The stilt-owls are a genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of true owls which contains four species, all of which lived on the Hawaiian Islands

Hawaiian Islands

The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...

 but are now extinct

Extinction

In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...

.

Grallistrix can be loosely translated as "owl on stilts

Stilts

Stilts are poles, posts or pillars used to allow a person or structure to stand at a distance above the ground. Walking stilts are poles equipped with steps for the feet to stand on, or straps to attach them to the legs, for the purpose of walking while elevated above a normal height...

". The genus received this name due to the long legs and presumably terrestrial habits which they evolved

Evolution

Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...

 in the absence of mammal

Mammal

Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...

ian predators on their island homes. They fed on smaller birds such as Hawaiian honeycreeper

Hawaiian honeycreeper

Hawaiian honeycreepers are small, passerine birds endemic to Hawaii. Some authorities still categorize this group as a family Drepanididae, but in recent years, most authorities consider them a subfamily, Drepanidinae, of Fringillidae, the finch family...

s. While they were well able to fly, they may have stalked sleeping birds on foot, or raided seabird

Seabird

Seabirds are birds that have adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same environmental problems and feeding niches have resulted in similar adaptations...

 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 pig

Pig

A pig is any of the animals in the genus Sus, within the Suidae family of even-toed ungulates. Pigs include the domestic pig, its ancestor the wild boar, and several other wild relatives...

s and possibly Polynesian Rat

Polynesian Rat

The Polynesian Rat, or Pacific Rat , known to the Māori as kiore, is the third most widespread species of rat in the world behind the Brown Rat and Black Rat. The Polynesian Rat originates in Southeast Asia but, like its cousins, has become well travelled – infiltrating Fiji and most Polynesian...

s, as well as habitat destruction

Habitat destruction

Habitat destruction is the process in which natural habitat is rendered functionally unable to support the species present. In this process, the organisms that previously used the site are displaced or destroyed, reducing biodiversity. Habitat destruction by human activity mainly for the purpose of...

 for agriculture. They were never seen alive by scientists, being known only from subfossil

Subfossil

Subfossil refers to remains whose fossilization process is not complete, either for lack of time or because the conditions in which they were buried were not optimal for fossilization....

 bones.

Species

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

See also

• Tyto pollens
  Tyto pollens
  Tyto pollens, also known as Andros Island Barn Owl, Bahamian Barn Owl, Bahamian Great Owl, or "Chickcharnie," was a , flightless barn owl that lived in the old-growth pineyards of Andros Island...
  
  
• Ornimegalonyx
• Late Quaternary prehistoric birds
  Late Quaternary prehistoric birds
  Prehistoric birds are various taxa of birds that became extinct before recorded history, or more precisely, before they could be studied alive by bird scientists...
  
  
• List of extinct birds
• List of fossil birds
• List of extinct animals
• Flightless birds