Berwick’s Passenger Pigeon past

Just north of Berwick’s Main Street, in 1778, the Morton family built and settled into a log cabin on a knoll located on what is now known as the Parker-Condon Road.

The location turned out to be a popular roosting area for a prolific species of birds, Passenger Pigeons. Overwhelmed with these particular birds, the homestead was dubbed Pigeon Island.

At home in the primary forest that once covered North America east of the Rocky Mountains, the Passenger Pigeon was probably the most numerous of birds on the planet in the 1800s. Similar to but larger than the Mourning Dove, these birds had a light blue head and rump, slate grey back and wine-red breast. The pointed white and grey tail was eight to nine inches long, the long slender wings bluish, the eyes deep scarlet. The short slender bill was designed to suit a diet of acorns, beechnuts, chestnuts, fruits, grains and insects. Both genders were beautiful, but the males were especially colourful.

Scientists believe Passenger Pigeons made up as much of 40 per cent of the total bird population at one time, with total estimates of as many as five billion in North America. Flocks a mile wide and up to 300 miles long were so dense, they darkened the skies for hours at a time as they passed overhead. From a distance, the spectacle, along with the roar of wings, appeared much like an incoming tornado. This amazing bird was designed for flight, reaching speeds of 60 to 70 miles and hour - and possibly more.

The large colonies were known to have as many as 100 nests in one single tree, and colonies could cover from 30 to 850 square miles of forest. In nests of loose small twigs, only one egg was laid normally, cared for by both parents. In a strange design of nature, the chicks were abandoned after about two weeks, even though unable to fly. The entire flock would depart, and the chicks would drop to the ground. Within a few days, the chicks would begin to fly and fend for themselves.

There were several factors that brought this magnificent species to an end. They were shot for sport, but also tens of thousands of birds were harvested daily and shipped to the Far East. Modern technology added to their demise when their locations were reported by telegraph. Their traditional nesting grounds disappeared as forests were cleared to make way for agriculture.

Relentlessly pursued, the decline of the Passenger Pigeon was well underway by the 1850s. This is probably the only species for which its exact time of extinction is known. The last nesting birds were reported in the Great Lake region in the 1890s, and the last reported in the wild were shot in Babcock, Wisconsin in 1899, and in Pike County Ohio March 24, 1900. A few of the birds remained in captivity but, eventually, the very last of the Passenger Pigeons, named Martha, died alone at the Cincinnati Zoo at about 1 p.m. September 1, 1914.

Who would have dreamed that, within a few decades, the Passenger Pigeon, once the most numerous of birds on the planet would be gone forever?