Passenger Pigeon Ectopistes Migratorius By: Kelsey Scientific Classification Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Columiforms Family: Columbidae Genus: Ectopistes Species: migrotarius

Natural History

The passenger pigeon, (now an extinct species), is in the animal kingdom,Pphylum Chordata. This means they’re vertebrates. These beautiful birds used to fly by the hundreds of thousands and cover the skies. They were valuable hunting game for food. another reason they were hunted was they were a nuisance also because there were to many of them.

In a breeding cycle, the passenger pigeon generally lays one egg which is hatched by both parents. It breeds in colonies. After two weeks whether the chick is capable of flying or not it would be abandoned. The whole community would leave. After a while the chick would fall to the ground and within a couple of days it would begin to fly unless the did not get eaten.
The last major colony seen was in 1878

The last passenger pigeon was named Martha. She died September first, 1914, at 1:00 in the afternoon. Martha died at the Cincinnati Zoo at age 29.

The passenger pigeon is now exemplified by the mourning dove and the rock dove. Today we see the mourning dove more often. This bird looks very much like the passenger pigeon except color wise and tends to be much smaller than the passenger pigeon was.

There are 289 species of pigeon existing now. There are 11 species in North America plus 6 strays around the world.

Habitat

The passenger pigeon lived in Canada and the USA. Its usual nesting spots were in heavily wooded areas. They preferred areas with beech, oak, and American chestnut. They were also endemic to eastern decidous and Colombian forest zones. Up to a hundred birds could nest in a tree at one time with the colony as a whole.

They would breed in the upper eastern half of the U.S.A and lower Canada. In Canada they were located in eastern Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario,Southern Quebec, Anticosti Island, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island.

The most common breeding places were in Nova Scotia, Southern Manitoba, and Southern Ontario.  When winter came, the passenger pigeon went to places like Florida, Arkansas, and Texas.

The birds name does not come only from its migration habits, but from the way it eats also.

Present Status

Extinct (1995)

Physical Description

In length, the passenger pigeon was seventeen inches. The colors it came in were grayish-blue on the back part of it and redish-fawn on the under side of it.

The wing span was twelve inches and the wings were long and narrow. It could stetch its wing for more then half its lengthThe passenger pigeons . These birds could fly at an estimated 60 miles per hour (96 km.)

Diet and Feeding Habits

These birds consumed the following: acorns, beechnuts, chestnuts, various fruits grains and insects. They were also and omnivores

Causes of Extinction

These birds are extinct due to the fact that they were good hunting bounty and very much liked as food in Europe. Pigeon pot pie was an adored cuisine. There was also a population problem. This means there were too many of them covering the sky.

Some of them died also while migrating for one reason or another. Over the years they went from being so many they could fill a massive patch of sky big enough to block the sun for a couple of hours, to so little they could not produce enough young to keep themselves from being extinct.

Personal Essay

Q: How does diversity strengthen an ecosystem?

Every animal is part of something big. Every animal is unique in some way. But if all animals had the same strengths, actions, and behaviors it would not work out well.

Our different abilities help others. The producers make food and the consumers eat it. Those are our strengths as different creatures. Those are the two groups of animals, producers and consumers. But producers also consume food by eating it and consumers make food by rotting and decomposing when they die. Thus the predator becomes the prey and the hunter becomes the hunted.

Contradiction is a beautiful part of diversity.

An omnivore (such as a rabbit) eats a flower. The rabbit gets killed and begins to rot making new soil for many more flowers. In a way the flowers eat the rabbit by absorbing the soil. So the plant being a producer eats the soil, making the plant a consumer and the rabbit which consumed the flower, becomes a producer by giving back rotten flesh to help the soil.

A word on contradiction and my conclusion

Diversity would not be complete without contradiction. It is the soul of living things.  Everything goes against itself one way or another. Its unavoidable. If contradiction was not here then nothing would be. In the example I did about the rabbit and flower both animals got something back from each other. But one of them, the rabbit, was a consumer turned to a producer and the flower being a producer turned to a consumer.

Bibliography

1. http:home.conceptsfa.ni/~pmass/passengerpigeon. 15 February 2000. (2/27/03).

2. http://www.stanfordalumini.org/birdsite/text/essay/passengerpigeon.
1988. (2/27/03).

3. http://borealforest.org/-world/birds/passenger pigeon.htm. 1992. (2/27/03.)

4. www.wildbirds.org/docs3.htm (2/27/03.)

5. Peterson,Roger,Troy. Petersons First Guide to Birds. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company. 1986.

6.”Passenger Pigeon”. Encyclopedia Americana. 1998.