Is it possible they still exist?

[MoCarp]

 

This time of year I always think back (about 94--95 )to an odd dove that fed at my bird feeders, a larger longer tailed bird I could never identify, I chalked it up to some kind of exotic that got loose somewhere, but with the advent of the internet it met the description of the extinct but one very common passenger pigeon, its rare that I came across many critters I couldn't ID, I wish I had snapped a pic. wondering if anyone here has ever seen one like this? I couldn't have been the only person that saw one of these? it seems they get sighted from time to time, would be a cool thing if a few made it

 

 

http://karlshuker.blogspot.com/2017/03/posthumous-sightings-of-passenger.html

[oneshot]

At first I'm saying why not? Because after years the  Red-Cockaded Woodpeckers have been discovered but then I think how many Doves are shot each year. Seems someone would kill one and question it.

 

oneshot

[Johnsfolly]

It's nice to think that they are still present. It's very improbable that they would go unnoticed for this long. Who knows. There was a big excitement about 12 to 14 years ago about the possibilty of ivory billed woodpeckers were alive as well in Arkansas and also in Florida. Haven't heard much about them since then. I get caught up in watching a lot of those "search for" shows and end up more disappointed than not. Only one that I watched so far that was successful was the search for the giant squid. 

[Terrierman]

Gold Fever every once in a while they find a nugget.  So there's always hope.

[trythisonemv]

I swear I saw a pair of them two years ago here in Lawrence co. 

[rumrunner]

Officially there were no bears in MO...now there were a few left.So who knows?

[Al Agnew]

Kinda like ivory-billed woodpeckers.  Ever so often somebody supposedly sights one and gets hopes up, but then nothing.  I highly doubt that any passenger pigeons would still be surviving, because they were birds that lived in large flocks, and would have to completely change their habits in order to survive as isolated individuals or pairs.  Not like bears, or even ivory bills, which live (lived) as lone individuals or pairs even when abundant.

[rumrunner]

You make a great point.But I keep reading about isolated populations of rare species found hiding in plain sight. So maybe.

[Quillback]

We can always hope, but I would think that with all the bird watchers out there, if these birds still existed, they'd get spotted.