This is Bird Note.

Many sci-fi writers, and even some scientists, dream of bringing extinct species back to life.

But it turns out that nature has already re-evolved at least one long-lost bird.

Over 130,000 years ago, a population of white-throated rails migrated across hundreds of miles

of open ocean from Madagascar to the tiny island of Aldabra.

Fossil records show that these wayward birds evolved to be entirely flightless.

With no land predators, this adaptation served them well,

until sea levels rose and Aldabra disappeared beneath the Indian Ocean for millennia.

But some 20,000 years later,

Aldabra re-emerged and a new wave of white-throated rails

arrived from Madagascar.

Today, these reddish-brown, chicken-sized birds with olive-green backs can be found skulking

about the mangroves, but never on the wing, because, just like their ancient predecessors,

the Aldabra subspecies of white-throated

rails evolved to be flightless once again.

It's a rare example of a phenomenon called iterative evolution.

As the only flightless bird left in the region, efforts are now underway to recognize the Aldabra rails as their own species,

a move that will hopefully facilitate protections

that ensure these evolutionary oddities aren't lost a second time.

For bird note, I'm Ade Ben-Slaadine.