a black back and a white belly, once lived across ...

Great auks were flightless birds believed to have existed in millions throughout the North Atlantic, on islands off the coasts of Iceland and Scotland, as well as in Scandinavia. Unfortunately, the ...

Now extinct, the great auk (Pinguinus impennis), a flightless bird, once inhabited the shores of the North Atlantic by the millions. The wings of the great auk were specialized for "flying" underwater ...