The Passenger Pigeon, Ectopistes migratorius, was so plentiful across early Nineteenth Century North America that passing flocks were said to block out the sun. By 1900 the last one found in the wild was captured and in 1914 the lone surviving member of the species died in a Cincinnati zoo. How could such a prolific species disappear from the face of the planet in a single century?
In his recently published A Feathered River Across the Sky; The Passenger Pigeon’s Flight to Extinction, Joel Greenberg examines the life, decline, and ultimate extinction of this now iconic bird. Look for a full-length review of this intriguing book to be published here in the very near future.
