Credit: Photo by John Gibbons / Smithsonian
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the passenger pigeon’s extinction, when the last individual, named Martha (on the right), died Sept. 1, 1914, at the Cincinnati Zoo. Martha is now at the Smithsonian.
In this photo, Martha and a fellow male passenger pigeon are getting a touch up by exhibits specialist Megan Dettoria before becoming the centerpiece of the new exhibit “Once There Were Billions: Vanished Birds of North America.” The exhibit opens June 24 at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.