Long time birdwatcher, just recently discovered your Substack and glad to subscribe. I'm so glad we're not doing this kind of destruction anymore.
Your photo comparison of the Passenger Pigeon and the Mourning Dove early in the post got me wondering -- I assume the Passenger Pigeon was targeted (literally) in part due to size, but it made me wonder if we had any idea of the population size comparisons between that bird and the Mourning Dove and the other pigeon we know well today - the Rock Pigeon. Was it by far the largest population and so therefore the obvious target, and now we are left with the obvious successors? Or maybe something else. I can go and do some more research online but wondered if you had already encountered such data.
Also, I hadn't realized that the "Snow Bird", aka Dark-eyed Junco, had ever been considered as a substitute! I have both the Mourning Dove and the Dark-eyed Junco coming to my feeders daily right now (in Central Ohio), though I expect the juncos will be heading north pretty soon.
Oh, I've got a lot more to say about passenger pigeons! I think the comparison to mourning doves and feral pigeons is an interesting one. There are around 350 million mourning doves in the US, and according to a quick google, around 300-400 million feral pigeons in the world (mourning doves are actually the most hunted bird in the US today, with hunters killing 20-40 million of them annually). This is compared to a rough estimate of 5 billion passenger pigeons. Passenger pigeons weren't just targeted because there were a lot of them, it was mainly because they gathered in such huge numbers, which made hunting them (and raiding their nests for squabs) so terribly efficient. If they had to be hunted one by one, they'd still probably be alive today.
Thanks, didn't know that. I wonder how many species are gathering in such large numbers, maybe the starlings, and those colorful parrots I've seen in south Texas that get together noisily just before sunset.
Thank you for this fascinating piece. In my ignorance, I’d never known the origin of the expression ‘stool pigeon’.
Long time birdwatcher, just recently discovered your Substack and glad to subscribe. I'm so glad we're not doing this kind of destruction anymore.
Your photo comparison of the Passenger Pigeon and the Mourning Dove early in the post got me wondering -- I assume the Passenger Pigeon was targeted (literally) in part due to size, but it made me wonder if we had any idea of the population size comparisons between that bird and the Mourning Dove and the other pigeon we know well today - the Rock Pigeon. Was it by far the largest population and so therefore the obvious target, and now we are left with the obvious successors? Or maybe something else. I can go and do some more research online but wondered if you had already encountered such data.
Also, I hadn't realized that the "Snow Bird", aka Dark-eyed Junco, had ever been considered as a substitute! I have both the Mourning Dove and the Dark-eyed Junco coming to my feeders daily right now (in Central Ohio), though I expect the juncos will be heading north pretty soon.
Thank you.
Oh, I've got a lot more to say about passenger pigeons! I think the comparison to mourning doves and feral pigeons is an interesting one. There are around 350 million mourning doves in the US, and according to a quick google, around 300-400 million feral pigeons in the world (mourning doves are actually the most hunted bird in the US today, with hunters killing 20-40 million of them annually). This is compared to a rough estimate of 5 billion passenger pigeons. Passenger pigeons weren't just targeted because there were a lot of them, it was mainly because they gathered in such huge numbers, which made hunting them (and raiding their nests for squabs) so terribly efficient. If they had to be hunted one by one, they'd still probably be alive today.
Thanks, didn't know that. I wonder how many species are gathering in such large numbers, maybe the starlings, and those colorful parrots I've seen in south Texas that get together noisily just before sunset.
What a sobering story, and so sad that we will never see these birds.
I know this is important history and all but I think I need to skip this one, the headline just broke my heart...next article for sure.