The Bird That Once Darkened Skies

Passenger pigeons were so numerous they could block out the sun for days during migration. Though once North America's most common bird, they vanished entirely in just a few decades due to human overhunting.

At their peak, flocks of these birds numbered in the billions and moved in massive columns that stretched for miles. People once viewed them as an inexhaustible resource, shooting them by the thousands to ship to city markets. This extreme abundance ironically led to their total collapse, as they required massive colonies to breed successfully. The last known passenger pigeon, named Martha, died in a zoo in 1914, marking the end of a species that once filled the sky.