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Description
Here is my restoration of Strigogyps sapea, a basal member of the clade Cariamiformes/Cariamae (Seriemas+terror birds+other families no one cares about). Strigogyps, also known as Aenigmavis, Ameghinornis, Eocathartes and Geiseloceros, was a forest floor dweller that inhabited the jungles of central Europe during the Eocene and early Oligocene. This flightless bird's diet consisted probably on small animals, such as lizards, insects and tiny mammals, and maybe carrion and fish.

This bird had many identities in the past: Strigogyps was initially thought to be an owl, while Aenigmavis was considered some sort of proto-phorusrhacid, Neocatarthes was identified as a New World vulture that lived in the Old World, and Geiseloceros was located within the hornbills. Several years later all these names were identified as synonyms, and only Strigogyps remained, classified as a basal cariamiform. Although related to phorusrhacids, this bird probably didn't have a large head like it's cousins. I don't know if some cranial material has ever been discovered, so I gave it a robust phorusrhacid-like head (although not as proportionally big as in terror birds), but it may have been less robust and proportionally smaller than depicted.

This is the first of a series of drawings about the birds of the Messel pit. More coming soon!

Edit: Sickle claws removed

Description
Here is my restoration of Strigogyps sapea, a basal member of the clade Cariamiformes/Cariamae (Seriemas+terror birds+other families no one cares about). Strigogyps, also known as Aenigmavis, Ameghinornis, Eocathartes and Geiseloceros, was a forest floor dweller that inhabited the jungles of central Europe during the Eocene and early Oligocene. This flightless bird's diet consisted probably on small animals, such as lizards, insects and tiny mammals, and maybe carrion and fish.

This bird had many identities in the past: Strigogyps was initially thought to be an owl, while Aenigmavis was considered some sort of proto-phorusrhacid, Neocatarthes was identified as a New World vulture that lived in the Old World, and Geiseloceros was located within the hornbills. Several years later all these names were identified as synonyms, and only Strigogyps remained, classified as a basal cariamiform. Although related to phorusrhacids, this bird probably didn't have a large head like it's cousins. I don't know if some cranial material has ever been discovered, so I gave it a robust phorusrhacid-like head (although not as proportionally big as in terror birds), but it may have been less robust and proportionally smaller than depicted.

This is the first of a series of drawings about the birds of the Messel pit. More coming soon!

Edit: Sickle claws removed