There is a great article about Passenger Pigeons by Bill Loomis in The Detroit News today. It is well worth a read.
Recent Posts
- Bird Guides of the World: Luis Panamá Perugachi, EcuadorBy Editor
- BIRD COUNT: A KidLit Bird Book ReviewBy Susan Wroble
- Birding in Brandenburg, Uckermark County in Winter (Part 2) By Rolf Nessing
- Other Hokkaido Winter BirdsBy Kai Pflug
- Imperial EaglesBy Clive Finlayson
- Cinereous Vulture on Chongming Island, ShanghaiBy Kai Pflug
- Excuse me, this wine has cork…By Peter
Welcome to 10,000 Birds!
Learn about our site and writers, advertise, subscribe, or contact us. New writers welcome – details here!
Beat Writer Posting Calendar
Monday
Kai Pflug (weekly)
Tuesday
Donna Schulman (monthly)
Susan Wroble (monthly)
Hannah Buschert (monthly)
Fitzroy Rampersand (monthly)
Bird Guides of the World (weekly)
Wednesday
Leslie Kinrys (biweekly)
Faraaz Abdool (biweekly)
Ask a Birder (occasionally)
Thursday
Paul Lewis (weekly)
Birder’s Lists (weekly)
Friday
David Tomlinson (weekly)
Species Spotlight (occasionally)
Saturday:
Luca Feuerriegel (biweekly)
Peter Penning (biweekly)
Sunday:
Clive Finlayson (weekly)
Valters Videnieks (biweekly)
Any-Time Contributors:
Jason Crotty
Mark Gamin
John Hague
Sara Jentsch
Rolf Nessing
Dragan Simic
See here for info on the writers.
Newsletter
Signup and receive notice of new posts!
Thank you!
You have successfully joined our subscriber list.
I hate to be this way, because my commitment to bird conservation is total, but I have been nagged by doubts about the estimates of size of the Passenger Pigeon population. If numbering in the billions like estimated by noted hysterics like Audubon it would be a bird that would have amounted to half or more of the avian bio-mass in North America. The droppings alone would have produced feet, FEET, of droppings within days of roosting in a forest. Yet its disappearance seems to have no known impacts on the environment. Even the conjecture that its lice died with it has now been dis-proven. One would think Native American tradition would have more to say about the spectacle of these flocks. Why has no recipe for Pigeon Pie been handed down from colonial times? I guess I would like a little more scientific information and less anecdotal. Too bad we can’t get any.
Thanks, Corey, for the link to this piece, an excellent (albeit tragic) exploration of the pigeons’ demise. Incidentally, @Bob, colonial-era recipes for pigeon and pigeon pie do exist.