Errol Fuller

This book isn't maybe as objective as I'd expect a nonfiction book or history book to be, but it provides a nice overview of the Passenger Pigeon, its life, and its extinction. It's got beautiful pictures, and it also includes some artwork that shed light on people's attitudes toward this lovely bird. Bonus points, too, for including some information about the Great Auk, the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, the Heath Hen, Eskimo Curlew, the Carolina Parakeet, and the Labrador Duck, all North show more American birds who are now extinct. show less

A sort of coffee-table companion to the passenger pigeon. Fuller usefully reproduces many of the known images of the bird, most of which are well done but some of which are pixelated and should have been reproduced as a higher quality. The text is a broad overview only.

This book was hard to read. As you pass from one tragedy to the next, you gather sadness like a rolling ball gathers snow. More than a simple chronicle, there is deep concern here. I recommend it.

Depressingly, we've had extinctions since photography's been a thing. While most of us know extinct animals from prints, photos add a sense of realism often missed. Mostly birds, with some mammals because these are the megafauna people would take pictures of (fish, amphibians, reptiles, and plants alas ignored...)

Short read, with large print.