At first glance, the idea that the history of a bird can tell us much about American history seems a stretch, I suppose. The story of passenger pigeons, however, is an exception, and an enlightening exception at that.

You might know one part of this story. Once abundant, humans caused the extinction of passenger pigeons. The last bird died in the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914. Therefore, the birds became a symbol of American wastefulness and disregard for nature. As the naturalist Aldo Leopold wrote, “This species became extinct through the avarice and thoughtlessness of man.”

This part is true. I don’t plan to argue this point. But that’s far from all the history of the passenger pigeons can teach us.

Passenger Pigeons Facts

If the words of 18th and 19th century Americas are true, the flocks of passenger pigeons were unforgettable. Majestic in flight, known as “blue meteors” for their speed, the birds gathered in groups sometimes numbering more than one million creatures.

When feeding, they advanced in a line, the birds in the rear fluttering to the front of the line only to be replaced in their turn. This gave a wave-like appearance to the swarms of birds as they fed. As John Muir put it, the flocks were “something like a wheel with a low buzzing wing roar that could be heard a long way off.”

The number of pigeons, like the number of bison sighted by Lewis and Clark on their journey to the Pacific and back, beggars description. American naturalist John J. Audubon once experienced a single cloud of birds that blocked out the sun for three days. He further reported that the bird droppings of this cloud covered the ground to a depth of two inches.

Perhaps the best way to describe the profligate number of passenger pigeons in America in the 1800s is this. One scientist who studies the history of passenger pigeons closely claims that, in the early 1800s, one out of every four birds in North America was a passenger pigeon.

Why Did Passenger Pigeons Go Extinct?

First, “go extinct” isn’t the right term for what happened. That implies some kind of neutral cause or force beyond anyone’s control was the main culprit. That doesn’t seem to be true.

Hunting was a major reason. If we can believe eyewitness reports, this wasn’t as tough as it might sound. After feeding, the birds tended to congregate on low branches in trees and not flee when people came near. Both Native Americans and European colonists feasted on them. They grilled pigeons and stewed them. Some people made pies with pigeon meat. Bird feathers stuffed mattresses. Sometimes, people fed birds to livestock. Later, in the 1800s, people would even capture birds and ship them to urban areas for target practice.

Also relevant is deforestation. Over the course of the 1800s, the logging frontier in the United States moved from the eastern seaboard inland to include the Great Lakes region. The 1871 Cleveland baseball club was known as the Forest City club, for instance. The birds fed on the food commonly found in forests—nuts, acorns, and so forth. (They also fed on corn and other food crops—one reason both Native Americans and European colonists hunted them. They had to replace their crops the birds had consumed.)

The loss of forests on the eastern half of the continent eroded bird habitat. But passenger pigeon genetics also mattered, it appears. Scientists have discovered that the bird seems prone to booms in population but also busts. So, it might be correct to see the bird’s extinction as the perfect storm of negative things—overhunting combining with habitat loss during a bust population cycle.

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Native Americans and the Pigeons

But here’s an interesting thing. Prior to European arrival in the Americas, it seems that very few passenger pigeons lived in North America. Researchers arrived at this conclusion from examining refuse pits of old Native American settlements. They found very few passenger pigeon bones when doing so.

This seems odd. If billions of birds, one out of every four on the continent, were alive in the early 1800s, how did so many birds appear so quickly?

The population genetics mentioned already probably played a role. But that’s not all. The birds, as I wrote above, ate crops and forest foods. Native Americans in eastern North America ate those same foods. Thus, ecologically, they and passenger pigeons were competitors.

Understandably, then, the Native Americans hunted the birds. It seems they found enough success in doing so that they kept the pigeon population in check. Thus the low numbers in refuse pits.

But then, Europeans arrived and changed everything.

How European Arrival Changed the Equation

Like I’ve written in previous posts, when Europeans arrived in the Americas, they carried something deadly with them—contagious diseases not known previously in the Americas. (This post on smallpox and this post on diseases generally will help you understand this in detail.)

The first Native Americans these Europeans came in contact with were those of eastern North America. Sadly, population decline due to deaths from contagious disease followed for Native Americans.

That means that the population of the people hunting the birds dropped substantially in a short time. The pace of arriving European colonists didn’t make up the difference. This, along with their genetic tendencies, gave passenger pigeons their chance to spread and thrive.

This leaves us with an interesting sequence of events. Native Americans hunt passenger pigeons. Native American populations drop from deadly diseases. The pigeon population expands rapidly. The population of the United States eventually equals and then surpasses the former population of Native Americans. These people, buoyed by the economic benefits of hunting the birds, crash the pigeon population.

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Let’s Extrapolate

If you’re thinking along the right lines, you’re now probably wondering. Did this chain of events apply to other animal species in North America as well?

You bet it did. The bison of the Great Plains, for instance, expanded their range without Native Americans to hunt them. We don’t think of New York as prime buffalo habitat, but yet, we have a city of Buffalo, New York.

It also reveals another fact we should not forget. The Native Americans who lived in North America prior to European arrival managed their surroundings actively. Instead of floating along, just accepting what nature gave them, these people actively managed nature for their benefit. They hunted species that competed with them for resources. Native Americans also modified the landscape to make hunting those species easier.

So, we see that the story of the passenger pigeon tells us a great deal about American history. It adds a few layers of complexity to how we think of American history, but hopefully those layers are welcome.

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