Passenger pigeons used to be the most abundant bird in North America. By some estimates, they numbered in the billions. Many of their nesting grounds hugged the Great Lakes, so the people of this region knew them well.

Residents wrote about them with a mixture of fear and awe: when the birds arrived in spring in their massive flocks, they darkened the sky.

“I have stood by the grandest waterfall of America and regarded the descending torrents in wonder and astonishment,” wrote Simon Pokagon, chief of the Pokagon Band of Potawotami. “Yet never have my astonishment, wonder and admiration been so stirred as when I have witnessed these birds drop from their course like meteors from heaven.”

Within a few decades, passenger pigeons were driven to extinction. What remained was only taxidermied specimens and the memories of what these birds had been like.

But what was it really like to experience them? And what are we left with when we lose a species?

Credits:
Producer: Ellie Katz
Host: Dan Wanschura
Editing: Morgan Springer
Additional Editing: Peter Payette, Claire Keenan-Kurgan, Dan Wanschura
Sound Design: Matthew Mikkelsen
Additional Sound Design / Passenger Pigeon Recreation: Jonathan Kawchuk
Voice Actors: Ruby John, Davis Boos, Aaron Chivis, Laura Mittelstaedt, Joshua Hoisington, Tanner Presswood, Morgan Springer, Jimi Alpers, Ellie Johnson, Glenn Coughenour, Bill Church, Peter Payette, Matthew Mikkelsen, Steve Junker and Jess Piskor
Music: Composed by Felix Mendelssohn, performed by Camille Thomas, Roman Rabinovitch and the Aeolus Quartet, recorded at Interlochen Center for the Arts
Special Thanks: Jess Piskor

Transcript:
DAN WANSCHURA, HOST: This is Points North, a podcast about the land, water and inhabitants of the Great Lakes. I’m Dan Wanschura. Today’s story is about a bird that’s completely gone. And how it went extinct was baffling to those who witnessed it because it used to be the most abundant bird in North America.

That bird is the passenger pigeon. For centuries, passenger pigeons would migrate in these huge flocks. Millions of birds darkened the sky. But then within a few decades, they flickered out.

Most of their last nesting grounds hugged the Great Lakes: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, Ontario. So the people of the Great Lakes were the last to witness the species. And they documented what they could, while they could.

RUBY JOHN: “One day in early summer we got up in the morning to find Grand Traverse Bay covered with dead pigeons and the shore strewn with the bodies where the undulating back wash of the night had brought them in from the big lake. The night had been quiet. There had been no storm and no fog. Strong of wing summer storms never overcame them and the season of sleet storms had passed.” 

WANSCHURA: There are no recordings of the pigeons. There are no photos of the birds flying. And there was no known, dedicated scientific study of passenger pigeons while they existed. Most of what we have is from written observations and from memory.

RUBY JOHN: “True it had sometimes happened that small numbers of the birds had been lost in lake fogs, had flown around until their strength was spent, and had fallen and died; but there seemed to have been no possible cause for the death of so many. But when the Indians saw them they said: “They have committed suicide. Their persecution was more than any living thing could endure.” Etta Wilson, Michigan

WANSCHURA: Today, the story of the passenger pigeon through the eyes of those who witnessed them. What was it like to experience these birds? And what are we left with when we lose a species? Producer Ellie Katz takes it from here.

ELLIE KATZ, BYLINE: Chapter 1: Migration. Joel Greenberg became obsessed with birds starting in sixth grade. That was when he first learned about passenger pigeons.

JOEL GREENBERG: The sheer abundance of the bird can't be disputed. You know, there were huge flights over Toronto and Montreal, Chicago. I mean, Detroit. You know, you didn't have to be interested at all. I mean, this was something that you were made aware of because you could hear and see.

KATZ: Many natural historians, historians like Joel, believe passenger pigeons used to account for more than a quarter of all birds in North America. When they arrived in spring in these massive flocks, people took note of them — and wrote about them with a mixture of fear and awe.

GREENBERG: Just the sound of wings, you know, the 10s of millions of birds

KATZ: I want you to tell me the story of the passenger pigeons, starting with their arrival in springtime: what it would have been like for the people there, what they would have experienced.

GREENBERG: Well, let me just— This is one of my favorites. This happened in Columbus. 

KATZ: In 2014, Joel wrote a book on passenger pigeons, called, “A Feathered River Across the Sky.” He tried to capture something long dead by leaning on newspaper clippings, journal entries and other writings.

GREENBERG: Let me just read this. This is on page 54.

KATZ: Joel introduces a quote from the Columbus Dispatch.

GREENBERG: “One warm spring morning in 1855, the people of that city were going about their usual routines when they first noticed ‘a low-pitched hum’ that slowly engulfed them. It grew louder as horses and dogs began fidgeting. Then just within the limits of vision, wispy clouds appeared on the southern horizon.”

“As the watchers stared, the hum increased to a mighty throbbing.  Now everyone was out of the houses and stores, looking apprehensively at the growing cloud which was blotting out the rays of the sun. Children screamed and ran for home. Women gathered their long skirts and hurried for the shelter of stores . Horses bolted. A few people mumbled frightened words about the approach of the millennium, several dropped on their knees and prayed. Suddenly, a great cry arose from the south end of High Street. ‘It's the passenger pigeons! It's the passenger pigeons!’ And then the dark cloud was over the city. Day was turned to dusk. The thunder of wings made shouting necessary for human communication.”

DAVIS BOOS: “Everything seems to wait—listening for the great coming.” “Is it a tornado coming? What a deep veiled roar … The full burst of the deafening volume of that vast sound is borne upon you overwhelmingly with a current of fresh air strong enough to swerve you in the saddle.” C.W. Webber, Kentucky

KATZ: Though the flocks were deafening and blotted out the sun, they were also described as exceptional. Simon Pokagon, chief of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, wrote:

AARON CHIVIS: “I have stood by the grandest waterfall of America and regarded the descending torrents in wonder and astonishment, yet never have my astonishment, wonder and admiration been so stirred as when I have witnessed these birds drop from their course like meteors from heaven.”

LAURA MITTELSTAEDT: “Every morning, the pigeons came sweeping across the lawn, positively in clouds, and with a swiftness and softness of winged motion, more beautiful than anything of the kind I ever knew. Had I been a musician such as Mendelssohn, I felt that I could have improvised a music quite peculiar from the sound they made, which should have indicated all the beauty over which their wings bore them.” Margaret Fuller, Illinois

KATZ: Passenger pigeons made their homes in trees and mated. In most accounts, a pair of pigeons laid only one egg that hatched into one squab.

CHIVIS: “I now began to realize they were mating, preparatory to nesting. I tried to understand their strange language, and why they all chatted in concert. The trees were … filled with them sitting in pairs in convenient crotches of the limbs, now and then gently fluttering their half-spread wings and uttering to their mates those strange, bell-like wooing notes which I had mistaken for the ringing of bells in the distance.” Simon Pokagon, Michigan

KATZ: The pigeons were about the size of a mourning dove, with longer tail feathers, and flew up to 60 miles an hour.

JOSH HOISINGTON: “The passenger pigeon is sixteen inches long, and twenty-four inches in extent; bill, black; nostril, covered by a high rounding protuberance; eye, brilliant fiery orange; head, upper part of the neck and chin, a fine slate blue; throat, breast, and sides, a reddish hazel; lower part of the neck: resplendent changeable gold, green, and purplish crimson.” Alexander Wilson

KATZ: These exceptional birds, though, were also very destructive.

TANNER PRESSWOOD: “I am completely worn down. The pigeons are roosting throughout our woods and the roost extends for miles. … The pigeons come in such large quantities to destroy a great deal of timber, break limbs off of large trees, and even tear some up by the roots.” The Niles Republican, Michigan

MORGAN SPRINGER: “They produced a panic among the farmers. They swarmed in oat fields recently sown and took the seed from the ground. They came into barns for grain.” Jane Hine, Indiana

KATZ: The passenger pigeons had been in the Great Lakes for centuries, but as more white settlers moved to the region, more people came into contact with them. Chapter 2: The Hunt.

JIMI ALPERS: “If I ever again hear that there is to be a pigeon hunt, I will try to go there. It is the best fun you ever saw. When we get back, people will not know us—we will be fat from eating squabs and drinking pigeon oil.” Willie Gordon, Pennsylvania

ELLIE JOHNSON: “April 9, 1875: John came home just as I did. He caught 27 and a half dozen pigeons today… I think all the money they will bring is dearly earned.” Lucy Bennet, Michigan

KATZ: Pigeons were the perfect prey: Easy to hunt. Tasty. And seemingly inexhaustible.

GLENN COUGHENOUR: “You may ask, ‘What did you do with so many pigeons?’ Well, I will tell you. We skinned out the breasts, pickled them for two or three days in weak brine, and then strung them on strings, from one hundred and fifty to two hundred on a string. … Let me tell you that those pigeon breasts were a dainty morsel, and would last as long as dried beef and was far its superior in taste.” Oscar B. Warren, Michigan

GREENBERG: This was the cheapest terrestrial protein available. I mean, you could buy birds for pennies at a time. There were places where they were so abundant … they used carcasses to fill potholes in the road. There were places where there was a surplus of corpses, of carcasses, of dead pigeons. They fed them to pigs. 

KATZ: With all those pigeons, a commercial hunting industry took shape. Some birds were captured alive for hunting clubs. But most were killed and sold as meat.

GREENBERG: They killed them in almost every imaginable way. There were instances where they would burn sulfur under the nests so that the young birds would be asphyxiated and fall to the ground. 

CHIVIS: “These outlaws to all moral sense would touch a lighted match to the bark of the trees at the base … and while the affrighted young birds would leap simultaneously to the ground, the parent birds, with plumage scorched, would rise high in air amid flame and smoke. I noticed that many of these squabs were so fat and clumsy they would burst open on striking the ground. Several thousand were obtained during the day by this cruel process.” Simon Pokagon, Michigan

KATZ: The method that killed the most pigeons was netting. Professional pigeon hunters called pigeoners followed the flocks full-time. Most would lure live birds into nets. Then, after enclosing hundreds of pigeons, they would begin killing. Some used pincers to break the necks quickly. Others used different methods.

BILL CHURCH: “We could not let go of the net to kill the birds with our hands — what, then, was to be done? The old pigeon catcher who had sprung the net decided quickly, by setting an example and yelling to me: ‘Bite their heads! Bite their heads! Do you hear?’ ‘Not for all the pigeons in the world,’ I replied. ‘Pshaw! Don’t be squeamish! See how it is done!’ he called out impatiently and went on crushing the skulls… I could kill pigeons with a gun without any compunction. But crushing the skulls of live birds between my teeth! Faugh! It makes me shudder to think of it.” Edwin Haskell, Pennsylvania

PETER PAYETTE: “Petoskey, dead, by express: 490,000. Alive, by express: 86,400. Boyne Falls, dead: 47,100. Boyne Falls, alive: 42,696. Petoskey, dead, by boat: 110,000. Alive, by boat: 33,640.”

KATZ: One game dealer named E.T. Martin kept a record of his catch in Michigan in the spring of 1878.

PAYETTE: “Cheboygan, dead, by boat: 108,300. Alive, by boat: 89,730. Other points, dead and alive: 100,000. Total: 1,107,866.”

MATTHEW MIKKELSEN: “At this rate the pigeon will soon be exterminated.” William Fenton and Merle Deardorff, Pennsylvania

KATZ: Chapter 3: Extinction. It was the hunting that chipped away at the species. It was also what people did to their homes and their young.

STEVE JUNKER: “The trees are felled, and made to fall in such a way that the cutting of one causes the overthrow of another, or shakes the neighboring trees so much, that the young pigeons, or squabs, as they are named, are violently hurled to the ground. In this manner, also, immense quantities are destroyed.” John James Audubon

KATZ: After just a few decades of intense hunting and habitat destruction, these birds that had once numbered in the billions began to dwindle. From billions there were millions and then tens of thousands.

GREENBERG: Well, they thought it was inexhaustible because there were so many of them. … The birds were largely gone– by 1890, there were maybe 1000 or so.

KATZ; It’s believed that the last wild passenger pigeon was shot and taxidermied in 1902 in Indiana. In 1909, some desperate ornithologists offered a bounty to anyone who could find a nesting pair. But it was too late. The species finally blinked out of existence in 1914, when a captive passenger pigeon, named Martha, died at the Cincinnati Zoo. If the species had survived in the wild for another ten years, it might have been preserved by a growing conservation movement. The Lacey Act was one of the first laws created to prevent the overhunting of birds and other animals.

GREENBERG: Lacey was a Republican congressman from Iowa.

JESS PISKOR: “It is too late as to the wild pigeon. The buffalo is almost a thing of the past, but there still remains much to preserve, and we must act earnestly if we would accomplish good things.” John Fletcher Lacey

(sound of footsteps on stairs)

KATZ: Dawn Roberts is leading me to the third floor of a big, brick building.

KATZ: I don’t know if it’s this room or this building, but it’s starting to smell like an attic – like an old attic.

DAWN ROBERTS: It is! That’s awesome that you have pinpointed that. Come on in. We’re entering into one of our storage rooms. That smell is actually from naphthalene which is, like, mothballs. And so….

KATZ: We’re in the collections room of the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. It’s a natural history museum in Chicago.

ROBERTS: So we've come into a big room that is just filled with rows upon rows of metal cabinets.

KATZ: Each cabinet is listed with the genus and species inside: plants and animals from all over the continent. Dawn leads us to the middle of the room.

KATZ: And I just want to note: we’re walking past, what is this? The skeleton of a mammoth and a gigantic tooth from a mastodon?

ROBERTS: Yes.

KATZ: That is a big tooth.

ROBERTS: That is a big tooth.

KATZ: She stops in front of a cabinet and puts on a pair of nitrile gloves, like a surgeon entering the operating room.

ROBERTS: So here we’re looking at several drawers that are labeled with the different genus and species, and if you'll take a look down here, the one that we want is Ectopistes migratorious, the passenger pigeon. So we're going to open up this drawer. 

KATZ: Wow … And they're all kind of lying on their backs in here, like their heads are rested down, almost like they're on pillows or something.

ROBERTS: Yep, just like they're they've gone to sleep on their backs.

KATZ: How many do you have here? There's 1,2,3,4,5–

ROBERTS: I think there's 14 specimens. There's a partial one in the back. And so here I'm going to pick up a specimen and bring it down. 

KATZ: What do we know about this individual bird?

ROBERTS: So let's take a look at the tags. This particular one was collected in Illinois, in Waukegan, December 10 in 1890.  

KATZ: This one is so beautiful. It has, like, a pinkish, copper neck and belly and then that really beautiful iridescent purple that you can only really see when you turn him. I feel really emotional seeing these. My heart is beating and– it feels nice to see them taken such good care of here after so much happened to them.

ROBERTS: Thank you.

KATZ: What do you think it says about us, that we–

ROBERTS: Have cabinets full of specimens? 

KATZ: We create and maintain things like this on the one hand, and then on the other hand we, you know, single handedly, drive a species like the passenger pigeon to extinction, like there's such care and such disregard. What do you make of it?

ROBERTS: I think it shows our– both our breadth and our depth for care or lack of it. Even the act of preparing them for preservation — a lot of people could view that as pretty macabre. But when I'm doing it, I look at this [as] the process that I have to go through preparing a bird or a mammal specimen in order to preserve it, in order to help it tell more of its story.

KATZ: That drawer of passenger pigeons– Do you see a drawer like that as an act of forgiveness at all?

ROBERTS: No. It's more a call to action. It's more a reminder to do better. That is one species that we bring out whenever we're doing a collection tour because there is such an importance to helping people take to heart our impact on the world. I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be crying.

KATZ: It’s OK. That’s how I felt when you opened that drawer. To me, and I know this is superficial in some way, but it is just a reminder just to witness things and look around at them and be aware of them. It is really astounding to see them preserved here, but it isn't the same as seeing them alive.

ROBERTS: That is very true.