Passenger pigeon short description for schoolchildren. The passenger pigeon is an example of human folly. See what a "passenger pigeon" is in other dictionaries

Detachment - Pigeons

Family - pigeon

Genus/Species - Ectopisres migratorius. Passenger pigeon

Basic data:

DIMENSIONS

Length: 30-42 cm.

Wingspan: 34-44 cm.

BREEDING

Nesting period: March.

Number of eggs: 1.

Incubation: 14 days.

Feeding chicks: 14 days.

LIFESTYLE

Habits: passenger pigeons (see photo) - migratory public birds; always kept in huge flocks.

Food: fruits, seeds, earthworms and insects.

Sounds: loud and different screams or low cooing.

Lifespan: there is no data.

RELATED SPECIES

More than 300 species of birds that live around the world belong to the pigeon-like order. The closest relative of the passenger pigeon is the weeping pigeon.

The difference between passenger pigeons and other pigeons was that passenger pigeons nested in huge colonies over an area of ​​​​several square kilometers. This habit has led to the extinction of the species.

FOOD

The passenger pigeon owes its species name to the fact that in search of food it traveled quite long distances. Since these birds kept in huge flocks, they could not live in one place for a long time, as they simply would not have enough food. That is why birds constantly roamed within their range.

The basis of the diet of passenger pigeons was mainly acorns and beech nuts, so the birds most often nested in oak and beech groves.

BREEDING

Passenger pigeons were notable for their low fecundity. Each pair raised only one chick per year. Scientists have not found any special mating rituals or specific methods of rearing chicks that would be unique to passenger pigeons.

The only feature of this bird species was that the pigeons nested in huge colonies. The nesting period lasted from March to May. During the mating dance, the male proudly puffed out his chest and, lowering his fan-shaped tail, circled around his chosen one.

Birds paired up for life. Both birds were involved in nest building. A single egg was incubated by male and female in turn. Incubation lasted about two weeks. For the next two weeks, the parents fed their baby together.

LOCATION

The passenger pigeon inhabited the eastern part of the United States and Canada. These birds flew in search of food in huge flocks, consisting of several million birds. Eyewitnesses, for example, naturalist Alexander Wilson, said that some flocks reached one and a half kilometers in width and 380 kilometers in length.

Considering the flight speed and the time when the first pigeon of the flock and the last one flew over the same point, the scientist came to the conclusion that there were more than two million pigeons in the flock. The American ornithologist John Audubon observed a flock that was so numerous that it covered the entire sky, and in the evening new birds flew to the same place. According to rough estimates, the flock, the number of which was estimated at least at a billion individuals, flew over this area for about three days, because it was three days later that the last dove flew over this place. Passenger pigeons nested in trees and bushes in deciduous forests that stretched across the eastern part of the continent, from Canada to Florida.

CAUSE OF DISAPPEARANCE

There is no doubt that humans are the main culprit in the disappearance of the passenger pigeon. However, despite this, it is difficult to understand how such a numerous species could disappear in such a short time. The main reason why this happened is the flocking of these birds. Passenger pigeons flew and nested in huge colonies, so hunters could kill a large number of birds at one time.

American Indians have known for centuries that the meat of passenger pigeons is delicious. However, they have never hunted birds during the nesting season. In the 19th century, gourmets greatly appreciated the meat of young pigeons, especially chicks. When this "fashion" became widespread, special detachments of hunters appeared who hunted the chicks of this dove.

The scale of the destruction of these birds is evidenced by at least the following figure: in the spring of 1851, 74 tons of pigeon meat were delivered to New York by rail, killed in only two districts of the state. By 1890, pigeons had become very rare. In 1899, not a single passenger pigeon was on the loose.

INTERESTING INFORMATION. DO YOU KNOW WHAT...

• The wandering, or migratory, dove is called the same in all languages.
• Settling down for the night, passenger pigeons sat so closely on the branches of trees that branches up to 60 cm thick broke under their weight.
• According to one source, the last passenger pigeon was killed in 1899 in Ohio, and a bronze plaque was placed at the place of his death. Other sources state that this happened in 1900. The last pigeon, named Martha, died on September 1, 1914 at the Cincinnati Zoo.

STRANGERING DOVE AND WEEPING DOVE

Plumage (pigeon passenger): the head and loin are dark blue, the throat and neck are reddish-gray, the sides are purple-violet, the abdomen and tail are white. Individuals of both sexes were colored in the same way; in the plumage of the female,
ash brown color.

Tail: long, narrow, greyish-blue.

Beak: narrow, black. Adapted to pecking seeds and nuts from the ground.

Paws: red with black nails.

Eyes: bright red.

Weeping dove: found in North America and the Caribbean. It is the closest relative of the passenger pigeon and at the same time the most numerous species of pigeon in the region. The body length of this bird is only 31-33 cm, that is, it is smaller than the passenger pigeon. The beak of the weeping turtledove is just as thin, adapted for pecking seeds, as that of its extinct relative. Male weeping turtledoves have very long middle rump feathers.

- Habitat of the passenger pigeon

WHERE AND WHEN LIVED

Passenger pigeons inhabited deciduous forests in the east of the North American continent, south from Central and Eastern Canada to Florida. The meat of these birds was exported to Europe. A sharp drop in numbers occurred around 1850. In 1896, only one breeding population remained, and it numbered about 250,000 individuals. By the beginning of the twentieth century, pigeons that lived in nature were destroyed.

From the once countless flocks of these birds, only a few museum exhibits have survived - stuffed animals, skeletons and ... drawings by artists and naturalists.

The total number of these birds of the pigeon family was estimated at 3-5 billion individuals. One of the most common birds on the planet ... until the 19th century.

Passenger pigeon or Ectopistes migratorius, 35-40 cm in size, with an elongated neck, a small bluish head and a wedge-shaped tail. The weight of the bird is from 250 to 340 g. Gray-gray color, brownish back, reddish breast. Black beak, red paws and eyes. The couple bred only 1 chick per season.

The habitats of the passenger pigeon are the deciduous forests of the North American continent east of the Rocky Mountains. Southern and central Canada. Wintering places - the south of the USA. Individual colonies numbered up to hundreds of millions of pigeons.

The boundless flock of spiral formation could stretch up to 300 km. Eyewitnesses describe that the flight of a flock of passenger pigeons, solely in search of food, was accompanied by a deafening noise from millions of strong wings. The sky was covered with an "endless cloud" that covered the sun. Birds flew in several layers so that one shot from a shotgun could "get" several dozen individuals. Until now, the desire of pigeons to hold on and nest in such huge flocks remains a biological mystery. In 1878, a breeding pigeon colony in the state of Michigan occupied all the trees of a forest of 15 * 57 km, and each tree had about a hundred nests.

Passenger pigeon seat was where the food was. In a territory rich in food, the whole flock gathered in a circle, forming a kind of rotating cylinder. They ate nuts and acorns, chestnuts, berries, fruits. Thick branches broke under the weight of the birds, and the incredible flight speed (up to 1 mile per minute) and the rapidly repeated "flapping" of the wings produced an incessant rumble. Eyewitness researchers note the developed external senses of birds, which made it possible for them to view the surroundings during the most rapid flight, finding food.

The decline in numbers from 1800 to 1870 was slow. From 1870 to 1890, the multi-billion population was completely destroyed. In 1900 (according to some sources in 1907), the last passenger pigeon in the wild was seen in Ohio. In September 1914, in the Cincinnati Zoological Garden (USA), the only representative of the species that remained and lived in captivity, the dove Martha, died.

And it all started very promising ... In 1848, the state of Massachusetts adopted a decree banning the catching of pigeons with nets. After 3 years in the state of Vermont, all non-commercial birds, and passenger pigeons are also taken under protection. Mining prohibition laws have been passed by other states as well. But ... it was about the most delicious meat, profitable business and big money... The population took up arms. The “harvest harvest” during the breeding of birds from March to July reached 1.5 million. In the 70s of the XIX century. The United States and Canada "harvested" hundreds of millions of pigeons. Crowds of "hunters" killed the unfortunate birds in places of feeding, lodging and nesting with all possible ways: long poles, stones, oars; shot from guns and rifles, caught with nets; poisoned by kindling pots with sulfur under the trees at the place of overnight stays; they blew up dynamite and even a machine gun was first created for the war with pigeons. The construction of a railway and telegraph deep into the continent contributed to the earliest notification of the presence of the population and the delivery of prey to the market.

“The extinction of a species due to the greed and frivolity of man” is the inscription on a memorial plaque in Wisconsin, installed by the local ornithological society in memory of legions of wandering birds and the last Wisconsin pigeon, killed here in 1899.
Modern genetic and breeding science suggests… the resurrection of the passenger pigeon as a species. But... time will tell if humanity will ever see a population of extinct birds with its own eyes.

Passenger pigeon, an extinct bird of the pigeon family. Until the 19th century, it was one of the most common birds on Earth, the total number of which was estimated at 3-5 billion individuals. Body length 35-40 cm, wing length - about 20 cm, body weight - 250-340 g, head and loin gray, back brownish, chest reddish. The eyes are red. The passenger pigeon was common in deciduous forests North America east of the Rocky Mountains, from southern and central Canada to North Carolina, wintered in the southern United States.

The History of Passenger Pigeon Extermination

Hardly any other feathered animal has been found on earth in such monstrously huge numbers as the passenger pigeon of North America. The stories about him read like a fantasy novel.

Passenger pigeons lived throughout the United States and southern Canada. They appeared in the sky in such dense flocks that they literally blocked the sun. It was getting dark, like an eclipse. Flying birds covered the entire sky from horizon to horizon. Pigeon droppings fell from the sky like flakes of snow, the endless hum of wings like the whistle of a storm wind.

Hours passed, and the pigeons flew and flew, and there was no end or beginning in sight for their marching columns. Neither shouts, nor shots, nor firing from cannons could not deviate from the course countless, like locusts, "squadron".

This pigeon led a nomadic lifestyle. Passenger pigeons fed on acorns, chestnuts, beech and other nuts, which were produced in abundance by the untouched forests of North America. Having cleared the deciduous forest from fruits and seeds in one area, millions of pigeons took to the air and sometimes flew thousands of kilometers to a new one. appropriate place. In the new forest, they continued to feed for several weeks and even months, nested near the feeding places, and then, having exhausted food resources, took off in search of new productive areas.

No less impressive nesting pigeons. Trees densely dotted with nests, up to a hundred on one tree, even leaves and small twigs are not visible, looked as if they had been cleaned with an ax. Sometimes more than a hundred nests hung on each tree, and often the branches broke off under the weight of rapidly growing chicks. There was a deafening noise and screams all around, the ground was covered with a thick layer of manure.

Of course, a person could not pass by such an abundance of game. Having learned about the nesting of pigeons, local residents came to the forest at night, cut down trees with nests and killed thousands of adult birds and chicks. Pigs were driven to the nesting places, which devoured the fallen chicks. Wagons and wagons loaded with piles of slaughtered game went to village and town markets, where carcasses of pigeons were sold for one cent a pair.

Was it possible to quickly exterminate such a fabulous multitude of birds? The sad fate of the passenger pigeon says that it is possible if you skillfully get down to business.

Passenger pigeons were destroyed by all means that were suitable for this. They fired from guns, rifles, pistols, muskets of all systems and calibers. Even pots of sulfur were used, which were kindled under the trees at the places where the pigeons spent the night. Birds were caught with nets, beaten with sticks, stones. So dense were the flocks of pigeons, sometimes they flew so low that the colonists knocked them down with poles. The fishermen, when pigeons flew over them, beat them with oars.

In the United States, there were many thousands of professional "hunters" for pigeons who earned fabulous money for those times - up to 10 pounds sterling a day. Their "case" was widely staged. A whole network of agents sent telegraph reports about the appearance here or there of new flocks of pigeons, about their places of overnight stay and the direction of flight. Producers were already rushing there. Development railways provided fast delivery hundreds of tons of dead pigeons to the markets of the country.

All over the United States and Canada in the seventies of the last century, hundreds of millions of pigeons were hunted!

Is it really in big country there was not a single person who would raise his voice in defense of the beaten birds? Really in the USA there were no laws protecting the wealth of nature? There were such laws, of course. Back in 1848, Massachusetts issued a decree prohibiting the catching of pigeons with nets. Three years later, all non-commercial birds, including passenger pigeons, were taken under protection in the state of Vermont. Laws prohibiting their extraction were soon passed in other states. But who reckoned with them when it came to big business!

In 1880, there were still significant flocks of passenger pigeons in the country, but after 20 years there was no trace of them left. The disappearance of a fantastically numerous species was so sudden that in America, it seems, they still cannot recover from surprise. Several "theories" have been devised to explain the astonishingly rapid, "like an explosion of dynamite", the disappearance of pigeons. Some suggest that all the pigeons drowned in the Atlantic Ocean when they “emigrated” to Australia. Others think that they flew to the North Pole and froze there. After all that has been said, is it necessary to explain that it is not the North Pole and not the Atlantic Ocean that are to blame for the extermination of passenger pigeons, but a more terrible element, whose name is “business”. It is unlikely that man exterminated all the birds to one. Most colonial nesting birds are only capable of breeding in large flocks. Probably, the passenger pigeon reached the minimum number at which it was impossible for its successful nesting.

In 1914, the last passenger pigeon, a female named Martha, died at the Cincinnati Zoo.

Be that as it may, the responsibility for the loss of the most massive species of birds lies entirely with man.

Today I would like to deviate a little from the topic and highlight the lesser-known Black Pages of the Red Book. They contain information about those whom we will never see again.
I am aware of several animals listed on these pages, including two doves - the Dodo (dodo, flightless pigeon) and the American Passenger Pigeon. The latter will be discussed.
The passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) is an extinct bird of the pigeon family. Until the 19th century, it was one of the most common birds on Earth, the total number of which was estimated at 3-5 billion individuals.
1. Habitat:
Deciduous forests of North America east of the Rocky Mountains, from southern and central Canada to North Carolina, wintered in southern USA
2. Weight:
250–340
3. Lifespan:
5 - 15 years old.
4. Enemies:
The most diverse predatory animals, diurnal predator birds(mainly hawks, falcons, forest eagles), owls, tree snakes. Masonry and chicks also became prey for monitor lizards, opossums, monkeys. Man.
5. Food / food:
Acorns, chestnuts, beech and other nuts.
6. Behavior:
They flew low, in large flocks.
7. Social structure:
Flocks (colonies).
There were billions of birds in individual colonies. Hardly any birds gathered in such monstrous flocks. They flew over the earth in such thick clouds that they literally overshadowed the sky. Flying birds covered the entire sky from horizon to horizon, the noise from their flapping wings was like the whistle of a storm wind.
“I saw the flight of pigeons in the spring. The flock seemed to have neither beginning nor end, neither length nor width, and the birds flew so densely that I could not see the sun,” wrote a shocked eyewitness.
8. Season/breeding period and offspring:
During the season, a pair of passenger pigeons hatched only one chick.
9. Benefit / harm to humans:
They ate millions of tons of food and gave food to others. Through this species there was a colossal flow in the cycle of matter and energy. Moreover, pigeons quickly carried these substances and energy over long distances.
10. Population/conservation status:
Extinct.
A captive passenger pigeon named "Martha" who lived in captivity (in the Cincinnati Zoo) died on September 1, 1914. It was the last representative of a recently unusually numerous species.
11. History of the name:
Passenger pigeons did not like to sit in one place for many years. When food supplies were depleted, they left nesting sites. Large masses of birds appeared in places where no one had seen them before. There they nested for several years in a row, then disappeared, only to reappear many years later. This way of life gave rise to the corresponding names in a variety of languages. The Narragansett Indians called this pigeon "muscowan" - a wanderer.
12. Interesting Facts:
1. Just over a hundred years ago, this dove was the most numerous bird USA, if not the whole world.
2. It happened that in the vicinity of New York, pigeons were killed whose crops contained rice, while they could eat it only in the fields of Carolina.
3. Could reach Europe (from America) in 3 days.
4. One of the first American ornithologists, Alexander Wilson, saw in 1810 a flock of passenger pigeons that flew over him for four hours. It stretched for 380 km. He roughly calculated how many birds were in it, and got an incredible figure - 1,115,135,000 pigeons!
5. On the day, such an army of birds ate 617 cubic meters of all kinds of food. “It is more,” writes British naturalist Frank Lane, “ daily ration soldiers of all warring countries by the end of World War II!
6. Destroyed pigeons in all possible ways that were suitable for this. Shot from guns, rifles, pistols. Even a machine gun was first invented for the war with pigeons. The flocks of pigeons were so dense and sometimes they flew so low that the colonists knocked them down with poles, and the fishermen with oars.
7. Between 1860 and 1870, millions of passenger pigeons were killed, but in the following decade, only hundreds of thousands, and by 1890 all large breeding colonies of passenger pigeons had already been destroyed. And although there were no more mass hunts, the last passenger pigeon was killed in 1899 (according to other sources, 7 years later).
8. The extermination of a fantastically numerous species was so sudden that the Americans could not recover from the unexpectedness of what had happened for a long time. Several "theories" have been invented to explain the stunningly quick, "like an explosion of dynamite", the disappearance of pigeons (by the way, this same dynamite was also used to hunt them!) According to one "theory", all pigeons supposedly drowned in the Atlantic Ocean when they "emigrated ' to South America. They even thought of the fact that the passenger pigeons allegedly flew to the North Pole and froze there.
9. In Wisconsin, the local Ornithological Society erected a plaque that reads: “In memory of the last Wisconsin passenger pigeon killed at Babcon in September 1899. This species has become extinct due to the greed and frivolity of man.

Passenger pigeon passenger pigeon

an extinct bird of the pigeon family. Body length about 30 cm. Lived in deciduous forests of eastern North America (from southern Canada to North Carolina). It was exterminated in huge quantities during the migration, which led to its complete disappearance (beginning of the 20th century).

PASSENGER PIGEON

PASSENGER DOVE (Ectopistes migratorius), an extinct bird of the pigeon family (cm. DOVE).
Hardly any bird on Earth was found in such huge numbers as the passenger pigeon, which lived in the territory of the modern USA and Southern Canada. The American ornithologist Wilson reported a flock of pigeons flying over him for four hours. This flock stretched for 360 km, and there were more than 2 billion birds in it!
The passenger pigeon had a bluish-gray coloration, brownish-gray wings, a black beak, red paws, and orange eyes. The body length of the bird was 35-40 cm, the wing length was about 20 cm, and the body weight was 250-340 g. These birds lived in deciduous forests, eating acorns, chestnuts and nuts. They regularly migrated north in summer (from the northern regions of Virginia and Mississippi to the modern Canadian provinces of Quebec, Ontario and Monitoba), and in winter south, from Indiana, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts to the Gulf of Mexico. In their wanderings, individual birds flew to Bermuda and even to Europe.
The desire of passenger pigeons to stay in huge flocks is a biological mystery, which now, after the extinction of the species, can no longer be solved. These birds not only wandered, but also nested in millions of colonies. For example, in 1878 a nesting colony of pigeons in the state of Michigan occupied all the trees in a forest over an area of ​​15 x 57 km, and sometimes there were up to a hundred nests on one tree. True, a pair of passenger pigeons hatched only one chick per season.
It would seem that the birds, whose flocks literally overshadowed the sky, cannot be exterminated. However, the Europeans who came to America managed to do this in an amazingly short time. Pigeons, whose meat was very tasty, were shot from guns, muskets and rifles, poisoned, setting fire to sulfur under the trees, on which the birds settled for the night; tens and hundreds of millions of nesting pigeons were also killed. When the chicks grew up (sometimes branches of trees broke off under their weight), crowds of people gathered from everywhere, and some brought pigs with them. Trees with nests were knocked to the ground and fledglings were killed with sticks. It is estimated that 1,000,000,000 passenger pigeons were killed in Michigan alone in 1879!
And just 20 years later, the passenger pigeon as a species ceased to exist. the last bird in nature killed in 1899. All that remains of her is a museum effigy and a bronze plaque with the hypocritical inscription “In memory of the last passenger pigeon killed in Bobcock in September 1899. This species has become extinct due to the greed and frivolity of man. The last passenger pigeon kept at the Cincinnati Zoo, Ohio, died on September 1, 1914. Several museum specimens have been preserved from multi-billion flocks - stuffed animals, skins, skeletons.

encyclopedic Dictionary. 2009 .

See what a "passenger dove" is in other dictionaries:

- † Passenger pigeon ... Wikipedia

Extinct bird of the pigeon family. Body length approx. 30 cm. Lived in the deciduous forests of the eastern part of the North. America and southern Canada. It was exterminated in huge quantities during the migration, which led to its complete disappearance (beginning of the 20th century) ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (Ectopistes migratorius), an extinct bird of this family. pigeons. The last time a large nesting of this year was observed in 1883, the last this year in nature were noted in 1899; in the United States in the zoo the last year died on September 1. 1914. Long. OK. 30 cm. Head and ... ... Biological encyclopedic dictionary

- (Ectopistes migratorius) an extinct bird of the pigeon family. The body length is about 30 cm. The head and lower back are gray, the back is brownish, the chest is reddish. Until the 90s 19th century was distributed in the deciduous forests of eastern North America, from southern Canada ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Extinct bird. pigeons. Body length approx. 30 cm. Lived in foliage. forests east. parts of Sev. America (from South Canada to North Carolina). It was exterminated in huge stakes during its migration, which led to its complete disappearance (beginning of the 20th century) ... Natural science. encyclopedic Dictionary