These eBird Checklists Document Some of the Last Sightings of Extinct U.S. Species

The massive database of bird sightings made possible by eBird, a community birding platform, has helped reveal detailed trends in bird populations, but it also serves as a record of some American species that are no longer with us. Over the years, thousands of “historical” checklists have been entered into the site, uploaded by birders, archivists, museums, relatives of the deceased, and others. These lists are available to everyone, and looking through them reminds birders of the world we’ve lost.

What follows are some of the final checklists featuring American species before they were considered extinct. It’s a sad list, not just because we’ve lost these birds but also for how powerless these final witnesses were.  “Do something!” you want to scream, fully knowing the inevitability in the outcome and the likely futility of action so late in the game.

Still, plenty of bird species have also been saved from extinction. Conservation works—so long as we act in time. Let these lists be a reminder to us all. 

Ivory-billed Woodpecker : Singer Tract, Louisiana | April 14, 1935 | Arthur A. Allen
These famous images from Cornell professor and National Audubon Society lecturer Arthur A. Allen are the last documented sighting of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker in the United States.

Kauaʻi ʻōʻō and ʻŌʻū : Kauai County, Hawaii | June 6, 1975 | Mike Scott
Hawaii’s native birds have been (and continue to be) decimated by human impacts. This remarkable checklist from Mike Scott, Fred Zeillemaker, and John Sincock contains what are among the last known sightings of two different birds: the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō and the ʻŌʻū, both believed to be extinct.

Heath Hen: Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts | September 15, 1930 | Arthur C. Bent
A subspecies of the Greater Prairie-Chicken, the Heath Hen was once found in scrubby coastlands between New Hampshire and Virginia. By 1870 they were confined only to Martha’s Vineyard, and by 1932 they were extinct. This checklist details a harrowing story about one of the last individuals, nearly struck by a car in the middle of the island.

Passenger Pigeon: Scioto County, Ohio | March 24, 1900 | Ohio Archivist
The Passenger Pigeon was once the most abundant species on the planet, but the birds were speedily reduced to nothing by a combination of habitat loss, relentless hunting, and other factors. The archivist uploading this checklist of a Passenger Pigeon "killed by a small boy on the Pike-Scioto line,” notes that it may have been the last wild bird.

Eskimo Curlew: Galveston County, Texas | March 25, 1962 | Rose Ann Rowlett
Eskimo Curlew was once among the most numerous shorebirds in North America. It was hunted mercilessly throughout the 1800s at the same time its prairie habitat was turned over to agriculture. The birds were incredibly rare by the middle of the 20^th century. Two birds were discovered on Galveston Island in March of 1962, leading to this checklist from the next day by Rose Ann Rowlett. Photos of those individuals taken some time that month by Don Bleitz, included on this checklist, may be the only photos in existence of living Eskimo Curlews. The final generally-accepted record of the species came the next year in Barbados, when an individual was shot and taken to famed ornithologist James Bond.

Bachman’s Warbler: Charleston, South Carolina | May 21, 1960 | Paul Sykes
Bachman’s Warbler once bred in swamps across the southeast—eBird has historical checklists from Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Kentucky, among other locations—and wintered in Cuba. Loss of habitat in both the United States and Cuba led to the decline of the species. A single bird was discovered near Charleston in 1958, and apparently returned to the same spot for at least three years.

Carolina Parakeet: Lake Okeechobee, Florida | April 2, 1896 | Dr. H.E. Pendry
This stunning, yellow-headed bird was the only native parrot in the eastern United States. It was found across the southeast and as far north as New York and as far west as Nebraska. It was plagued by a number of threats—habitat loss, the pet trade, the millinery trade, persecution as pests—and the last known bird died in the Cincinnati Zoo in 1918. There are several records in eBird, but the latest with some kind of documentation is from 1896, when Dr. H.E. Pendry reported finding a cavity nest with eggs in west Lake Okeechobee. A 1910 report in eBird, along with other sightings in the early 20^th century, are difficult to verify.