This paper is a review of the characteristics, including timing, geographic distribution and severity, of the Late Pleistocene extinction among continental birds, and an evaluation of the suggested reasons for it. The analysis shows that the Late Pleistocene avian extinctions correlate well with the mammalian megafaunal extinction with respect to severity and timing, and that many of the extinct birds were probably directly or indirectly dependent on the mammalian megafauna. A large proportion of the extinct bird species had life history traits that would have made them vulnerable to human predation.