The brother of the dead miner, Moses (Bryan Marshall) comes home to visit his family for the first time in years.

When the mine closes temporarily, Jesse (Kentucker Audley) spends the time off with his girlfriend Elva (Caroline White).

Buck is soon to retire and uses the trip to show his replacement Nolan (Brendan McFadden) the ropes.

Annie (Karrie Crouse), an activist from Washington D.C., uses the incident as means to drum up support against surface mining.

Passenger Pigeons premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival on March 13, 2010 and was released on DVD October 15, 2013.