The Passenger Pigeon
At one time, passenger pigeons accounted for an estimated 20 to 40 percent of all North American land birds. They flew in vast flocks numbering in the millions, sometimes eclipsing the sun for hours. As the US human population grew and the demand for wild meat increased, hunters slaughtered the birds with great efficiency.
On March 24, 1900, a boy in Pike County, Ohio shot the last recorded wild passenger pigeon.
Fourteen years later, Martha, the last passenger pigeon in human care, died in her cage at the Cincinnati Zoo.
Download Passenger Pigeon information sheet
View a 3-D scan of Martha, courtesy of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
