In the early 19th century, the most abundant bird in North America, and perhaps the entire world, was the passenger pigeon.

An estimated 3 billion of them would fly in flock so large that they could blot out the sun.

However, within a century, the entire species had gone extinct.

It was one of the fastest and most disastrous turnarounds for any species in recorded history.

Learn more about the Passmere passenger pigeon and how they went

extinct on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Book your ticket to happiness with Sun Express Airlines. The scientific name for the bird known as the passenger pigeon is Ectapiste's migratorius.

The term passenger comes from the French word passaget, which means passing by in reference to the bird's migratory habits.

In a previous episode I talked about the extinction of the dodo bird.

The dodo was as unlike the passenger pigeon as the bird could be.

For starters, the dodo was a flightless bird, which made them really easy to catch.

But the biggest difference is that there were never many dodos to begin with. The

dodo was limited to the small island of Mauritius. The passenger pigeon on the other hand was

extremely abundant and had a habitat that covered most of the eastern and

central parts of North America. The passenger pigeon was approximately the same size as a morning dove, but genetically closer to the North American pigeon.

Male passenger pigeons were approximately 390 to 410 millimeters, or 15.4 to 16.1 inches in length with females only slightly

smaller. The biggest difference between male and females was color.

Males had a bronze-colored neck and females were a dull brown color.

However, these were not the distinguishing characteristics of the passenger pigeon.

Anyone who ever encountered and wrote about the passenger pigeon

always noted the same thing about them.

They lived and traveled in massive flocks. Truly massive flocks.

It's entirely probable that they created the largest flocks of any species of bird in the world.

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