Messel lake is a legendary fossil site from the middle Eocene of Germany, about 40 million years ago. It preserves incredible fossils and a great diversity of life thanks to the lake's dark, volcanic secrets. This was also famously the setting of the first episode of the paleodocumentary series Walking With Beasts. While the episode isn't particularly accurate and actually takes place at the later part of the Paleogene greenhouse, one thing is certain. There were a lot of birds here.

Hassiavis: An insectivorous bird related to nightjars and owlet-nightjars. The fossil of this bird is so well preserved that even the pattern of the bird's wing feathers is visible.

Paraprefica: An early relative of those peculiar South American birds, the potoos. In all likelyhood, this early potoo was just as weird as modern ones.

Scaniacypselus: One of the first true swifts, and was just as incredibly adapter for a life on the wing as modern swifts and tree-swifts.

Messelirrisor: A tiny insectivorous bird that was related to hoopoes.

Selmes: This small omnivorous bird was related to modern mousebirds. And like them, it could wwist all four of its toes forwards.

Eocoracias: A relative of rollers and the dollarbird that ate insects. The coloration of this bird is fully known thanks to excellent fossil preservation.

Masillastega: The earliest known gannet known from a complete skull. This booby dove under the surface to catch fish, though it likely didn't plunge down like modern boobies.

Rhynchaeites: A widespread wader known from multiple fossil sites in Europe. It closely resembles and may have been related to modern ibises.

Messelornis: A relative of modern rails and the obscure finfoots, this was a very successful bird, with fossils found from Europe and North America.

Juncitarsus: A long legged and spear beaked bird that resembles a crane, but is actually related to grebes and flamingoes. It used it's sharp beak to spear fish.