Passenger Pigeon, Ectopistes migratorius, John James Audubon

Alexander Wilson
 

 Madame Knip, from Temmink
 

At one time the Passenger Pigeon was the most populous North American species estimated to number more than three billion.

Enno Meyer
 

 DeKay
 

Huge flocks blackened the skies for days along migration routes and nested in colonies covering dozens of square miles.

Charles R. Knight
 

 Enno Meyer
 

Tens of thousands of birds were commercially hunted each day and shipped in barrels east to restaurants.

Hyashi
 

 Hyashi
 

While thousands of Passenger Pigeons survived the great hunts, a combination of conditions contributed to the species’ inability to recover.

Enno Meyer
 

 Mark Catesby
 

Their birth rate was always low as they usually laid just one egg. Deforestation and agriculture changed their habitat. They were conditioned to huge nesting areas containing hundreds of thousands of nests

Hyashi

 

  A Group of Passenger Pigeons
from the Ornithological Work of Reichenbach's
 

Their must have been incredible trauma when they were blasted from their breeding grounds and sought new areas. Some flocks, already grossly reduced bred further north where extreme weather may have affected mortality.

Louis Agassiz Fuertes

Doctor Jasper's Group of the Fourteen Wild Pigeons
 from Studer's "The Birds of North America"
 

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