[Palter]

Migration, Land, etc.

'may have originated from a colonisation event from South-East Asia, probably arriving when sea levels were lower over the Bering Strait, prior to the Pleistocene.

The analysis also showed three clear Nearctic clades, probably indicating at least two separate colonisation events. However, the most basal clade in the Columbidae, the Columbina Ground Doves, is American, and it is therefore possible that pigeons and doves may have originated in the Americas, dispersed to Eurasia, and then dispersed back again. '

[Tax-chick]

However, the Passenger Pigeon was so different to all other columbids

Different FROM!

[Smokin' Joe]

...known to form flocks so huge that they darkened the sky when dispersing...

I bet those flocks left a mess behind, too...

Just saying...

[muawiyah]

Action should be taken now to destroy all specimens of the Passenger Pigeon lest it be cloned, recreated and inserted again into the American eco-system.

They are INCOMPATIBLE with our current critter structure.

Of note these guys left HUGE deposits of pigeon droppings that even today can infect you with histoplasmosis should you break into one.

Having spoken with people who remembered the death of the last Passenger Pigeon they were still cheering that event!

[martin_fierro]

The last individual, named Martha, died in Cincinnati Zoo on 1 September 1914, though it was actually born and raised in captivity and the last wild bird was recorded in Ohio in January 1900.

We now know more about this bird's birth than the president's.

[aruanan]

The story of the Passenger Pigeon remains one of the most chilling examples of what can happen to a robust and widespread species and habitat if they are exploited without restraint.

It probably also shows what happens when one of their main food sources (chestnuts), and a main food source for a lot of other animals, is wiped out by a disease that didn't have anything to do with "exploitation."

[PIF]

Lots of images of Passenger Pigeon

http://www.ulala.org/P_Pigeon/Pigeon_Picts.html

[DouglasKC]

The Passenger Pigeon was a forest nomad, breeding in vast colonies and following sporadic crops of acorns and chestnuts around the dense deciduous forests of the eastern and central United States. the forests were once so vast that they could support tens of millions of the birds, which were known to form flocks so huge that they darkened the sky when dispersing. This made them easy prey for hunters' guns, and the greed and over-exploitation of hunters and wholesale destruction of their habitat led to their shockingly rapid extinction.

I find it telling that the birds ate CHESTNUTS. There was a massive die off of Chestnut trees due to a blight just before the passenger pigeon went "extinct". It's always portrayed as being the fault of hunters....but I'm betting that it had much more to do with a food source dying off.

[ViLaLuz]

“This made them easy prey for hunters’ guns, and the greed and over-exploitation of hunters and wholesale destruction of their habitat led to their shockingly rapid extinction.”

B.S.

[JoeProBono]

The last Passenger Pigeon, named Martha, died at the Cincinnati Zoo on September 1, 1914. Within a few decades, the once most numerous bird on Earth was gone.