I'm looking for old pictures of passenger pigeons in migration.

May 13, 2005 9:49 PM

Today's article on passenger pigeons at Interesting Thing of the Day.com was very interesting. I tried looking for pictures of passenger pigeons in migration, but I can't find any.

It seems our overzealous pilgrim ancestors took a liking to killing these things off in huge numbers before cameras came around. But, I refuse to believe there's nothing- not even an artists depiction or something- on the entire net. My google-fu fails me. Any help?

posted by BuddhaInABucket to Science & Nature (3 answers total)

I don't understand. He provides plenty of links at the bottom of the article, including a link to this page which has tons of pictures, including many of the pigeons in flight. Or were you looking for something else?
posted by vacapinta at 10:23 PM on May 13, 2005

Best answer: True, but finding what BIAB wants -- a mass migration -- turns out to be a bit harder; there are dozens of portraits of individual birds, showing their coloring, but few available showing the massive flocks for which they are famed.

One image is here. It's a bit small; there are a few copies of it elsewhere, but nothing bigger.

Another is here. Direct link. It's a self-portrait by Audubon of his attempt to draw an accurate depiction of a migration.

I'm pretty sure I've seen a contemporary photograph, but it may not be available online anywhere. (Although photography was widespread shortly after the Civil War, fast exposure speeds for objects in motion weren't easily available until the 20th century.) It's an interesting, and somewhat recursive, outcome.
posted by dhartung at 11:56 PM on May 13, 2005

Response by poster: thank you dhartung- I didn't expect actual pictures; those artistic depictions are just the kind of thing I was having trouble finding.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 3:58 AM on May 14, 2005