The Diricawl is a plump, fluffy-feathered and flightless bird. It has the ability to disappear and reappear elsewhere as a means of escaping danger, similar to apparation. Muggles are aware of the existence of the Diricawl as a dodo (a large, extinct, flightless bird). However, since Muggles are not aware of its ability to teleport at will, they believe that they have hunted the dodo to extinction. The International Confederation of Wizards has not seen fit to reveal that the animal still exists, since it seems to have raised Muggle awareness of the consequences of slaying their fellow creatures indiscriminately.[1]
A Diricawl and its babies.
Behind the scenes
In the video game adaptation of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Gilderoy Lockhart uses the phrase "going the way of the dodo" to describe the impending extinction of the Giant Fire Crab. This does not make sense for a wizard to say, even one as inept as Lockhart, as they would have no reason to consider the Diricawl extinct. However, it is possible that, growing up with non-magical relatives, it was an expression commonly used by them and that it stuck as a figure of speech even if he did know that the birds were not extinct.
