Sparrow, the domestic pigeon is here to stay. Unlike

Sparrow, the domestic pigeon is here to stay. Unlike those introduced .. species, the pigeon does not compete with native species for food or nesting habitat.

The Passenger Pigeon was larger and more colorful than the Mourning Dove at my feeder. His eyes were bright red and the iridescent feathers on his neck “ glowed a rich metallic gold, violet and red-purple.” The extinct pigeon had much rich blue coloring in his plumage.

At times I am resentful that this bird was shot, clubbed, netted and starved into oblivion. How I would have liked to have seen this bird! I suppose it was doomed from the beginning. No species that existed in such unimaginable numbers could exist with man.

Once the Passenger Pigeon started its decline into extinction, it went rapidly. In 1874, at one nesting in Michigan, 25,000 birds were killed daily in a succession of 28 days. They were shipped to markets in cities. It doesn’t take high mathematical talent to figure that one out.

The dove at my feeder is solitary. He acts alone and, earlier in the season, was so jealous of his feeding space that he raised his wings s0 menacingly at grackles thaf; they left the feeding platform to him. Even Blue Jays give way to the Mourning Dove.

Passenger Pigeons were flocking birds; the flock was the individual. When a mass of pigeons were shot into, they did not disperse but circled around and back to where they remained a constant target.

In 1906, the American naturalist William Beebe wrote about extinction: “The beauty and genius of a work of art may be reconceived, though its first material expression be destroyed; a vanished harmony may yet again inspire the composer; but when the last individual of a race of living things breathes no more, another heaven and another earth must pass before such a one can be again.”