These birds were once so numerous that they blocked out the sun!
The noble passenger pigeon’s common name comes from the French term "pigeon de passage", referring to the massive migrations of these birds across the sky.
In the 19th century, the passenger pigeon may have been the most abundant bird in the entire world, with a population approaching 4 billion.
As they rested in their forest habitat, roosting flocks overburdened strong trees to such an extent that some birds had to settle upon their flockmates’ backs to get some sleep and thick branches would snap under the birds’ weight.
In the 19th century naturalist John James Audubon observed a flock of passenger pigeons over Minnesota that took three days to pass his observation point and in doing so it blocked out the sun: a bird-created total eclipse.
