Passenger Pigeon

Ectopistes migratorius
Statewide Status:  Extinct

Darren Clark
March-November
(Migration / Summer)
 papi_s
December-February
(Winter)

One Idaho record.

  1. 17 June 1860 – 1 collected – Pack River, Bonner County, Latilong 1 – C.B. Kennerly – Birds of Idaho – Thomas Burleigh (author)Now extinct – Burleigh writes “According to Merrill (1897), Cooper reported the species in what he then considered Montana, but now it is accepted as Northern Idaho.  This is verified By Allen J. Duvall (in litt.) who stated that ‘I find that a specimen of the Passenger Pigeon, collected  June 17, 1860 , at Pack River, by B. Kennerly, was listed by Ridgeway for both Montana and Oregon.  However, Ridgeway was in error as Pack River is in Idaho, and the specimen was collected by one of the Northwestern Boundary Survey.  It was given as 48 22 lat. and 116 28 long., by Marcus Baker, Bull.174, U.W. Geological Surveys’ “  Burleigh further states “It is probable that only infrequently did an occasional individual stray west of the normal range of this species and that it was always a rare bird in Idaho.

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