This is bird note.

Evolution on isolated islands can produce unusual and sometimes unusually large results.

Some of the biggest birds ever to have lived evolved on the islands now known as

New Zealand, including an enormous raptor called Haas's Eagle, with a wingspan of nine feet and weighing up to 30 pounds more than twice the mass of a bald eagle

this huge predator hunted the moa a flightless bird that stood over 10 feet tall. In evolutionary time

Haas Eagle bulked up quickly from an ancestor about the size of a red-tailed

hawk. One of its closest living relatives is the little eagle found in Australia, the world's smallest eagle.

With no land predators to compete with and plenty of Moas to prey on,

Haas Eagle attained about 10 times the weight of its founding ancestor in just 2 million years.

After the Maori people arrived on the islands, the giant birds began to go extinct.

The eagles probably vanished not long after their mowa prey about 500 to 600 years ago.

However, a protected site on New Zealand's South Island called The Cave of the Eagle contains

Maori paintings of Haas's Eagles.

Their artwork preserves the legacy of this immense raptor.

For Bird Note, I'm Ariana Remel.