OK gang I need a little help here......

I have been doing some serious studying about the Cenozoic Era. I've been reading about many giant animals. SWEET! 6 months ago I remember reading about a 1 ton bird. But, I can not for the life of me remember it's freaking name!! I'm starting to get cranky! Now could I be mistaken? Sure, no one is perfect, but I swear I read something about a 1 ton bird 6 months ago. HELP!!!

Unfortunately, the best I can do is tell you what it is not:

Gastornis:

Very large and beautiful carnivor/scavenger bird. The large ones got to be 6.6 feet tall, 8-12 feet long, and weighed 300-500 pounds and were found in Europe. A.K.A. Axebeak

http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/beast...ornis_hzoom.jpg
http://www.unb.br/ig/galeria/GastornisCome...alaetherium.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...3/Gastornis.jpg



Phorusrhacus and Titanis Walleri:

A little bit bigger we have these guys. These gorgious creatures, known as terror birds, are also hunters and scavengers comeing from South and North America. They were up to 7 feet tall, 12 feet long, and weighed 300-600 pounds. A.K.A. Terror Birds and Axebeak

http://www.flickr.com/photos/grrlscientist/368424021/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/grrlscientist/368424019/
http://nicholnl.wcp.muohio.edu/DingosBreak...tanis_Horse.jpg


Bullockornis:

The largest here is this one. The Bullockornis comes from Austrailia and is a bulky giant. These awsome birds not only have the best common name ever but is not something you would want to bump into on a well lighted alley. They get up to 7-9 feet tall, 12-14 feet long, and a whopping 1,100 pounds. HOLY CRAP! A.K.A. The Demon Duck Of Doooooooooooooooommmm!!!! Mwu ha ha ha ha haaaaa!

http://www.teara.govt.nz/TheBush/Conservat...s/Standard/2/mi
http://www.lostkingdoms.com/images/snapshots/8_duckskull.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...gs_Park_SMC.jpg

Now a 1 ton bird eh?

Gigantoraptor erlianensis, a huge beaked bird like creature about the size of a T-Rex. I think this is what your looking for
Wiki Article

Thank you for your help but no thats not it. The gigantoraptor is a dinosaur. I am looking for a prehistoric bird. I should have specified that. My apologies.

What I am looking for is indeed a bird, not a dinosaur nor an avian reptile like the pterasaurs.

I do think that this bird has been found recently, but again I can't be 100% sure. If it indeed has been found recently, this would be a good reason why I can't find it again. Or, again, I could be mistaken. I don't think so though.

Last week I thought it was the Ornithelestis. But I got around to looking it up and found that the Ornithelestis was a dinosaur. Massive Bummer!

Phorushacos? i believe they were fairly large...

Link

Oh wait, you already mentioned them... sorry

Do you mean the bird that was in New Zealand? Or was it Australia?

Oh I know, I found it.... here it is leaving it's nest:



Ok, I'm bad, I admit it.

(maybe on an interesting note, that's a 787 leaving the Everett WA Boeing plant; the biggest building on earth at this time)

I did some poking around and this was the only gigantic perhistoric bird I could find:

Argentavis magnificens. The article suggests it was recently discovered, but it's only 155lbs.

I know a little bit about dinosaurs myself and let me start by saying this:

The single biggest bird in history (at least the one that could fly up in the air) was the Quetzalcoatlus. Its wing span was the single greatest ever measured. It was 12-15 meters on each wing which makes it approximately 30 meters total wingspan. To give you a rough idea: that would mean that a full-grown Quetzalcoatlus had a wing span the size of a full-grown blue whale. Now, THAT'S what I call - huge!! :-D

Let me do some diggin' on that 1 ton bird of yours (if is exists) ... If it exists, it's definitely a non-flying bird like today's kiwi and ostrich.


* several hours later *

This is all I could find ...

This ought to be the heavest bird that ever lived on Earth ... hope this is what you were looking for.

Bye for now

-------------------------
Bullockornis, nicknamed the Demon Duck of Doom, is an extinct flightless bird that appeared to have lived in the Middle Miocene, approximately 15 million years ago, in what is now Australia.

Bullockornis stood approximately 2.5 metres (8 ft 2 in) tall. It may have weighed up to 250 kg (550 lb). Features of Bullockornis's skull, including a very large beak designed for shearing, indicate that the bird may have been carnivorous. The bird's skull is larger than that of many small horses.[1] Many paleontologists, including Peter Murray of the Central Australian Museum, believe that Bullockornis was related to geese and ducks. This, in addition to the bird's tremendous size and possible carnivorous habits, gave rise to its colourful nickname. The bird's generic name is translated as "ox-bird."[1

Ya dude, I've read about these guys. Freaking HUGE!

I had already mentioned the Bullockornis. In some places it says the size you have in others its over half a ton.

Quetzalcoatlus wasn't a bird............

Oh man, you beat me too it.

Quetzalcoatlus had only a 12m wing-span, far smaller then a 'full grown blue-whale'

Part of the reason you can't remember its name might be because it doesn't have one yet. It sounds quite a bit like an unnamed species found in Patagonia
link

It might not be the right one, but this is about as close as I can find.

I think your looking for the Elephant Bird here

I read something about it a few years back