
%0 Journal Article
%A F. Recher, H. 
%T Guide to the Birds of Fiji and Western Polynesia
%J Pacific Conservation Biology
%D 2003/09/10
%V 9
%N 3
%P 234-234
%K 
%R https://doi.org/10.1071/PC030234
%U https://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/PC030234 
%X FEW taxa have suffered at the expansion of humanity to the extent of the birds of Pacific Islands. Of the 130 or so birds to become extinct as a consequence of European exploration and colonization of the Pacific, most were island birds and most were flightless rails. Not so well understood is the scale of extinctions that accompanied pre-European colonization of the Pacific islands. Only now is the paleontological record revealing the richness of the lost Pacific avifauna much of which can be put on a par with the loss of moas from New Zealand and the Dodo Raphus cucullatus from Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. 
