Published at
12 May 2026
Specimen of the month - May
The Passenger Pigeon - Ectopistes migratorius
There was a time when the North American sky could darken in broad daylight, not from a thunderstorm, but because of a now-extinct bird: the passenger pigeon. An iconic species with a tragic fate, Ectopistes migratorius alone embodies one of the most striking examples of rapid extinction caused by human activity. Once considered the most abundant bird on the planet, it completely disappeared in just a few decades.
