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Male |
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PASSENGER PIGEON
The Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) was once probably the most numerous bird on Earth. In the 19th Century, there were between 1 and 4 billion Passenger pigeons - up to 40% of the total number of birds in North America. It occupied the millions of acres of primary forest across North America east of the Rockies, overwintering in the southern US. When a flock migrated, it could be up to a mile wide and up to 300 miles long. These flocks were so dense that they darkened the sky for hours or days. According to an early settler in Virginia: "There are wild pigeons in winter beyond number or imagination, myself have seen three or four hours together flocks in the air, so thick that even have they shadowed the sky from us." These flocks were so densely packed that a single shot could bring down 30-40 birds. He birds could be brought down and killed just by hitting them with pieces of wood as they flew over hilltops. The bird's only natural predators were hawks and eagles. As they flew, they covered settlements with droppings, once an important way of spreading seeds, but viewed as a nuisance by settlers.
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Male |
Female |
The Passenger resembled the Mourning Dove, but was larger and lacked the black spot on the side of the neck. The head and rump were slate blue, the back slate grey and the breast wine red. As with most birds, the male's colours were brighter than those of the female. It had long, slender bluish wings and a grey and white pointed tail 8 to 9 inches in length. It had a short, slender black bill suited to a diet of acorns, beechnuts, chestnuts, various fruits, grains and insects. Its wings and tail meant it was built for flight and could probably reach speeds up to 70 mph.
Pair of Passenger Pigeons at Natural History Museum, London |
Passenger Pigeons were highly social and bred in large colonies covering from 30 square miles to around 800 square miles of forest, with up to 100 nests in a single tree. The weight of nests and roosting birds broke branches or even toppled trees. The ground beneath the colonies ended up covered by several inches of droppings. The flimsy nests were made of small twigs, laid loosely together. The parents jointly incubated a single egg each year and tended the single chick for about 2 weeks. Then the chick, still unable to fly, was abandoned by the parents as the flock moved on. The chicks dropped to the ground to fend for themselves until they began to fly a few days later. During this time, they were vulnerable to human hunters and animal predators.
The Native Americans captured the pigeons in large nets and by the 1630s the settlers of New England were also netting them. The young squabs were regarded as a delicacy while the adults were sought after for both meat and feathers. At this stage, hunting was sustainable. In 1805, a brace of Passenger pigeons sold for 2 cents. They were often the only meat available to 18th and 19th Century slaves and servants and were served in most restaurants.
As with extinct species such as the Quagga (a zebra) and Great Auk (a bird), its huge numbers invited over-hunting in the belief that there would always be more. Its lifestyle also invited predation by introduced predators and opportunists such as dogs, cats, rats and pigs. Tens of thousands of the birds in nesting colonies were taken daily and shipped to markets in the east. The invention of the telegraph allowed the colonies and flocks to be reported.
Passenger Pigeon at Rothschild Zoological Museum, Tring, England |
After 1830 the pigeons were hunted for sport, hog feed and even for agricultural fertiliser. In the 1870s, 250,000 Passenger pigeons a year were released from live traps for shooting practice. Its decline began in earnest with the onset of large-scale commercial hunting carried out by well-organised trappers and shippers supplying cheap meat to the developing cities on the east coast of the USA. The opening of railroads linking the Great Lakes area with New York meant 300,000 Passenger pigeons were sent to New York during 1855 alone. The most devastating killings were during the 1800s and 1870s. Th figures were recorded as a normal part of commerce: 23rd July, 1860 (23 July) saw 235,200 birds sent east from Grand Rapids in Michigan; 1874 saw 1,000,000 birds shipped east from Oceana County in Michigan; 1876 saw 1,600,000 shipped east from Oceana County (400,000 per week during the season). In 1869, Van Buren County, Michigan, shipped 7,500,000 birds to the east. In 1880, 527,000 birds were shipped east from Michigan.
As well as over-hunting and introduced predators, forest clearance and agriculture contributed to the Passenger pigeon's extinction. By the 1850s, this once numerous bird was in serious decline. As late as 1854 a resident of Wayne County, New York wrote: "There would be days and days when the air was alive with them, hardly a break occurring in the flocks for half a day at a time. Flocks stretched as far as a person could see, one tier above another."
Male Passenger Pigeon |
Female and nest |
The last nesting birds were reported in the Great Lakes region in the 1890s. Most of the remaining 250,000 Passenger Pigeons were killed for sport in a single day in 1896; the shooters knew they were shooting the last wild flock and this gave the sport a special "last chance to shoot" thrill. The last wild reported individuals were shot at Babcock, Wisconsin in 1899, and in Pike County, Ohio on March 24th, 1900 by a 14 year old boy. At the time, the hunters were aware that the birds had become scarce in the wild. Like the Great Auk, the reduced numbers meant the birds bred less successfully. In small groups, the birds often did not initiate courtship. The single egg meant they bred slowly and the numbers never had a chance to recover.
Martha |
Martha's Plaque |
A few Passenger pigeons remained in captivity after 1900. The very last one was a female named Martha who died at Cincinnati Zoo at about 1:00 pm on September 1, 1914.
CO Whitman crossed a male Passenger Pigeon with a female domestic Ringneck Dove, resulting in infertile hybrids (hybrids lacked gonads). No other hybrids are reported and therefore hybridisation with another pigeon species and back-crossing to the last few pure-bred Passenger Pigeons might not have saved the Passenger Pigeon's genes.
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