This is Bird Note. In the early 1800s, the passenger pigeon was one of the most abundant bird

species in North America, possibly the world. A single flock, more than a billion strong and

miles long, could darken the sky for hours.

But by 1910, the last surviving representative of the species was a bird called Martha.

She was named after First Lady Martha Washington and spent much of her life at the Cincinnati Zoo as part of a captive breeding program.

In the wild, passenger pigeons amassed gigantic breeding colonies in deciduous forests, preferably packed with their favorite beech nuts and acorns.

Naturalists from that period wrote that a single tree might host 90 nests or more.

Research suggests that the number of passenger pigeons fluctuated dramatically with the

availability of food and forests. But with added pressure from habitat destruction and

commercial hunting, including the harvest of breeding birds and their chicks, their populations

couldn't recover.

After outliving several unsuccessful suitors,

Martha became a beloved celebrity at the zoo in her final years,

until September 1, 1914,

when Martha passed away and the passenger pigeon was officially extinct.

Though today is a somber anniversary, and the passenger pigeon was officially extinct.

Though today is a somber anniversary,

there's no better time than now to step up for conservation.

Learn more about what you can do to protect birds at our website,

birdnote.org.

I'm Ariana Rimmel.