Passenger Pigeon

The light of the noonday was obscured as by an eclipse. The pigeons passed in undiminished number, and continued to do so for three days.

-- John James Audubon (1813) [1]

The Passenger Pigeon was extremely common for much of the 19th century, in fact, when Audubon drew the Passenger Pigeon, an estimated 3 billion passenger pigeons lived in North America. During the 1870s it was estimated that their communal nesting grounds in Wisconsin covered approximately 850 square miles for 136 million breeding adults. By the 1890s wild flock numbers were in the dozens rather than hundreds of millions. The last Passenger pigeon died in 1914. The two major causes of extinction were widespread hunting for pigeon meat and loss of habitat. These pigeons preferred wooded areas and when lands were clearcut to make room for people, they lost significant spaces.

Classification

Range

The passenger pigeon was found throughout most of North America east of the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic coast, to the south of Canada in the north and the north of Mississippi in the southern U.S.

 

Habitat

The range of the passenger pigeon coincided with the deciduous forests it used for its habitat. For winter, it migrated south to the Gulf Coast, Texas, and Northern Florida where it preferred large swamps with alder trees. During the summer, it moved north, but constantly migrated for food and shelter.

Extinction

Deforestation in the 19th century began to destroy the passenger pigeon's habitat. Particularly after 1870, scientists noted a rapid decline in populations. Many were hunted for cheap food as well. The last confirmed wild bird was hunted in 1901, and the last captive bird died in the Cincinnati Zoo on September 1, 1914.

[1] As quoted in From Billions to None: The Passenger Pigeon's Flight to Extinction. See Resources page for additional information.

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