BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Natl Museum of Natural History -- Exhibit: Once There Were Billions: Vanished Birds of North America

DC -- Natl Museum of Natural History -- Exhibit: Once There Were Billions: Vanished Birds of North America:

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Description of Pictures: Once There Were Billions: Vanished Birds of North America
June 24, 2014 – January 3, 2016 (new closing date)
An amazing diversity of birds—some in breathtaking abundance—once inhabited the vast forests and plains of North America. But starting around 1600, species began to disappear, as humans altered habitats, over-hunted, and introduced predators. A notable extinction occurred 100 years ago, with the death of Martha the passenger pigeon, the last member of a species that once filled America’s skies. Specimens and illustrations of passenger pigeons (including Martha), heath hens, the great auk, and the Carolina parakeet reveal the fragile connections between species and their environment.

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[1] SINHBI_141205_001.JPG	[2] SINHBI_141205_008.JPG	[3] SINHBI_141205_015.JPG
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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. SINHBI_141205_001.JPG: Once There Were Billions Vanished Birds of North America Once an amazing diversity of birds -- some in breathtaking abundance -- inhabited the vast forests and plains of North America. But starting around 1600, species began to disappear, as humans altered habitats, over-hunted, and introduced predators. A notable extinction occurred 100 years ago, with the death of Martha the Passenger Pigeon, the last member of a species that once filled America's skies. The story of the last Passenger Pigeon and the disappearance of the Great Auk, Carolina Parakeet, and Heath Hen reveal the fragile connections between species and their environment. Illustrations come from the Biodiversity Heritage Library, a global project that is changing the way research is done by digitizing and freely sharing biodiversity publications with scientists and other users around the world. For more information go to library.si.edu/otwb
2. SINHBI_141205_015.JPG: Passenger Pigeons The bodies of Passenger Pigeons were ideals for speed, grace, and maneuverability -- the head and neck were small; the tail long and wedge-shaped; and the wings long and pointed. Large breast muscles gave them the power for prolonged flight. The average length of the male was about 16-1/2 inches. The female was about an inch shorter. The males were more colorful than the females.
3. SINHBI_141205_025.JPG: "Shooting Wild Pigeons in Northern Louisiana" From Smith Bennett, "Winter Sports in Northern Louisiana: Shooting Wild Pigeons," Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, July 3, 1875. The Passenger Pigeon was once the most abundant land bird in North America, with an estimated 3 billion to 5 billion individuals, perhaps a quarter of the continent's bird population.
4. SINHBI_141205_041.JPG: Passenger Pigeon (Martha) collected 1914 The last known Passenger Pigeon, Martha (named for Martha Washington), died at the Cincinnati Zoological Garden in 1914. Her body was frozen in a block of ice and shipped by train to the Smithsonian Institution, where she is now part of the research collection and not normally on view.
5. SINHBI_141205_045.JPG: Passenger Pigeons in the Lab The Passenger Pigeons may be gone, but they still contribute to science. Researchers study the DNA in bird skins and other museum specimens to find answers to such questions as: * What caused the Passenger Pigeon to become so abundant? * How does its genome differ from that of its closest living relative, the Band-tailed Pigeon? * Did disease play a part in the birds' rapid decline?
6. SINHBI_141205_051.JPG: Martha, the last Passenger Pigeon: By the 1890s, over-hunting and habitat destruction had reduced the once-enormous flocks to just a few individuals in the wild. Captive breeding efforts were too little, too late. Passenger Pigeons had evolved to breed in large colonies in the wild; they couldn't adjust quickly enough to reproduce in small captive groups. Martha, the last known member of her species, died in the Cincinnati Zoo on September 1, 1914. The Passenger Pigeon population may have been as high as 6 billion in the early 1800s. In just 100 years, they went from being 25 percent of all birds in North America to... zero.
7. SINHBI_141205_057.JPG: Mrs. Rorer's Philadelphia Cook Book Sarah Tyson Heston Rorer, 1886 Care for a nice slice of pigeon pie? Passenger Pigeons were tasty and soon became a sought-after source of cheap meat. Breeding and migrating in very large groups, they were easily slaughtered by the hundreds of thousands and loaded on railroad cars bound for markets back East.
8. SINHBI_141205_062.JPG: The Birds of America: From Drawings Made in the United States and Their Territories John James Audubon, 1840-44 Recipe Roasted Pigeons Boil them by themselves for fifteen minutes; boil a handsome square piece of bacon, and lay it in the middle; stew spinach to lay round, and lay the pigeons on the spinach. Garnish withparley [sic] laid in a plate before the fire to crisp. Or lay one pigeon in the middle, and the rest round, and the spinach between each pigeon. Garnish with slices of bacon, and melted butter in a cup.
9. SINHBI_141205_075.JPG: The Carolina Parakeet North America's Lost Parrot The Carolina Parakeet (Conuropis carolinensis) traveled in huge, noisy flocks from southern New York and Wisconsin to the Gulf of Mexico, favoring old forests along rivers. As their forests were cut to make space for farms, the parrots were shot for feeding on crops and orchards. Trappers captured them to sell as pets, and hunters sold them as colorful decorations for ladies' hats. By 1904, they were gone in the wild. The last Carolina Parakeet died in captivity in 1918.
10. SINHBI_141205_078.JPG: Carolina Parakeets Although they looked tropical, Carolina Parakeets didn't migrate south in the winter but weathered the cold. These jewel-colored birds reminded one German settler of Christmas trees back home: "These flocks of paroquets were ornaments in the [sycamore] trees stripped of their foliage in winter. The bright green color of the birds was in such marked contrast with white bark; the many yellow heads looked like so many candles." -- Gert Goebel, Missouri, 1877
11. SINHBI_141205_084.JPG: She's Wearing a Dead Bird on Her Head! Kathryn Lasky, illustrated by David Catrow, 1997 Hat makers and clothiers prized the Carolina Parakeet's brilliant plumage, using features or entire birds to decorate ladies' hair, hats, and gowns. In 1886 alone, the hat trade claimed an estimated 5 million birds of various species -- victims of fashion. This children's book tells the story of how the craze led two women to form a society to protect wild birds, which became the Audubon Society.
12. SINHBI_141205_112.JPG: Once They Were Billions Vanished Birds of North America Once an amazing diversity of birds -- some in breathtaking abundance -- inhabited the vast forests and plains of North America. But starting around 1600, species began to disappear as settlers altered pristine habitats, over-hunted, and introduced predators. The story of Martha, the last Passenger Pigeon, and the disappearance of the Great Auk, Carolina Parakeet, and Heath Hen reveal the fragile connections between species and their environment. Illustrations come from the Biodiversity Heritage Library, a global project that is changing the way research is done by digitizing and freely sharing biodiversity publications with scientists and other users around the world.
13. SINHBI_141205_125.JPG: The Heath Hen Early Signs of Trouble During colonial times, Heath Hens (Rympanuchus cupida cupido) flourished among the heathland barrens of coastal North America from Maine to Virginia. Tasty and easy to kill, they were popular among early settlers, and their numbers quickly declined from over-hunting, habitat loss, and disease. In 1791, the New York State legislature introduced a bill calling for the preservation of Heath Hens and other game, but it couldn't be enforced. After the birds disappeared from the mainland, a Heath Hen sanctuary was established on Martha's Vineyard in 1908. But when a fire destroyed the sanctuary's habitat in 1916, their numbers dwindled. The last one died in 1932.
14. SINHBI_141205_131.JPG: Passenger Pigeon From Billions to Zero In 1866, observers witnessed a massive cloud of birds traveling into southern Ontario. It was a mile wide and 300 miles long and took 14 hours to pass a single point. That "cloud" may have contained more than 3.5 billion birds. Passenger Pigeon flocks were huge. They nested by the thousands in the vast unbroken stands of North American woodland, feeding on acorns and nuts. But as settlers moved across the continent and cleared the forests, they removed large portions of the bird's habitat and food supplies. Passenger Pigeons (Ectopistes migratorius), once so astonishingly abundant that no natural predator could make a dent in their numbers, were surprisingly vulnerable to human intrusion. In 1914, the last one died.
15. SINHBI_141205_140.JPG: Scale Models for the Lost Bird Project
16. SINHBI_141205_149.JPG: Once There Were Billions Vanished Birds of North America Audubon Observing the Passenger Pigeon, 1971 Norman Rockwell oil on canvas (reproduction) American naturalist John James Audubon watches three passenger pigeons take flight. Created to illustrate an article in Look Magazine, Rockwell's original painting is in the collection of the National Museum of Natural History.
17. SINHBI_141205_158.JPG: Audubon Observing the Passenger Pigeon Look Magazine, October 19, 1971
18. SINHBI_141205_166.JPG: Biodiversity Heritage Library Sharing knowledge, inspiring discovery What can be done to prevent future extinctions? One way is to support researchers who seek a better understanding of the biodiversity of this planet. The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is a global project that is changing the way research is done, by digitizing and sharing biodiversity literature online. BHL makes more than 43 million pages and nearly 100,000 scientific illustrations -- of animals and plants, living and extinct -- freely available to scientists and other users around the world. The Smithsonian Libraries is one of BHL's founding organizations. All of the images in this exhibition are from book digitized by the BHL, unless otherwise noted. To see and learn more, go to: biodiversitylibrary.org "Without Biodiversity Heritage Library, I couldn't do my research." -- Sabine Brauckmann, historian of science
19. SINHBI_141205_173.JPG: The Great Auk Flightless, Social ... and Doomed The Great Auk (Pinguinus impennis) once lived in large, dense colonies along North Atlantic shores. Clumsy and flightless on land, they were perfected adapted to "fly" underwater, with their small wings and streamlined bodies. Unfortunately, they could not flee human predators. Hunters slaughtered auks by the thousands for meat, eggs, feathers, and oil. Once the bird's numbers dwindled precipitously, naturalists hurried to add them as specimens to their collections before they disappeared forever. By the mid-1800s the species went extinct -- the final result of centuries of intense human exploitation.
20. SINHBI_141205_184.JPG: Great Auk egg Replica of specimen in the collection of the National Museum of Natural History Great Auks mated for life, nesting in crowded colonies on rocky islands. Females laid one egg per year on bare rock, and both parents took turns incubating the egg.
21. SINHBI_141205_197.JPG: "Catching the Great Auk on the Coast of Newfoundland" Engraving by F.W Keyl and E. Evans from George Kearley, Links in the Chain; or, Popular Chapters on the Curiosities of Animal Life (1862) Auks were herded onto boats and then clubbed to death.
22. SINHBI_141205_201.JPG: "Passenger Pigeon Net, St. Anne's Lower Canada", 1829 Watercolor by James Pattison Cockburn The Passenger Pigeons' migrations -- and their habit of nesting in dense colonies -- made them easy to hunt in large numbers. They were netted and shot by the hundreds of thousands for private consumption and for sale on the market, where they often sold for as little as fifty cents a dozen.
23. SINHBI_141205_237.JPG: Heath Hen eggs
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