There are certain extinct animals that never seem to die in the minds of the public – the woolly mammoth and the dodo are two prime examples.
Another is the passenger pigeon – interestingly a cousin of the dodo, both being members of the Columbidae family.
The passenger pigeon was endemic to North America. At one time there was a huge population but they became extinct in the early twentieth century.
Origins of the Passenger Pigeon
The passenger pigeon was native to the North American continent.
For a long time, science believed the passenger pigeon to have descended from pigeons and doves in the Zenaida genus that had colonized the great plains but genetic studies place it closer to the American Patagioenas pigeons. One suggestion is that its distant ancestors reached the Americas from Southeast Asia, possibly by way of Beringia (the former land bridge between what is now Alaska and Russia).
Early explorers and settlers very frequently mentioned the species in their writings, with Samuel de Champlain reporting ‘countless numbers’ of them in 1605.
At the healthiest stage of their existence, it is estimated the passenger pigeon represented between 25 and 40 percent of the total bird population across the United States. At the time that the Europeans set foot on American soil, there were between 3 billion and 5 billion passenger pigeons in the country.
Population numbers really are hard to imagine, and the early figures are estimates, but they come from several independent observers.
Kevin Johnson, an ornithologist with the Illinois Natural History Survey at the University of Illinois, has stated that in the early 1800s, the passenger pigeon was the most abundant bird species on the planet.
Two doyens of scientific ornithology in the USA both made statements.
John James Audubon (opens in new tab) described a migration in Kentucky in 1813 that took three days to pass overhead and calculated one flock at over a billion birds, while Alexander Wilson (opens in new tab) estimated one particular flock contained two billion birds.
It is also said that nesting colonies could cover areas of several miles wide and forty miles long and produce so much pigeon poop it could kill areas of forest.
Reports say poop could be up to a foot deep!
One report put a large nesting site in Wisconsin as covering 850 square miles with the number of birds in the colony estimated at 136 million.
American writer Christopher Cokinos suggested that if all the passenger pigeons in the USA at one time flew in single file, they would have stretched around the earth 22 times.
The common name of this bird derives from the French word passager which means ‘passing by’, and it fits this bird perfectly thanks to its migratory habits.
The scientific name of the species – Ectopistes migratorius – also refers to its famous migratory characteristics.
For a very long time, it was thought that the mourning dove was the closest relative to the passenger pigeon and at times the two were often confused because of their similar morphology.
More recent research, however, has suggested that the closest genus to the passenger pigeon are members of the Patagioenas genus (opens in new tab) like the band-tailed pigeon and the white-crowned pigeon.
Distribution And Habitat of the Passenger Pigeon
The passenger pigeon was found across the majority of North America: east of the Rocky Mountains, from the Great Plains all the way to the Atlantic Coast.
It was also abundant in southern Canada and, further south, east of the Mississippi.
The preferred habitat of the passenger pigeon was great expanses of hardwood forest.
The main nesting area stretched from the Great Lakes to New York and northern birds migrated south for winter.
Birds from as far north as Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia could winter as far south as Texas, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia and northern Florida, returning north mostly in March and April.
Sightings of passenger pigeons were reported in some western states, Bermuda, Mexico and Cuba during harsh winters.
The species did not normally live in the far western US, but it may have done so in prehistoric times: among the more than 130 passenger pigeon fossils found are specimens from the La Brea Tar Pits in California.
Status of the Passenger Pigeon
In 1895 the last nest and egg of that species to be found in the wild were collected near Minneapolis, although the exact location is unknown.
One of the last wild birds was shot near Babcock, Wisconsin, in 1899, and the last fully authenticated wild record is usually given as a bird shot in Ohio in 1900.
The passenger pigeon officially went extinct on September 1, 1914, when Martha, a resident of Cincinnati Zoo passed away. Martha is often said to have come from the captive flock of Charles Whitman of the University of Chicago, though her origin is debated.
She became the last known individual after the last other birds in the zoo’s flock died in 1910.
Martha was thought to be about 29 years old. Her body is kept at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C.
The American Ornithologists’ Union offered $1,500 between 1909 and 1912 to anyone finding a nest or nesting colony of passenger pigeons, but the effort was futile.
How the Passenger Pigeon Became Extinct
By the early 1900s, there were no wild passenger pigeons left because of hunting and deforestation.
Due to their massive numbers, pigeons were hunted on a huge scale. Pigeon meat was easily obtainable and cheap.
Sometimes, pigeon hunting wasn’t even necessary. Anecdotal evidence states that during the nesting seasons, it was possible to simply wander into a colony and pick up squabs from the ground where they had fallen from or knocked out of their nests.
They were also hunted though and in great numbers. Hunters had numerous methods of getting the birds and they caused mass disruption to the colonies, resulting in wholesale nest abandonment and reduced breeding success.
Although laws were passed in various states to try to provide some protection for the passenger pigeon population, they were ignored.
Railways and the telegraph made things worse. Hunters could follow the flocks and send birds to city markets quickly, and many millions of passenger pigeons were shipped east. At the same time, forests were being cleared for farming, which destroyed much of their habitat.
In 1878 hunters at a huge nesting near Petoskey, Michigan, shipped birds east by the million, and one professional hunter is said to have sent three million birds to market during his career. Within about ten years the species had almost vanished from the state.
This is an example that drives home how rapidly the extinction of this species came about.
Many have tried to answer why the passenger pigeon was not able to survive given that there was still suitable habitat after market hunting became harder and less profitable.
The most accepted theory is that they needed to be able to form vast colonies to survive. This enabled them to “crowd out” predators reducing the loss of nesting birds. With less habitat, enormous colonies were not as easy to form.
Researchers still debate how much each factor mattered, but there is no doubt that human activity was the main cause.
One of the passenger pigeon’s close relatives, the white-crowned pigeon, has been listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List (opens in new tab).
Appearance of the Passenger Pigeon
| Wingspan | Length | Weight | Coloring | |
| Passenger Pigeon | 56 – 62 cm | 38 – 42 cm | 260 – 340 g | Blue-grey with black streaks, pink breast |
| Average Feral Pigeon | 64 – 72 cm | 32 – 37 cm | 300 – 500 g | Bluish grey with some black |
The passenger pigeon was longer but lighter and more streamlined overall than the feral pigeon.
This bird is morphologically commensurate with its flight characteristics of grace, speed, and maneuverability.
The passenger pigeon had a small head and neck, with a long, wedge-shaped tail and wings that were long and pointed. These wings were powered by large breast muscles that provided the capability for strong and prolonged flight.
The head and upper portions of the male passenger pigeon was a clear, blue-gray color with added black streaks on the scapular and wing coverts.
There were patches of iridescent feathers in shades of metallic bronze, green and purple on the neck and upper mantle.
The breast and lower throat were a soft rose color that gradually shaded to white.
The tail had two brownish-grey feathers longer than the others and the rest was white.
The passenger pigeon had bright coral-red feet and legs, a black bill and a deep purplish-red iris.
In females, the overall coloring was much paler and duller. Head and back were a brown-gray, with the iridescent patches on the throat and back of the neck being less bright than in the male. The breast was pale cinnamon.
The Character Of The Passenger Pigeon
The passenger pigeon was known for being an incredibly social bird living in huge colonies, especially during the breeding season.
They would roost in such huge numbers that they would frequently pile in on each other’s backs.
Roosting was in a slumped position which hid their feet and when they slept, they would rest their bills on their breast buried in the feathers.
The passenger pigeon is reported as rarely ever being aggressive or fighting.
It had a strong flying ability and was estimated to be able to average speeds of 100kmh during the peak phases of its migration.
The passenger pigeon flew using quick, repeated flaps of the wings that increased its velocity. It was equally as adept at flying quickly through dense forest as it was flying through vast open spaces.
Reports of the passenger pigeon’s vocalizations describe them as being deafening when in flocks, audible for miles.
The individual voice was loud, harsh and lacking melody.
Connected sounds did not produce a song but rather a collection of coos, clucks and twitters.
They made bell-like sounds during mating and nest building was accompanied by croaking noises.
Like all pigeons, they made alarm calls when a threat was detected.
Diet of the Passenger Pigeon
The diet of the passenger pigeon varied and changed depending on the seasons.
In the fall, winter and spring months, the diet mainly consisted of things like acorns, beechnuts and chestnuts, while during the summer there was a range of soft fruits and berries available also.
On occasion, passenger pigeons would also eat snails, worms, caterpillars and other small invertebrates, particularly while breeding.
The passenger pigeon had a very large crop to store food. It could swell to the size of an orange and able to hold 15-18 acorns!
One estimate is that a passenger pigeon ate about 100 g of food a day.
The bird apparently had a taste for salt which it obtained from brackish water or salty soil.
Water was drunk at least once a day, most usually at dawn. Birds would perch on top of each other to drink.
Passenger Pigeon Mating And Breeding
The passenger pigeon was a communally breeding species.
It isn’t certain how many times a year the passenger pigeon bred, but the most common assumption is once per year.
The nesting period would last anywhere from four to six weeks, and the flock would arrive at its chosen nesting ground in March in southern latitudes, and a little later in the north.
The species did not appear to have any kind of site fidelity, often choosing to nest in a completely different location from year to year.
The passenger pigeon had a courtship ritual that took place on a branch.
The male flourished his wings while making a “keck” sound then gripped the branch to vigorously flap his wings up and down.
When the female came close, he pressed against her with his head held high. The female pressed back and if they signaled agreement to mate, they undertook preening of each other.
After preening, they “kiss” and then copulate.
Nest building began immediately afterward. The female chose the nesting site on a strong branch, the male collected the materials and the female constructed the nest.
The nest was built at least 2 meters off the ground (up to 20 meters) of 70-150 twigs in a loose bowl-like construction.
Usually a single white, oval egg was laid (two were reported only rarely), and it was incubated by both parents for 12 to 14 days.
Both parents fed the baby crop milk, and the chick grew rapidly, reaching close to adult weight in about two weeks.
The parents left the chick 14 to 16 days after hatching, and it fledged alone.
The whole nesting cycle took about 30 days.
Care Of the Passenger Pigeon
As the passenger pigeon has been officially extinct for more than 100 years, we think it is safe to say that there are no care instructions to follow for this particular species!
Unconfirmed sightings are reported from time to time, but none has been verified. Some scientists, including the group Revive & Restore, are working on genetic projects that aim to breed a bird resembling the passenger pigeon from its relative, the band-tailed pigeon.
Last updated 28 October 2026 · Types