Passenger Pigeons—a unique bird with an interesting story
Recently, I heard an engaging and dynamic speaker, Joel Greenberg. The author of A Feathered River Across the Sky, Greenberg explored how a thriving bird became extinct so quickly and what we can learn from the choices humans made in the late 1800s and how it can influence the decisions we make today.
His book is the first about the passenger pigeon since a 1950 monograph, which I thought was pretty significant. Also interesting is this bird was once one of the most abundant birds in the world and in East Central Indiana, before the species became extinct in 1914.
Honestly, I wasn’t sure how interested I would be in the subject of passenger pigeons! But I heard beforehand that even if you didn’t know about the species, you’d still be entertained by Greenberg’s presentation. Well my source was correct; he had such fascinating stories and interesting facts!
Greenberg illustrated what it would have been like at that time: Imagine a sea of hundreds of millions of beating wings in the sky. People thought it was the end of times. Some people even kneeling down to pray. When they left, the birds would leave a sea of white…Greenberg’s engaging style included humor as well!
Despite a likely population in the billions, human exploitation wiped out the bird’s population in just forty years. The last wild bird was, in fact, shot in Indiana.
The last existing passenger pigeon, named Martha, spent the rest of her days in the Cincinnati Zoo. On September 1, 1914, she died. She was frozen and sent to the Smithsonian, where she is to this day.
He shared so many fascinating facts and stories in such a short amount of time, there is no way I could fit it all here! But here are some more interesting facts:
Despite similarities, passenger pigeons are not messenger pigeons or rock pigeons.
Three things made this pigeon unique:
They were the most abundant bird of the continent, if not the world.
They gathered in numbers that darkened the sky for as much as three days. Individual flights might have exceeded two billion birds.
In literally decades, humans reduced the incredible bounty to zero.
The passenger pigeon has inspired many first artists, novelists, and composers. Greenberg noted Lewis Cross, a Michigan artist, who painted narrative natural history pieces like “Passenger Pigeons in Flight,” which captures what he imagined the spectacle would be like. You can find it on the
For more information on the passenger pigeon, visit passengerpigeon.org. For more information on Joel Greenberg and his book, A Feathered River Across the Sky, visit joelgreenberg.com.
To recognize the 100-year anniversary of the extinction, Minnetrista teamed up with Ball State University’s Honors College and the Robert Cooper Audubon Society to present Passenger Pigeons. Visit the exhibit at Minnetrista, open through March 1, 2015.
