Passenger Pigeon

passenger pigeon: see pigeon.

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passenger pigeon

Passenger pigeon, mounted (Ectopistes migratorius)

(credit: Bill Reasons—The National Audubon Society Collection/Photo Researchers)

Extinct species (Ectopistes migratorius) of pigeon (subfamily Columbinae, family Columbidae). Passenger pigeons were about 13 in. (32 cm) long and had a long pointed tail; the male was pinkish, with a blue-gray head. Billions inhabited eastern North America in the early 19th century; migrating flocks darkened the skies for days at a time. Gunners began to slaughter them in huge numbers for shipping by railway carloads for sale in city meat markets. Martha, the last known passenger pigeon, died in 1914 in the Cincinnati Zoo. The bird's extinction was largely responsible for ending the marketing of game birds and gave major impetus to the conservation movement.

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passenger pigeon

hunted to extinction by 1914; vast numbers once darkened American skies during migratory flights. [Ecology: EB, VII: 786]

See : Extinction

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Passenger Pigeon

(Ectopistes migratorius), an extinct bird of the family Columbidae. The passenger pigeon was about 30 cm long. The head and rump were grayish blue, the back dull brown, and the breast reddish fawn. Until the 1890’s the species was common in the hardwood forests of eastern North America from southern Canada to North Carolina; it wintered in the southern USA. Ruthless destruction of the enormous migrating flocks resulted in the total extinction of the passenger pigeon. The last mass nesting was in 1883, the last bird in the wild was observed in 1899, and the last living specimen died at the zoological garden in Cincinnati on Sept. 1,1914.