Extinct Birds of North America Quiz

Answer: Passenger Pigeon

The passenger pigeon, which scientists like to call Ectopistes migratorius, was a species that at one time could serve as a symbol of abundance in North America. In the early 19th century, their flocks were so large that they could block out the sun for hours as they passed overhead. This cool sight was described by early settlers and naturalists as one of the most awe-inspiring wonders on Earth. Estimates have suggested that at their peak, there were between 3 and 5 billion passenger pigeons, leading many to believe them the most numerous bird species in the world at the time. Bring your umbrella.

A century later, they were gone. Passenger pigeons were relentlessly hunted for meat, which was sold in markets as a poor man's protein. Later development of railroads and telegraphs made hunting even more efficient, with hunters tracking flocks and then shipping barrels of tasty pigeons across the country. Adding to the problem, the species depended on huge nesting colonies to breed successfully, so as their numbers declined, their reproduction rates dropped precariously.

By the late 1800s, they had all but ceased to exist in the wild. The last confirmed wild passenger pigeon was shot in Ohio in 1900, and the final known individual, a female named Martha, lived at the Cincinnati Zoo, where she died on September 1, 1914. It's one of the most famous extinctions in modern history, and it remains a poignant case study in conservation biology.

Answer: Great Auk

The great auk was a large, flightless seabird that once hung around in thick colonies on rocky islands from Newfoundland and Iceland to Scotland and even beyond. They were excellent swimmers and divers, using their little flappy wings like flippers to propel themselves through the cold northern waters in search of fish.

Unfortunately, their inability to fly made them very easy to catch.

By the 16th and 17th centuries, hunters were killing great auks by the thousands for meat, oil, and feathers. Their down became big in European bedding markets, and sailors often harvested entire colonies in a single visit. As their numbers crashed, the species became even more valuable, especially to collectors, who wanted their eggs and skins for museums and private collections. The last widely accepted confirmed pair of great auks was killed on Eldey Island, Iceland, in June 1844, as collectors fought over the last of the last.

Answer: Carolina Parakeet

Conuropsis carolinensis or the Carolina parakeet to you was once widespread across the eastern and midwestern United States, ranging from the coast to the Ohio River Valley and even as far west as parts of Colorado. Its bright green body, paired with a yellow head and orangish face, made it one of the most striking native birds in North America.

Unfortunately, humans didn't play well with the Carolina parakeet, and it declined rapidly. Deforestation destroyed the old-growth forests, especially its preferred nesting sites in hollow trees. At the same time, the feather trade targeted the poor guys during the late 1800s. Its lovely plumage was used to decorate hats and clothing. Farmers got into the act as well, shooting the birds in large numbers because they would sometimes feed in orchards and crop fields.

The final known captive individual, named Incas, died at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1918, just four years after the death of Martha the passenger pigeon at the same zoo. The last confirmed sighting in the wild was slightly earlier, likely in Florida in the first decade of the 1900s.

Answer: Labrador Duck

The Labrador Duck (Camptorhynchus labradorius) is one of the more mysterious North American bird extinctions. Unlike species such as the passenger pigeon or the great auk, it was not exterminated through large, systematic hunting campaigns. On the contrary, historical accounts suggest the bird didn't taste all that good, and hunters rarely sought it for food. Still, it disappeared rapidly, with the last widely accepted sighting in the 1870s.

Most researchers believe the core issue was one of ecology, as opposed to any intentional harm. The Labrador Duck would feed largely on mollusks and small shellfish found along coastal shallows. As the coast developed, pollution increased, while shellfish were overharvested, leaving a shrinking food supply for our doomed friends. Combined with already low population numbers and a very small breeding range, the species may have just collapsed before anyone truly realized it was in danger.

Today, about 50 mounted specimens remain in museums around the world. Because no nests or eggs were ever seriously documented, many aspects of its life, particularly where it bred, remain a mystery.

Answer: Guadalupe Caracara

Unlike the Labrador Duck, there's no mystery about how the Guadalupe caracara (Caracara lutosa), also known as the Guadalupe Island caracara, went extinct. Humans exterminated it.

It was an island endemic, which means it lived nowhere else on Earth except Guadalupe Island, off the coast of Baja California. When feral goats were introduced to the island, they multiplied rapidly, and the multitudes devastated the local ecosystem through overgrazing. Goat herders decided to blame the caracara for killing livestock and systematically shot them.

In fact, many ornithologists believe the caracara rarely preyed on healthy goats at all. It most likely scavenged carcasses. But because it was seen as a nuisance predator, it was deliberately eliminated. The last confirmed individuals were killed around the period of 1900-1903, and the species was officially declared extinct shortly after.

Answer: Dusky Seaside Sparrow

The Dusky seaside sparrow (Ammospiza maritima nigrescens) is an example of why environmental impact studies are done today. This subspecies had a very tiny range, limited to brackish marshes along Florida's Atlantic coast. Its decline began when NASA and local agencies flooded vast areas of Merritt Island in the 1950s and 60s in an attempt to control mosquito populations around the Kennedy Space Center. The dusky sparrows relied on unflooded, high marsh habitat, and when these areas vanished, so did their nesting grounds.

By the late 1970s, only a handful of males were known to survive, and no females remained. Crossbreeding attempts with other seaside sparrows were tried, but because no females of the subspecies existed, there was no way to continue its true genetic line. The last known individual, named "Orange Band," died in 1987.

The bird was officially declared extinct in 1990, but on the bright side, there are still plenty of mosquitos smugly buzzing around Kennedy Space Center.

Answer: San Clemente Wren

This cute little songbird was once endemic to San Clemente Island, one of California's Channel Islands. It lived only there and nowhere else on Earth. When goats were introduced to the island in the 1800s, they stripped the indigenous vegetation through overgrazing. Since our wren depended on dense underbrush and low shrubs for nesting and cover, the destruction of its habitat was the beginning of the end.

By the early 20th century, its numbers were already collapsing and, despite a few late attempts to document survivors, the San Clemente wren was finally declared extinct in the 1940s.

What makes this extinction a particular bummer is that, as with many island birds, the wren had no defense against sudden ecological upheaval. It had evolved in isolation without predators or mammals stomping around, and its entire world vanished in just a few decades once goats reshaped the landscape. Later restoration projects removed the goats, saving several other native species, but for the San Clemente wren, it was too late.

Answer: Bachman's Warbler

Bachman's warbler was one of the rarest North American songbirds even before the modern era. It bred in the swampy lowlands of the southeastern United States, especially in dense cane thickets, and wintered in Cuba. Logging, drainage of wetlands, and the near complete disappearance of native canebrakes destroyed most of its habitat by the early 20th century.

The last widely accepted confirmed sighting in the United States was in 1988 in Louisiana. None of the occasional later reports have been verified with photographs, recordings, or specimens.

Answer: Ivory-Billed Woodpecker

The ivory-billed woodpecker was a spectacular bird of low-lying floodplains and swampy forests in the southeastern United States and parts of Cuba. It was enormous for a woodpecker, with dramatic black-and-white plumage and a heavy pale bill that gave it a striking profile; early observers reportedly cried out "Lord God, what a bird!" when they saw it in flight. However, its habitat preferences made it defenseless against deforestation.

By the early 20th century, extensive logging of bottomland forests, along with hunting and collection, had driven populations to collapse. The last generally accepted confirmed sighting in the continental U.S. was in April 1944 in Louisiana's Singer Tract. Because the species needed large, contiguous swamps to survive and those habitats were disappearing rapidly, the bird's fate was largely sealed by habitat loss long before modern conservation measures could take hold. This is why we can't have nice things.

Occasional reports, famously a set of sightings, audio recordings, and a few seconds of controversial video from the Big Woods of Arkansas in 2004-2005, have kept hope alive and sparked intensive searches by Cornell Lab and others. Those findings generated major debate: some researchers accepted the evidence as convincing, while others argued the recordings and video could be explained by other species (notably the pileated woodpecker) or by artifacts. No definitive proof of a surviving breeding population has emerged since, though the debate and occasional unconfirmed reports continue.

Answer: Cuban Macaw

The Cuban macaw once lived on the main island from which it gets its name as well as the nearby Isla de la Juventud. It was one of the smallest of the macaw species but no less beautiful. Its plumage featured vivid reds, yellows, blues, and a sprinkling of orange, giving it a vivid tropical appearance, befitting its name. Like many island birds, it evolved with few natural predators and became especially vulnerable once humans expanded aggressively into its habitat.

Hunting for food and feathers (which were used as status symbols and in trade), along with widespread habitat destruction for farming, drove the species into rapid decline through the 1700s and early 1800s. By the mid-19th century, it was already rare, and the last widely accepted records of the Cuban macaw date from around 1864, after which it is believed to have vanished completely. Unlike some other extinct Caribbean parrots, no captive breeding populations existed, so once it disappeared from the wild, the species was gone forever.