They would shoot and kill as many birds as they could in order to sell the meat. This is not a mourning dove. amzn_assoc_bg_color = "000000"; Passenger Pigeon Sightings from the Birding Community More may be available from previously sent to the website. It was also flying in a horizontal position for most of the distance, as though lying on its belly, whereas I often see mourning doves fly in a partially upright position for short distances. The detail that convinced me it was some form of avian was its flight, however. I personally like to believe that the foolish and selfish actions of men were not enough to destroy this once thriving species and that a population of them still survives in areas untouched by human hands. My property appears to be on some kind of major migration route for all kinds of waterfowl and various bird species. Located on a glacial out-wash terrace, it is located on the banks of the White River in Marion County. Passenger Pigeon. Photos are slightly grainy but attached files are JPEGS. Passenger pigeons used to number in the billions. amzn_assoc_marketplace = "amazon"; Just as I was lifting my camera, however, a red and silver 18-wheeler made a lot of noise driving past the birds, and the birds flew through the fields behind them, out of sight completely in a matter of seconds. I only saw the one bird flying by itself, but I was in a vehicle and passed the area too quickly to see if any other birds were on the same block. Unfortunately, no, though I tried yet again. The Roosevelts owned a rustic cabin in Albemarle County, Virginia, known as Pine Knot. John James Audubon once watched a flock fly overhead for three days—300 million pigeons per hour. Location: (Town name withheld for privacy) Massachusetts, USA / Mid-July 2014, Possible Cryptid: Unknown species of bird, Witnesses: 1 main witness, 2 additional witnesses for a short period of time, Reporter info: Emma, age 14 at the time of sighting, “ - Background Info -As we do most summers, my family and I drove to my grandparents’ house for a barbecue. Passenger pigeons fed their young with crop milk for three or four days, and then abandoned their hatchlings a week or so later, at which point the newborn birds had to figure out (on their own) how to leave the nest and scavenge for their own food. original files are .PNG. They would burn their nesting trees to the ground as well as use explosives to destroy huge timber giants within minutes. But I do remember the croaking, long, thin, mourning dove-like bird landing on the top of the academy in Virginia Beach, and that bird's tail fan appeared to be so long that it looked like an additional, almost ornamental, fan dragging behind the bird, though I assume a part of that was due to the extra length of the bird itself. It was said that the flocks of this bird could block out the sun for days. ***** Where can I find some of these prints locally? Location of sighting: Caroline Street (between William Street and Amelia Street), in downtown Fredericksburg, Virginia -- a popular street in the downtown area which is very busy during warm weather, but March 17th was a cold morning Was the bird in the company of other birds or animals? As soon as the birds fell to the earth, they would be clubbed or stabbed with pitchforks and thrown into a sack or barrel for sale. Other photos (previously sent) may be available from this website or I can post later but these are 3 of the best. The males of this species sport bright and iridescent colors that help them attract mates. Name of birdwatcher: Alexis Toxqui If you believe that you've seen a living passenger pigeon, then please submit that sighting to HoriconBirds.com via the form included on the Contact page. "I dismounted, seated myself on an eminence, and began to mark with my pencil, making a dot for every flock that passed. Lewis and Clark recorded pigeons in Idaho. Description of sighting: I was walking my dog at this time when I notice a bunch of pigeons which are always at this tree and just eat and stay on the ground. Yes. The distance was about 40 ft. Would you like to share anything about yourself? Passenger pigeons likely remained in the wild, but all subsequent sightings were unconfirmed. The lighting wasn't direct sunlight, as the buildings put that portion of the block in shadow at the time. Photo credit: Cephas. I turned the car around and found a couple of mourning doves still sitting on the power lines to the south of the road, but I wasn't sure whether they were the same birds as earlier because the lighting wasn't hitting them in the same way. amzn_assoc_tracking_id = "pamrotellac04-20"; Hunting alone could not have wiped out the passenger pigeon in such … Do you have a photo of the sighting? The bird is roughly center in the pics. 9 Passenger Pigeon. One of their most prized birds, Martha, was the last passenger pigeon to ever fly. Location of sighting: Back Yard, Southern Chester County Pennsylvania. Her demise sparked the passing of modern conservation laws to protect other endangered species in the U.S.” Now, more than 100 years later, the Passenger Pigeon is again advancing conservation. There was some slanted direct sunlight at the end of the block. Drawings may show that the tail fan is long and what they call spade- or heart-shaped, but I think they've been too conservative about how far those birds could manipulate their side feathers. I have lived on my small farm for 38 years. Mourning doves have small black or charcoal gray beaks with maybe a little pink close to the bird's head. Is there anything else you'd like the birding community to know about this sighting? VeggieCooking.comThe classic vegan cookbookby Pam Rotella! There are also plenty of sources of fresh running water (a river nearby and streams in the general area), though a little muddy in color lately, perhaps from runoff of recent snowstorms. However, when I enlarge the pictures later, the birds are mourning doves with black eyes and blue eye rings. What about this bird leads you to believe it was a passenger pigeon and not a mourning dove or other species? Location of sighting: Leslie, Missouri Do you have a photo of the sighting? This bird looks [about] similar to the mourning dove but it had a bluish color on its back and reddish underbelly Click here to see authenic newspaper article of Audubons account of the Wild Pigeon! I have 3 handy. These colorful feathers can cover the entire body of the bird, or be grouped together in one area on the birds body (ex: the under wing, chest, neck, or tail feathers). One of these sightings had been made on 10 June 1929, by Robert H. Wright of Munissing, Michigan. I also fish and hunt when I can. During that investigation, I noticed that a large raptor landed on a building around the same time of day as the St. Patrick's Day sighting. ***** The bright summer sun reflected off it whenever it went by when directly overhead, the glare practically blinding to look at. !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)? I have seen a few larger specimens of mourning doves over the years but no dove that looked anything like this. It was approximately 11:30 in the morning. Submit yours. Finally, I've noticed that acorns from last year's season are plentiful around Fredericksburg, both in the trees and on the ground. It was also larger than a normal mourning dove's bill. Name of birdwatcher: Pam Rotella (the photographer featured here on HoriconBirds.com) I'm not sending enlargements since you can probably get more out of it if you do it yourself. ***** Where Passenger Pigeons roamed: Principal nesting sites were in Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania, New York, and New England, but the bird’s normal distribution was much wider. Many assume that what they are seeing flying around has been categorized already regardless of how strange it seems, so they don’t tell anyone. I like going through there so my dog can just run at the pigeons but when I was looking at the pigeons I noticed one different looking bird. It was a lean bird with almost a boxy shape to its torso, and in the air showed no thickening in the belly as you'd see with a mourning dove or other pigeons. Are you a lost birdie? I was starting to doubt what I had seen previously. ***** After reading your report many times, my mind settles on three possible candidates. My father has extensive knowledge of the local wildlife and beyond, but was unable to identify it. I garden heavily. Mourning doves do not look like the males. It was too large and had too much Bluebird-like colors to be a Bluejay. The pigeon made its home in Eastern North America and were quite common in Massachusetts. I didn't want to change lenses when I stopped near the birds because I would probably have little or no time to photograph them after they saw my car stopping nearby. While driving west on Highway 23 in Wisconsin, hoping to find wildlife to photograph at White River Marsh, I pulled over to photograph a large, interesting cloud blocking most direct sunlight. As I again proceeded west on Highway 23, within a few miles of Princeton, Wisconsin (I returned later and estimate the birds were between 3 and 5 miles east of the eastern border of Princeton), I saw a couple of drab-looking mourning doves sitting on power lines to my left. In light of my own passenger pigeon sightings, and others' sightings e-mailed to me after I posted my own on the world wide web, I've decided to maintain a page documenting possible passenger pigeon sightings from anyone willing to share them. The naturalist Charles Dury, of Cincinnati, Ohio, wrote in September 1910: "One foggy day in October 1884, at 5 a.m. Sign in to see your stats. Do you have a photo of the sighting? I haven't yet found an exact depiction of this fan shape in old drawings of the bird, or in photos of taxidermied birds. Reports of passenger pigeon sightings kept coming in from Arkansas and Louisiana, in groups of tens and twenties, until the first decade of the 20th century. 3.) It went back and forth, always flying in a straight line from point A to point B. No, there wasn't even have time to lift my cell phone for a bad picture. Date of sighting: November 2017 Statistics. Passenger pigeon sightings !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)? Their heads were slightly smaller than their other body parts and when compared to the size of their chests, it seemed even smaller. I work for a large engineering company but all my hobbies are outdoors. They have a large garden and bird feeder along with a big yard including an overgrown field so they get a lot of wildlife scurrying about on the property like mice, turtles, raccoons, deer, countless species of birds, and just about any typical woodland critter you can think of.As the whole family was settling in to eat, I sat in the gazebo nearby. I left the short lens on the camera, thinking I may want to photograph more scenery before I reached White River Marsh. The feature that stumped me was the coloration of the belly: an unnaturally bright metallic scarlet. The last reliable sightings in Ontario occurred around the turn of the century, including a record of ten from around Orangeville in 1899. The bird was sitting on the telephone line at almost eye level, since I was on the upper level of the car. Only a year later, in 1900, the last wild passenger pigeon died when a young boy in Pike’s County, Ohio, shot it with his BB gun. IF YOU ENJOYED THE ABOVE, YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: User Submitted Cryptid Sighting: Possible Kangaroo/Wallaby Mob, User Submitted Cryptid Sighting: Sasquatch, User Submitted Cryptid Sighting: Trunked Deer, User Submitted Cryptid Encounter: Unknown Flying Humanoid, User Submitted Cryptid Sighting: Unknown Aquatic Creature in Mexico, User Submitted Cryptid Sighting: Unknown Wolf-like Creature, User Submitted Sighting: Unexplained Anomalous Sky Object, User Submitted Cryptid Sighting: Herrington Lake Creature, User Submitted Cryptid Sighting: Pterodactyl, User Submitted Folklore: French Broad River Siren. Bird watchers report it! This is the bird that I personally believe you saw. The passenger pigeon was a touch larger than the still-familiar feral pigeon. It caught my attention, since it kind of looked like a dove, but on steroids ☺. What about this bird leads you to believe it was a passenger pigeon and not a mourning dove or other species? I didn't see the tail fan on the original sighting in Wisconsin because that bird was perched and then launching into flight, and a bird's tail fan is something usually only deployed when birds are pulling mid-air acrobatics or trying to create additional drag to reduce speed. Passenger pigeon remains have been found at the Bowen site, among the most important Woodland Period settlements in the state. These traits sound almost exactly like those of the extinct Passenger Pigeon. Colors were wrong to be one. amzn_assoc_default_search_key = ""; They were members of both the pigeon and dove family. Also, road construction started on that same block of downtown Fredericksburg within a week after the sighting. No as I said before I didn't bring my phone while I was walking my dog so I went running back home to get my phone and come back but when I got back it wasn't there anymore Time was 5:30 PM, Thursday 8-4-16. Name of birdwatcher: Jeff Nagy THE PASSENGER PIGEON, WSO’s flagship publication, is a quarterly journal featuring a wide range of articles on Wisconsin birds, seasonal field sightings (including Christmas, May, and Big Day counts), and scientific research reports. POWERED BY MERLIN. This isn't the shorter half-circle fan on mourning doves, but rather hanging lower behind the bird and lighter in color, as though it's dragging an almost circular fan of white feathers. The Fredericksburg bird had the same length and shape to its fan as the Virginia Beach bird, and its fan was deployed even as it flew horizontally between trees, perhaps because it wanted to maintain a lower speed through that small space. Their chests were covered in iridescent display feathers that were seen as either bright bronze, or violet/golden green depending on the angle. Many early historians,who write of the birds of the Atlantic coast region, mention the Pigeons. Our research revealed the Passenger Pigeon isn’t simply a model species; it quite possibly is the most important species for the future of conserving the woodland biodiversity of the eastern United States. Some flocks were three to four miles long and one mile wide. Do you have a photo of the sighting? I've freed dozens of them from my blueberry nets. amzn_assoc_default_search_category = ""; They might not return to that area for years, if ever. He raised a few interesting points about the birds' habits: 1.) I don't think it was an American Kestrel because it looked too much like a Pigeon. Also, I am a huge fan of cryptid birds as they are rarely reported by those who have seen them (outside of Thunderbird sightings that is). Description of sighting: The following are excerpts of the sighting from an email to a bird watching friend sent the day after the sighting: But yesterday when I stepped out on my deck to look at the garden I noticed a large dark charcoal brown dove/pigeon sitting in my dead sour cherry tree I've been meaning to cut down. Identification. This page is organized with the most recent sightings first. What about this bird leads you to believe it was a passenger pigeon and not a mourning dove or other species? It was like no bird I have seen or in the bird book. "On The Passenger Pigeon" Birds of America. Thank you Emma for the fantastic report of your sighting! amzn_assoc_region = "US"; The coloration seemed to be an ashy grey or charcoal, but once again this is debatable as it could’ve been how they were silhouetted against the sky. Schorger cites several recorded sightings of giant flocks numbering over a billion passenger pigeons (see next paragraph) to illustrate that population of the passenger pigeons was 3,000,000,000 to 5,000,000,000 from the 16 th to early 19 th centuries, making the bird 25-40 percent of the total bird population of the United States. I still consider myself a novice and am a little disturbed by the fact that there are not more photos of even alleged sightings. There was also another, larger group of mourning doves just east of there on the power lines along Highway 23, same side of the road (south). Tweet But when my dog tried to chase it at it flew away and I noticed it had a whitish tail. The Passenger pigeon was the most numerous bird of No rth America and possibly the world. John James Audubon. Bird is roughly center in photos. It had the shape of a dove, only slightly larger and its breast was red (reddish). Would you like to share anything about yourself? This was the first time I'd seen one from the side while flying, and was surprised that its belly was so flat. No Hunters, loss of habitat, and infectious diseases contributed to their eventual extinction. The passenger pigeon was a colonial and gregarious bird and needed large numbers for optimum breeding conditions. The temperature was about 60 degrees (unusually warm for the time of year). Description of sighting: I was riding home with my Grandma when on the power line was a bird that looked like a Passenger Pigeon. I was approximately 3-6 feet away from it and I was in complete shock. amzn_assoc_link_id = "7LSVQE5VBIW3GA6L"; Now I'm wondering if that's significant -- was the usual location of the birds disturbed by airplanes arriving for the show? Readers can decide for themselves whether any of these sightings indicate a surviving species or not. 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