In 1916, just two years after Martha the passenger pigeon died in captivity, scientists began work to develop a “broiler” chicken, bred specifically for meat production. The hope was the bird ...

It is often said that the passenger pigeon, once among the most abundant birds in North America, traveled in flocks so enormous that they darkened the skies for hours as they passed. The idea that ...

It was the moment that humanity learned we had the awesome power to erase an entire species off the face of the Earth in the scientific equivalent of a blink of an eye: The passenger pigeon went ...

When you look at a pigeon, you might see a dirty, rat-like bird that fouls anything it touches with feathers or feces, but I see a waste-scavenging, protein-generating biomachine. At a time when ...

The ratio for the passenger pigeon was on the order of 1/100 or 1/1,000, the researchers found. That was a tell-tale sign that population had crashed and recovered, the researchers concluded.

The passenger pigeon is famous for the enormous size of its historical population in North America (estimated at 3 to 5 billion) and for its rapid extinction in the face of mass slaughter by humans.

This law has kept many birds from going the way of the passenger pigeon, ... In 1910 the U.S. Department of Agriculture suggested that people eat the “palatable and nutritious” birds to help ...

The passenger pigeon lacked this spot. When rising in flight, the mourning dove makes a whistling sound with its wings, whereas the passenger pigeon did not. The juveniles-of the mourning dove and ...

The scientific name of the passenger pigeon Ectopistes migratorius means ‘wandering migrant’ in Latin. It’s a fairly accurate name, considering the species’ nomadic lifestyle. They’d travel hundreds ...

It is often said that the passenger pigeon, once among the most abundant birds in North America, traveled in flocks so enormous that they darkened the skies for hours as they passed. The idea that … ...