October 11th, 2025 Downtown Los Angeles Pigeon Flock Updates.

 Today’s pigeon feedings in downtown Los Angeles started out fairly typically; I stopped and fed three flocks on 5th near Los Angeles Street, at Pershing Square, and underneath the Figueroa overpass at 4th. I had scratch seed and grain mix for them, and I prepared some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, once I reached and fed the last flock, on the other side of town, from where I stay. Then I went to Whole Foods to purchase some more peanut butter and jelly sandwich fixings, since I had run out, after preparing the sandwiches. 

I headed back over to the flock at Pershing Square, because I only had so much feed for them, the first time around, and there were well over  hundred hungry birds there. I approached them, high flying in unison form, circling around the block’s intersection to maintain flock conformity. I proceeded to feed them their sandwiches, by tearing off little bite-sized chunks and tossing them in to various spots around the huge crowd of birds, to make sure that everyone had a chance at getting a bite of the sandwiches to eat. Once they had finished the sandwiches, they performed a few more flyovers, in unison, as before, landing back on the staircase, once they had made their rounds. I went through my bag so that I could offer some of them a final bite of dessert, since I had found a cheese danish, once the way back over to visit the flock. 

Good news! Today, some of the braver pigeons, and even a sprightly sparrow, came right up to me to nibble away at the cheese danish. A few pigeons even made it a point to jump up on my hands and legs, as I sat there, and they ate directly out of my hand. I wasn’t able to feed them and capture footage of the scene, today, but this is a very promising development for the sociability and tourism value of the pigeon flock at Pershing Square. This flock had been a particular challenge to tame, because of the large size of the flock, owing to flock conformity influence upon the individual birds’ behavioral boundaries. Since it was not a common behavior, jumping up on the feeder was not seen as acceptable, previously. Other than that, there was a new graham cracker-colored pigeon at Pershing Square today. I named him Muffin.

Muffin, the pigeon, in light brown. 

Another photo of Muffin the pigeon. 

Other news is that there is a young squeaker at the 5th and Los Angeles Street flock who is in need of some prayerful support and positive thoughts. He’s been injured, on his head, such that he’s bald on his head, and he’s got scabs that were near bleeding, on the back of his head and neck. 

Some other bird must have been bothered by the baby’s presence and picked on him. In addition, there’s another poor pigeon over in Pershing Square who has very severely swollen club feet, from having had string tied around his feet, cruelly. Some of his toes, on both legs, are turning black, with necrosis. I’m not able to help him, and I don’t know of anyone else who is in a position to help him, but at least, with necrosis becoming apparent, the nerves and cells die, in the affected area, and it might possibly hurt less than might be expected, for such swollen feet, but at least it’s a sign that he’ll be free from the pain, at some point, and although he will be a cripple for the rest of his life, he’ll have less stress on him, for losing his club feet, and he’ll always have daily meals to look forward to. 

Pigeon-watching hotspots to see in town - # 1: The 7th at Metro Station Pigeon Family.

Here in Los Angeles, pigeons that frequent Metro rail stations are generally nothing new, but don't these novel and sometimes adventuresome pigeons make the stations something out of a storybook? They get to live in the stations, at all times, even in the off-hours. It's a trade off - of convenience, for being housed, so to speak, for security and warmth, essentially. 

2024's 7th at Metro baby pigeon, out at night, looking for a bite to eat. 

His parents roost nearby, overseeing his safety and progress in development. 

In this case, a (literal) small family of pigeons roosts at what could be considered some of the most illustrious of locales in Downtown Los Angeles, CA, with beautifully crafted skyscrapers and trendy malls, all within a block, or so. It's a great place to start out, as a Downtown visitor, and these pigeons serve as (sometimes) nightly ambassadors. Take, for example, baby pigeon, standing there, on his own, in the middle of the sidewalk. He's waiting to see some breadcrumbs tossed at him, or perhaps, some pieces of sweet pastries, or seeds. Baby pigeon is currently in the "sweet baby" stage, where the baby has not yet been abused, and hopefully that will last. 

The pigeon family, here at the 7th and Metro Station, has the tradition, and tourist attraction feature of being night owls. This feature about this small and peculiar family of birds makes for a great nighttime stop, to check and see if the birds are out on the sidewalk, or perching nearby the escalators, where they roost at night. A night owl showing of pigeons is always an exciting sort of bird to observe, since they'd become comfortable in socializing amongst their human caretakers, at odd hours. Being that this street intersection is such a well-known metropolitan foot traffic hotspot, this pigeon's roost serves as a testament to urban avian wildlife's potential; as ambassadors: for nature and for recreation, both. 

Update: April 4th, 2025

A new member of the flock is here! See baby pigeon up close with the rest of his family at 7th at Metro Station! He’s a bit ruffly, because he hasn’t learned to preen himself yet, but he takes part in sharing food with the others.

Baby pigeon’s first day out with the flock. (LAPL Central Branch).

 

Here’s baby pigeon, on the lower right portion of the photo. Today was his first day out, that I’ve seen him. 

The pigeon flock at the Downtown LA’s Los Angeles Public Library, Central Branch, feature just one newcomer baby pigeon, for the past year’s late season mating period. I noticed him squeaking around, on the ground, below me, as I gave the birds their lunchtime daily meal. This baby was pretty adept at taking care of himself, already, as far as eating goes. Sometimes the baby birds don’t know how to eat food on their own, yet, when they come out with the flock, while they’re still young, and they go around squeaking for help, to the older birds. This one knew how to peck for his food. He hasn’t learned to preen himself, yet, though, so his feathers were a bit ruffled. When the flock was done eating, they flew off, almost in unison, as they typically do, although baby pigeon wasn’t quite used to being in sync with such a nuanced trait of flock behavior, yet, so he stayed behind, for several seconds, probably wondering at what had happened, but eventually, he flew off, to join the rest of the flock. 

I didn’t try to intervene in baby pigeon’s mealtime and first day out, with the birds. Pigeons are naturally frightened of humans, as wild birds, on account of our size differences. I figure that if baby pigeon is meant to be a show bird, he’ll learn the behaviors from the members of the flock who have been showing confidence and dominant behaviors towards me, lately, in that they started using me as a perch, which you can see in the next blog post. This had just started recently, and some of the more senior members, such as Snooker, the senior Pakistani High Flyer of the flock, even took on this advantageous behavioral trait, for themselves, just to try it out, and he perched on my arm, for a moment, before flying off. I say advantageous because the ones that perch on me stand to be rewarded with premier picks of the meal supply, provided in my hand, for them to peck out and nibble on. In some cases, when they perch on me, as multiple members of the flock, they flout their pigeon idiosyncrasies and social order behavioral traits, such as competitiveness over who gets to pick the food out of my hand, or not, and who gets to stand where. 

This behavioral paradigm is promising, as it suggests that some members of the flock have become quite comfortable around me, for themselves fact that I’m the primary feeder of the flock. With this being the case, some newcomers to the flock adopted this behavioral trait of flying up on me and perching on my arm, or climbing over my grocery and food bags, and my legs, while I’m seated on the ledge, to feed them. The fact that Snooker tried out perching on me, the other day, was a subsequent promising gesture, on top of that birds started perching on me, at all, since previously, before a few weeks ago, or so, this trait did not exist, in the flock. It makes for a unique sensory experience for human participants; offering the hand, to hand feed the birds, and feeling their feathery texture of the birds’ crop area, above the chest, and just below the throat, as they peck frenetically and pick out which seeds or peanuts they’d like to eat. It’s a humorous thing to be so close to the action of their meal time, since they have poor manners, and they even jump on top of each other, shoulder their way in, and stand on top of each other, even, to get to the food supply. Sometimes, the birds even prefer to eat out of my hand, since it’s more efficient than eating off of the ground, which is their other option. I figure that baby pigeon might likely some day take part in this social behavior of the showier birds in the flock, and I’ll just be patient and reinforce the occurrences of repeating this feeding ritual, for display, for the other birds to perhaps mimic, each and every one of them, that feels like it. Beyond that, I feel that it would be a new challenge, to bring discipline and orderliness to their meal time. Meal time is where they really go wild, after all, which is part of the entertainment value of feeding the pigeons, to begin with. 

Now I have a new training gesture to offer the birds; holding my arm out, parallel to the ground, to stand as a perch, for the birds, and some of the birds accept it, and readily and playfully fly up on my arm and perch there, to demonstrate and participate in this training. It was a heartwarming moment, on this day, when a disfigured-legged pigeon flew up to perch on my arm, to eat food out of my hand. It showed that even physical disfigurement, from former misfortunes in life, doesn’t discourage the birds from trying out new behaviors, in interacting with their caretakers and handlers by perching on them, to receive hand-fed meal portions. 

Downtown Los Angeles’ new pigeon babies - season by season (Updating: 2022 - *)

In most cases,

A typical pigeon that a person would come across is simply a standard pigeon. Over he years, however, with some dedication, investment, and care, the creatures become slightly diversified, of their physical appearance, in various ways. Here, in this article, I’ll document some of the images of the young, whom I can identify, of the season’s offerings of pigeon and sparrow babies, of some notable distinction in their appearance, compared to the standard varieties of wild pigeons or sparrows that are to be found, as adults - whom may, themselves, be newly homed or released birds, whereas I also attempt to manage the general day-to-day presence and feeding of the birds, within the Downtown Los Angeles area. I’m beginning this documentation at the end of May, 2022, a well-enough point in the season for babies to have hatched, been fed in the nest, by their parents, and now, they’re capable of getting out and about, and they’re capable of feeding themselves. They would also have taken on enough plumage to demonstrate their fully-adult appearances. 

2022 - Doe eyes and soft pastels, and a squirrel pigeon.

During this season, at the end of May, when I began documenting these birds, for the season’s developments, in the birds’ appearance, I noticed that some of the young, whom I could identify as fledgling pigeons or sparrows, had taken on some development around the eyes, as more pronounced, or outlined - in some cases, nearly decorative and cosmetic changes had seemed to have become established. On one hand, my task management capability here in town is somewhat a quite broad and challenging effort to fulfill - I’ve gotten up my daily small-localities visitations up to a definite 5 areas, whereas there are easily perhaps anywhere from 75-200 or so birds that show up to eat. Some breeders and pigeon specialists are capable of establishing very regimented and impressive defined features in their birds, such as alternating feather color on the wings, for example, but I’m not particularly going for that type of establishment, in these birds - mostly just focusing on keeping them fed. One of the challenges is that the birds seem to be getting poached, or targeted, for capture and abuse - I currently had recently taken in “Virgil,” so-called, a pigeon whom I found, out on the street, about a week ago. I found him with string, hair, and a metal spring tied around both of his feet, and fortunately, I was able to win his trust, take him home, and assist him, as best I could, in removing the objects that were binding his feet, although his skin was already very inflamed around the trauma areas, and the string bound the skin deeply, more than I cared to injure the pigeon with, in attempting to remove the string any further. 

June 2022: Cheetah zazzles and more doe-eyed pigeons.

Three doe-eyed pigeons; one, perhaps, a parent.

It’s nesting time, for the pigeons.

 It’s the end of a balmy summer, out here in South Los Angeles, and the Harbor Freeway (Highway 110) underpasses are a favorite nesting spot for the flocks of pigeons. 

The Manchester underpass of the Harbor Freeway features a stoop for pigeons. I’ve been visiting this brood since 2018. 

Nearby, as I got out of a medical appointment earlier today, I came across a darling pigeon parent moment: the nest-making ritual. Here, the babies had already been born, and they’re growing up, fully feathered, and soon, they’ll be ready to fly. The parents make the nest, over and over, to teach the young some pertinent bird mannerisms, such as the use of the bill, for feeding, and for general use in procuring things that they need. Around town, the birds have the habit of asking for food by pecking around on the sidewalk, and the street. It’s what they know how to do, as a sociable gesture towards their caretakers - us, as humans. 

This busy pigeon parent was witnessed remaking the nest for baby pigeon. It’s exciting to see the pigeons pairing up and having success in breeding. The pigeons had been seen through a faithful series of seasons of regular feedings, and they’d been well supplemented this year, on top of that, so they’re taking care of themselves, and their young, particularly well. 

The life of baby striped-wing pigeon: photo blog.

 This baby pigeon is developing a notable curious personality around his human caretakers. See some of the developments of him and the flock, after they settle in, for a bit, after a meal, when they mingle about and show off their virtues, as birds, in preening themselves. It is both social hour and development time, in the nurturing environment setting, and with how intelligent birds can be, attaining a publicly-accessible wild-to-domesticated flock characteristic seems to be within reach, given some dedication over the coming years. 

Just today, I rescued this baby pigeon from having string tied around his feet. He was trusting enough to allow me to nab him and hold him close to me, as I carefully removed the string around his feet. Fortunately, the string wasn’t that tight. It symbolizes a significant milestone in the flock’s collective tameness and trust, which is, essentially, a call for mercy and grace for the pigeons, outside of the times in which I am present and feeding them. Desiring to own the birds, as they become more near to what would considerably be a pet, is an obvious lure, for some, in having little experience in handling birds, yet it takes efforts of some and various sorts, in public relations, I would imagine, in establishing appropriate boundaries and rational considerations for what’s best for ourselves, as well as the birds of DTLA; here, the location is Pershing Square, where I’m giving a relatively large and common flock of birds food, water, and socialization care, several times a week, or every day that I can do this task. 

The older birds will never attain domesticity amongst humans. This is the important thing to keep in mind. The foundling period, post-nestling phase, of the ecology of the flocks and breeding pairs of birds, is a most vulnerable time in the pro-sociable health and development of the flocks of pigeons. In this stage, in a pigeon’s life, the babies come out to eat and explore, with feeding the birds, and watering them, being the traditional and formal greeting of the flock for humans. In this small locality (Pershing Square), an afternoon feeding is common, and on occasions where I had stuck around, for a while, a venturesome squirrel appears, and he enjoys a slice of bread, as well. 

Curious baby pigeon stands out, amongst the crowd.

Update: 

For those of you who don’t follow along on my Twitter so much, I’ll update you on my latest developments of the day. I started working on the curious baby pigeon stands out amongst the crowd vectorized, posterized, film noir stylized ink brush illustration [and subsequent print out, for display], and it’s looking fabulous, after about 6 1/2 hours work put in to it.