Grallistrix

Taxobox
name = "Grallistrix"
status = Fossil
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
subclassis = Neornithes
ordo = Strigiformes
familia = Strigidae
genus = "Grallistrix"
genus_authority =
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision = "Grallistrix auceps"
"Grallistrix erdmani"
"Grallistrix geleches"
"Grallistrix orion"

"Grallistrix" is a genus of true owls. It contains four species, all of which lived on the Hawaiian Islands but are now extinct.

**Kaua‘i Stilt-owl, "Grallistrix auceps"
**Maui Stilt-owl, "Grallistrix erdmani"
**Moloka‘i Stilt-owl, "Grallistrix geleches"
**O‘ahu Stilt-owl, "Grallistrix orion"

"Grallistrix" can be loosely translated as "owl on stilts". The genus received this name due to the long legs and presumably terrestrial habits which they evolved in the absence of mammalian predators on their island homes. They fed on smaller birds such as Hawaiian honeycreepers. While they were well able to fly, they may have stalked sleeping birds on foot, or raided seabird colonies at night.

When the islands were settled by humans since the late 1st millennium AD, the owls presumably rapidly succumbed to the depredations of introduced pigs and possibly Polynesian Rats, as well as habitat clearance for agriculture. They were never seen alive by scientists, being known only from plenty of subfossil bones.

References

*cite book
last = Kay
first = E. Alison
title = A Natural History of the Hawaiian Islands: Selected Readings II
publisher = University of Hawaii Press
date = 1994
location =
isbn = 0824816595
*cite book
last = Ziegler
first = Alan C.
title = Hawaiian Natural History, Ecology, and Evolution
publisher = University of Hawaii Press
date = 2002
location =
isbn = 0824821904

External links

* http://www.extinct.minks-lang.de/7voegel/a.birdsfamilien/strigidae1.htm