Sculpture of the last heather hen (7 photos + 1 video)
Unfortunately, people do not appreciate the beauty of the world in all its diversity. And some species disappear from the face of the earth forever. And only documentary evidence and cultural objects remain as a reminder of their existence. 
The figure of a heather hen stands in the place where this bird, a representative of the grouse family, was last seen. 
Photo of a male heath hen
Before the birds went extinct, they were last seen near the airport on Martha's Vineyard. Today, a sculpture of a heath hen stands at the site to commemorate the extinct species. 
Photo circa 1909
Heather hens were once very common in the area between New Hampshire and Virginia in the United States. They were considered a very tasty food, and by 1870 they were almost extinct due to constant hunting, poaching, and habitat loss. 
Male and female
The only heath chickens remaining by 1870 were found on Martha's Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts. In 1908, the Heath Chicken Sanctuary, now the Manuel F. Correlus State Forest, was created for the last 70 individuals. The species briefly recovered, reaching a population of 2,000. But a devastating wildfire, as well as environmental issues such as harsh winters and predators, reduced the population to just 12 or 13 birds by 1927. One of them, a male named Booming Ben, was last seen on March 11, 1932. 
A sculpture commemorating the last spot where Booming Ben, the last heath hen, was seen
The heath hen is one of five birds created as part of Todd McGrane's Lost Birds Project. McGrain, a Guggenheim Fellow and artist-in-residence at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, was already working on bird sculptures when he read Hope Is a Thing with Feathers: A Personal Chronicle of Endangered Birds by Christopher Kokinos, about the extinction of several North American bird species. 
The Lost Birds project includes sculptures of a dodo, a Labrador eider, a passenger pigeon, and a Carolina parakeet. Each figure was placed where its species was last seen. 
