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Some reduction in numbers occurred from habitat loss when European settlement led to mass deforestation. Next, pigeon meat was commercialized as a cheap food for slaves and the poor in the 19th century, resulting in hunting on a massive and mechanized scale. A slow decline between about 1800 and 1870 was followed by a catastrophic decline between 1870 and 1890. [[wikipedia:Martha|Martha]], thought to be the world's last Passenger Pigeon, died on September 1, 1914, at the [[w:c:zoos:Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden|Cincinnati Zoo]]. |
Some reduction in numbers occurred from habitat loss when European settlement led to mass deforestation. Next, pigeon meat was commercialized as a cheap food for slaves and the poor in the 19th century, resulting in hunting on a massive and mechanized scale. A slow decline between about 1800 and 1870 was followed by a catastrophic decline between 1870 and 1890. [[wikipedia:Martha|Martha]], thought to be the world's last Passenger Pigeon, died on September 1, 1914, at the [[w:c:zoos:Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden|Cincinnati Zoo]]. |
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| + | ==Ecology and Behavior== |
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| + | he Passenger Pigeon was one of the most social land birds. It lived in colonies stretching over hundreds of square miles and practiced communal breeding with up to a hundred nests in a single tree. At the height of its population of three to five billion it may have been the most numerous bird on Earth, and A. W. Schorger believed that it accounted for between 25 and 40% of the total landbird population in the United States. Even today the Passenger Pigeon's historic population is roughly the equivalent of the number of birds that overwinter in the United States every year. |
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| + | The Passenger Pigeon was nomadic and had no site fidelity, often choosing to nest in a different location each year. Pigeon migration, in flocks numbering billions, was a spectacle without parallel. John James Audubon described one flock he encountered with the words: |
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| + | {{Quotation|I dismounted, seated myself on an eminence, and began to mark with my pencil, making a dot for every flock that passed. In a short time, finding the task which I had undertaken impracticable as the birds poured in in countless multitudes, I rose, and counting the dots then put down, found that 163 had been made in twenty-one minutes. I traveled on, and still met more the farther I proceeded. The air was literally filled with Pigeons; the light of noon-day was obscured as by an eclipse; the dung fell in spots, not unlike melting flakes of snow; and the continued buzz of wings had a tendency to lull my senses to repose... Before sunset I reached Louisville, distance from Hardensburgh fifty-five miles. The Pigeons were still passing in undiminished numbers, and continued to do so for three days in succession.<ref name=Audubon/>}} |
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[[Category:Animalia]] |
[[Category:Animalia]] |
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[[Category:Extinct Species]] |
[[Category:Extinct Species]] |
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Revision as of 07:49, 27 August 2013
| Passenger Pigeon | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Information | |
| Common Name | Wild Pigeon |
| Range | Southern parts of Eastern and Central Canada South to Eastern Kansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Georgia, but the primary breeding range was in southern Ontario and the Great Lakes States South through States North of the Appalachian Mountains. The pigeon wintered from Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina south to Texas, the Gulf Coast, and northern Florida; however, flocks occasionally wintered as far north as southern Pennsylvania and Connecticut. |
| Scientific Classification | |
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Chordata |
| Class | Aves |
| Order | Columbiformes |
| Family | Columbidae |
| Genus | Ectopistes |
| Species | †E. migratorius |
| Conservation Status | |
 Extinct | |
The Passenger pigeon or wild pigeon, (Ectopistes migratorius), is an extinct North American bird. The species lived in enormous migratory flocks until the early 20th century, when hunting and habitat destruction led to its demise. One flock in 1866 in southern Ontario was described as being 1 mi (1.5 km) wide and 300 mi (500 km) long, took 14 hours to pass, and held in excess of 3.5 billion birds. That number, if accurate, would likely represent a large fraction of the entire population at the time.
Some estimate 3 to 5 billion Passenger Pigeons were in the United States when Europeans arrived in North America. Others argue the species had not been common in the pre-Columbian period, but their numbers grew when devastation of the American Indian population by European diseases led to reduced competition for food.
The species went from being one of the most abundant birds in the world during the 19th century to extinction early in the 20th century. At the time, Passenger Pigeons had one of the largest groups or flocks of any animal, second only to the Rocky Mountain locust.
Some reduction in numbers occurred from habitat loss when European settlement led to mass deforestation. Next, pigeon meat was commercialized as a cheap food for slaves and the poor in the 19th century, resulting in hunting on a massive and mechanized scale. A slow decline between about 1800 and 1870 was followed by a catastrophic decline between 1870 and 1890. Martha, thought to be the world's last Passenger Pigeon, died on September 1, 1914, at the Cincinnati Zoo.
Ecology and Behavior
he Passenger Pigeon was one of the most social land birds. It lived in colonies stretching over hundreds of square miles and practiced communal breeding with up to a hundred nests in a single tree. At the height of its population of three to five billion it may have been the most numerous bird on Earth, and A. W. Schorger believed that it accounted for between 25 and 40% of the total landbird population in the United States. Even today the Passenger Pigeon's historic population is roughly the equivalent of the number of birds that overwinter in the United States every year.
The Passenger Pigeon was nomadic and had no site fidelity, often choosing to nest in a different location each year. Pigeon migration, in flocks numbering billions, was a spectacle without parallel. John James Audubon described one flock he encountered with the words: Template:Quotation