Extinct Birds at Naturalis

Through this website Naturalis offers remote access to its extinct birds. For purposes of study and enjoyment you can view every extinct bird kept in Leiden from all angles by rotating the 3d-images.

An excellent use of Quicktime VR object technology, in my opinion. As explained at the help pages, the site offers you several versions of the movies at different sizes, which you can choose according to how fast your Internet connection is. The larger versions of the movies even allow you to move the birds vertically as well as horizontally - a nice touch.

So...marvel at the majesty of the Great Auk in three dimensional glory and mourn the sad story of the passenger pigeon - once so abundant that they obscured the sky, but then driven to extinction by hunting.