The male passenger pigeon's head is slaty blue with some black blotches around the eyes. The back of its neck is iridescent bronze, green or purple depending to the light. Dorsally it is tinged slate-grey with olive brown, while its lower back and rump are greyish blue becoming greyish brown on the upper tail coverts. Two central tail feathers are brownish grey and the others white. The wing coverts are brownish grey with irregular blackish markings. The primaries and secondaries are much darker greyish brown. The secondaries are edged with white. The male's throat and breast are coloured pale cinnamon rufous, becoming paler on the lower breast while merging to the white on its abdomen. The under tail coverts are white too. The bill is black. The eye's iris is coloured red and it has a naked orbital purplish flesh coloured ring. The legs and feet are red. The female is similar to the male, but its colour is much duller and the tail is considerably shorter. The legs and feed are also red, but paler than those of the male. The female's iris is coloured orange red and its has a naked greyish blue orbital ring. Immature passenger pigeons are similar to the adult female, but the scapulars, wing coverts, feathers of the foreneck and breast are tipped with white. This gives the immature passenger pigeon a scaled appearance. Its legs and feet are pinkish brown and the iris is brownish with a narrow ring of carmen.