Canada

September 1st marked a sad date for birds. It was the 100 year anniversary of the death of the last known Passenger Pigeon – one named Martha which, at the age of 29, died in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo. Not too long before her death, no one could have imagined the species would ever disappear. They were so abundant that flock sizes were often measured in days they took to pass an area and nesting colonies were measured by the lots and concessions that they covered.

Most birdwatchers know the story of the Passenger Pigeon – once thought to be the most abundant bird in the world, and then hunted to extinction in just a few human generations. Because they were so noticeable and part of everyday life, historic accounts are relatively common and many hold the necessary information (date and location) to enter the record into eBird. By going through the effort of submitting these records to eBird they are archived and searchable for anyone interested.

Gathering all of that information is a lot of work but, in the 1930s, when the first-hand memory of Passenger Pigeons stilled lived on in many people, an amazing woman, named Margaret Mitchell, took it upon herself to research and interview as many people as as she could. The end result was an amazing piece of Ontario’s ornithological history – an incredibly complete history of the last 150 years of the species in the province. Her meticulous thesis, titled “The Passenger Pigeon in Ontario” was published in 1935 and is available online here.

All 466 of the records presented in her detailed account have been geo-referenced and formatted for bulk upload to eBird. Of these, about 150 met eBird’s minimum data standard (date and location) and can now be explored through the eBird outputs tools. You can now explore all of these records directly through eBird by using the Passenger Pigeon map. If you notice any errors or corrections, please email them to Mike Burrell mburrell@birdscanada.org.

eBird is the perfect place to archive historic datasets that meet the minimum requirements of date and location. If you have a dataset in mind but are looking for guidance, Mike Burrell is willing to help mburrell@birdscanada.org.