15 the lecture will be live-streamed on the Web. 9, will present a lecture on the legacy of the passenger pigeon at 7:30 p.m. 29 as a preview of the State of the Birds report to be released Sept. John Fitzpatrick, whose op-ed on the passenger pigeon ran in The New York Times Aug.Lab of Ornithology passenger pigeon activities in September Alexander Wilson, the “father” of American ornithology, once estimated that a single Kentucky flock contained 2,230,272 birds. Hunters described flocks so dense they would blacken out a midday sky. People estimate that there may have been as many as 5 billion passenger pigeons in the Midwest and the eastern United States in the early 1800s. The report notes that the passenger pigeon demise is a warning sign that humans need to make concerted efforts to conserve 230 bird species it identifies that struggle today to survive.
![passenger pigeon passenger pigeon](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2017/11/17/science/17TB-PIGEONS/17SCI-PIGEONS-superJumbo.jpg)
On the heels of the anniversary, the lab has played a major role in the 2014 State of the Birds report, which will be released Sept. The grim centennial anniversary is an urgent reminder of the impact that greed and unregulated hunting can have on species, as passenger pigeons went from being the most abundant bird in North America, and possibly on Earth, to extinction in about 40 years, said Ron Rohrbaugh, assistant director of conservation science at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
![passenger pigeon passenger pigeon](https://www.mongabay.com/images/external/2005/Bison_skull_pile-1870.jpg)
Martha, the very last passenger pigeon in the world, died in her cage at the Cincinnati Zoo 100 years ago on Sept.
![passenger pigeon passenger pigeon](http://www.historygrandrapids.org/imgs/2582/full/PassengerPigeon.jpg)
Martha, the last passenger pigeon, died Sept.