Martha died completely alone.

No other passenger pigeons were left in the sky on Sept. 1, 1914, when a keeper at the Cincinnati Zoo lifted her body from the ground.

It was hard to believe.

Once counted in the billions by ornithologist Alexander Wilson in 1810, wild flocks plummeted to a few dozen before the 1890s. Closely resembling the mourning dove, but half as large, passenger pigeons (Ectopistes migratorius) covered most of eastern Canada as well as the Northeastern and Midwestern skies of the United States.

"The light of noonday was obscured as by an eclipse," early 1800s pioneer and bird artist John James Audubon reported after witnessing a flock flying from Henderson to Louisville, Ky.

Abundant still in the 1850s, all flocks perished only four decades later.

The word "passenger" comes from the French "passager," which as an adjective denotes "a fleeting condition," like "pasajero" in the Spanish language. Somehow, the name chosen for this species already anticipated its brief passing from immeasurable abundance to complete annihilation.

This year marks a century since the passenger pigeon became extinct; an awful fact, indeed, but also an opportunity to reflect on the fragility of nature and change our ways.

Habitat loss and pollution are taking a toll on the food web that sustains life on Earth. Yes, ours included.

Common birds, such as the loggerhead shrike, field sparrow and Eastern meadowlark, are already losing ground, according to data annually collected by the National Audubon Society since 1967.

Make no mistake. We killed Martha's flock.

Hunted out of existence, passenger pigeons were brutally butchered even with rakes, fires and burning sulfur. Being so abundant, the birds couldn't possibly be in peril due to hunting and commercial slaughter. Extinction was not an option, and yet.

Today, Martha and her kind are long gone, as well as other avian species that also became extinct in modern times, such as the Carolina parakeet, Labrador duck, great auk and heath hen. However, we have the chance to alter the course to nothingness for other birds and thousands of other species.

Education and public awareness are precisely the outcome goals of "The Lost Bird Project," a yearlong series of exhibits and lectures organized nationwide through October 2015 by more than 150 institutions, between universities, museums, arts organizations, conservation groups and government agencies.

Even a virtual flock has been created in social media. Made out of paper, the origami flock is reaching half a million passenger pigeons on the website

Stiff and mute like her origami fellows, a stuffed and mounted Martha perches now behind a glass at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. The only survivor of her species, Martha never lived in the wild, and yet, she stands for all the billions of passenger pigeons that once covered the skies like a summertime tempest.

Yes, Martha reminds us that nature is not that resilient as we conveniently want to believe.

Besides the excessive use of fertilizers, other chemicals such as herbicides and insecticides we spray on our manicured lawns and industrialized farms continue leaving behind lifeless habitats, as scientist Rachel Carson already warned us 50 years ago of the dangers of what she called "biocides" in her book "Silent Spring." Sprayers have become part of our hunting gear.

Solutions? Well, oceans don't have to be crossed to rescue a species from extinction. A single bird might be looking for safe food and fresh water outside your window.

Note: Local organizations such as Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife always welcome new members and volunteers. Please visit

Alessia Leathers is a Cape Coral resident. She is originally from Peru.

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