![]() The pigeon migrated in enormous flocks, constantly searching for food, shelter, and breeding grounds, and was once the most abundant bird in North America, numbering around 3 billion, and possibly up to 5 billion. It mainly inhabited the deciduous forests of eastern North America and was also recorded elsewhere, but bred primarily around the Great Lakes. The juvenile was similar to the female, but without iridescence. ![]() The female was 380 to 400 mm (15.0 to 15.7 in), and was duller and browner than the male overall. The male was 390 to 410 mm (15.4 to 16.1 in) in length, mainly gray on the upperparts, lighter on the underparts, with iridescent bronze feathers on the neck, and black spots on the wings. The passenger pigeon was sexually dimorphic in size and coloration. The earliest passenger pigeon fossils date back to the late Pleistocene epoch, and thrived throughout the Holocene epoch until the early 20th century, where the genus' population drastically declined due to habitat destruction and excessive hunting. One flock, according to southern Ontario residents in 1866, apparently held in excess of 3.5 billion birds, measured a mile wide and 300 miles long, and took 14 hours to pass. Named after the French word passager which means "passing by", the bird was one of the most plentiful species in the Americas, if not the world, with some flocks containing over a billion individuals. The passenger pigeon ( Ectopistes migratorius), also known as the wild pigeon, is an extinct North American bird. A 1912 photograph of Martha, the last passenger pigeon.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |