Philly Pigeon Tours
The Italian Market
Philadelphia
June 27, 2026
On an overcast Saturday morning in front of the Get-A-Gato cafe, a group of strangers met up for the one year anniversary of the Philly Pigeon Tours. With the forecast calling for showers, I was a little reluctant to buy my ticket, but as I would find out later on in the tour, pigeons don’t really mind the rain. As we awaited the arrival of our guide, I made small talk with some of the other early birds about our collective knowledge about pigeons and, as expected, it was pretty minimal. But we were all there with an open mind and ready to learn about our feathered neighbors. Our guide, Aspen, arrived wearing Patagonia shorts, Merrill shoes, and a purple pigeon dad-hat; I was immediately ready to trust anything this person told me about birds. When they first moved to the neighborhood, neither them or their partner, HM, were bird enthusiasts. But that all changed one day when HM was walking home and found a wounded pigeon. After getting the bird the attention she needed, medical professionals let HM know that although the bird was fine now, she wouldn’t be able to survive long on her own. So, naturally, they adopted the pigeon, named her Primrose, and began a journey of learning about Primrose's extended family.
Our first stop on the tour was one of the largest gathering spots in the neighborhood for pigeons. On the east side of New World Plaza, there’s close to one hundred pigeons of varying size, color, and age congregating on the power lines above Ba Le Bakery. If I were a pigeon, I would probably hang out behind a bahn mi spot too, so I wasn't surprised. Though the french baguettes are a big factor behind the pigeons' gathering, another reason so many of them conglomerate is survival. Even pigeons have ops, and there’s strength in numbers. A hawk will think twice before attacking if a bird’s got backup. These large gatherings are also a perfect spot to perform a mating dance. A common misconception is that pigeons mate for life, and while that’s sort of true, I learned that they also sometimes have flings and side pieces. These birds ain’t loyal. Upon learning this information, I laughed to myself imagining a non-monogamous pigeon’s dating profile: “South Philly. Partnered. Newly ENM. Looking to spread my wings and see what’s out there.” From eating patterns to relationship habits, there are a lot of similarities between pigeons and humans.
The next destination was two blocks west where we observed a few pigeon nests and learned a bit about their younglings. The maturing of a pigeon from egg to adolescent takes about a month. Most of their time as a baby is spent in their well-hidden nest, getting milk from their parents – did I mention that I learned that pigeons produce milk? Most of the pigeons you see in the wild are in fact “baby pigeons," they just mature so fast that by the time they leave their nest they are almost indistinguishable from the adults of the flock.
The final location on our excursion was a trip to The Italian Market, where we got to see a modern representation of human and pigeon interactions (AKA, humans shooing pigeons out of their way or away from their food). We have lived in unison with rock doves for over 5,000 years; but while they were once seen as our trusted companions, pigeons have become victims of hostile architecture and societal stigma. During the tour, we speculated over what might have caused this divide between humans the pigeons — public perception of pigeons definitely took a hit when Alfred Hitchcock’s classic horror film The Birds was released (similar to how Jaws hurt shark PR). But there are people like Aspen who are actively trying to reverse course and bring people and pigeons back together through education, exploration, and a willingness to challenge popular sentiment.
You can learn more about Philly Pigeon Tours here.
