What is Passenger pigeon?
{{Taxobox | name = Passenger pigeon | status = EX | extinct = 1914 | status_system = iucn3.1 | image = Bird lore (1913) (14562557107).jpg | image_width = 200px | image_caption = 1898 photograph of a live passenger pigeon | regnum = [[Animal]]ia | classis = [[bird|Aves]] | ordo = [[Columbiformes]] | familia = [[dove|Columbidae]] | genus = '''''Ectopistes''''' | genus_authority = [[William Swainson|Swainson]], 1827 | binomial = ''Ectopistes migratorius'' | binomial_authority = ([[Carolus Linnaeus|Linnaeus]], 1766)}} [[File:Pigeon migrateur MHNT.jpg|thumb|''Ectopistes migratorius'']] The '''passenger pigeon''' (''Ectopistes migratorius'') or wild pigeon was a species of [[pigeon]] that was once the most common bird in [[North America]]. == Description == The passenger pigeon, or, wild pigeon was a species of [[bird]], ''Ectopistes migratorius'', that was once common in North America. It lived in enormous migratory flocks — sometimes containing more than two billion birds — that could stretch one mile (1.6&nbsp;km) wide and 300 miles (500&nbsp;km) long across the sky, sometimes taking several hours to pass. Some estimate that there were three billion to five billion passenger pigeons in the United States when Europeans arrived in North America. Others argue that the species had not been common in the Pre-Columbian period, but their numbers grew when devastation of the American Indian population by European [[disease]]s led to reduced competition for [[food]]. The species went from being one of the most usual birds in the world during the 19th century to extinction early in the 20th century. At the time, passenger pigeons had one of the largest groups or flocks of any [[animal]], second only to the Rocky Mountain locust. Some reduction in numbers happened because of habitat loss when the Europeans started settling further inland. The primary factor emerged when pigeon [[meat]] was commercialized as a cheap food for slaves and the poor in the 19th century, resulting in hunting on a massive scale. There was a slow