In 1866, one flock that appeared in Ontario measured one mile wide by 300 miles long and contained an estimated 3.5 billion birds. The last known individual of the passenger pigeon species was "Martha" (named after Martha Washington). The largest recorded passenger pigeon nesting was in Wisconsin, west of Lake Michigan, in 1871. They were so numerous at one time, that in 1605, Samuel de Champlain reported “countless numbers” and Cotton Mather wrote in the 18 th century that he saw a flock … In 1955, in his definitive book The Passenger Pigeon, A. W. Schorger made calculations – based on King’s extended description of the speed, density and length of the flock he witnessed – to determine it may well have comprised more than three and a half billion birds. The Flock; About Us; Origami folded to date: 1,852,517,970 and counting! The Passenger Pigeon lived in dense flocks because of a unique behavioral trait: their social breeding. The small captive flocks weakened and died. … The passenger pigeon was a colonial and gregarious bird and needed large numbers for optimum breeding conditions. About the Passenger Pigeon. The hidden hunter would release the poles and throw the net across the bait bed when a flock of pigeons was feeding beneath. In all probability, the Passenger Pigeon was once the most abundant bird on the planet.Accounts of its numbers sound like something out of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds and strain our credulity today. The passenger pigeon or wild pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) is an extinct species of pigeon that was endemic to North America.Its common name is derived from the French word passager, meaning "passing by", due to the migratory habits of the species.The scientific name also refers to its migratory characteristics. Like the Domestic Pigeon, it often flies, during the love season, in a circling manner, supporting itself with Passenger Pigeons flew in vast flocks, numbering in the billions, sometimes eclipsing the sun from noon until nightfall. The Passenger Pigeon’s incomprehensible migrations reportedly darkened the skies for days on end. Unlike Band-tailed Pigeons, which will nest in densities of one nest per three to four acres, Passenger Pigeons nested in densities of up to 100 nests per tree. The Passenger Pigeon, or, as it is usually named in America, the Wild Pigeon, moves with extreme rapidity, propelling itself by quickly repeated flaps of the wings, which it brings more or less near to the body, according to the degree of velocity which is required. Imagine a flock of migrating passenger pigeons settling into the forest for the evening into an area one-half mile wide and more than 300 miles long. It was not possible to reestablish the species with a few captive birds. The first law that afforded the Passenger Pigeon any kind of protection was enacted in Michigan in 1897. Passenger pigeons were then the most numerous birds in the world, but by 1900 they were extinct in … This clearly wasn’t just a bird; it was a phenomenon. At the time of European arrival, Passenger Pigeons accounted for up to forty percent of the land birds of North America. During their heyday, colonies of Passenger Pigeons were so large that their combined weight broke tree limbs, and the amount of poop they produced influenced the composition of forest vegetation. Alexander Wilson, the father of scientific ornithology in America, estimated that one flock … Every branch of every tree solid with birds. Passenger Pigeons lived from Ontario, Quebec over to Nova Scotia and south all the way to Texas and Florida. It took 14 hours for them to pass overhead. It had a minimum length of 75 miles, a width of 10 to 15 miles, covered at least 850 square miles. ... 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