City Pigeon 3D Game

Update: The Kind Human

City life isn't all bad. Sometimes, **Humans** (tall blue figures) will stop and throw seeds! If you see one standing still, fly over and land nearby for a feast.

PIGEON SCORE: 0

VITALITY

LEFT

WALK

RIGHT

FLY

LAND

Instructions: Walk into yellow seeds to eat. Avoid the brown squirrels. The sky darkens as your energy fades—don't let the sun set on your pigeon journey!

The pigeons I feed in downtown LA got cinnamon swirl peanut butter and jam sandwiches.

 As many of my long-time readers could attest, for a long time (about 7 years, or so), I was routinely in the habit of feeding the pigeons I see, daily - peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Sometimes, it would be a variation on a sandwich, such as grilled cheese sandwiches, at times where I was feeling inspired. Nearly a year ago, at this point, however, I transitioned to seeds, because I had a nagging suspicion growing inside of me, of that seeds were literally more healthy and appropriate for the birds, desipite the charm of peanut butter and jelly sandwich-fed pigeons (later on, after I transitioned, I discovered, through consulting with AI, that peanuts, and peanut butter, consequentially, were high calorie dietary choices, which the birds would welcome. 

So, it had been a while since the birds had gotten sandwiches from me. I had fully transitioned to seeds, since I first tried them (I was initially reluctant to purchase seeds for the birds, despite that seeds used to be available, locally, in downtown LA, at Ralph’s; now, seeds are not on the shelves, anymore). I had reasoned that the nagging voice in my head could possibly be correct, and, at the time, I didn’t have a more authoritative retort to counter the assertion. The nagging voice in my head played a tricky hand with me, hinging upon the rhetoric of that seeds were more nutritious. Now, having spent some (or more) time using either feed that I would provide for the birds, I can say that they both have their upsides and downsides. For example, eating a sandwich was more of a community effort, despite that the birds flock towards the food being given towards them, and they step all over each other, as a result, regardless of the type of food I happen to give them. The sandwich pieces would get nibbled at, by one or more birds, at a time, and then the sandwich would be flung somewhere nearby, being that they have to tear the bread apart, so small groups of birds, for the several feeding hotspots the sandwiches would represent, each took their turns eating at the rich treat. 

Thomas’ Cinnamon Raisin Swirl bread, from Amazon, is what I chose for the birds’ sandwiches, today, and it was only $3.06! A bargain, relatively, and very tasty, at that.

By comparison, seeds are a bit more democratic a food to give the birds, and, it’s a more “natural” food for them. Every one of them gets their chance at getting some of the seeds and grains that I toss out, and, for the most part, the birds still stick around, in general, before I arrive, and after I leave, ostensibly because other people come and feed them, there, at Pershing Square. I leave them a little bit hungry, perhaps, yet they’re there, daily, faithfully, and they appreciate any sort of meal they can get, that fits in to their dietary regimen, that is (pigeons are classified as granivores; meaning they naturally get by on a diet of grains). I feed three flocks of birds; two others, on opposite sides of town, and those ones get what I estimate is a filling meal for them, since they’re not frequented by other pigeon-feeding folks, where they’re situated. Today, though, (or, yesterday - I’m writing this early in the morning, the next day), I had cinnamon swirl raisin bread, since it was on sale for cheap, and I could get free shipping, if I ordered $10 more worth of stuff off of Amazon, in addition to their fresh bag of seeds that I bought them. 

I figured, here’s my chance - to prove to myself that I’m still willing to make sandwiches for them, and, now I have the confidence that the high-calorie PB&J meals are suitable, vegetarian treats for them, and possibly, they become a bit stimulated from having some sugar, from the jam, which they wouldn’t get, eating just seeds. So I went out and made them their sandwiches, as I showed up at their roosting spots, and the birds waited patiently for the sandwich-making to be done; they’re used to waiting, I guess. This time around, though, the pigeons at Pershing Square seemed even more than typical “worked up” in to a feeding frenzy, since they got sandwiches (which arrived earlier in the day than the seeds). After I was done feeding them, they started to fly up towards me, some of them, as if they were courting the idea of landing on me, to let me know that they’re happy, and, perhaps, that I’d been holding out on some last bites for them to eat. I made the Pershing Square pigeons three sandwiches, which, I figure, was a duly rich meal for the birds, and that it was enough food material to go around, so that every bird who really wanted to eat got to have some - some of the birds will stand off to the sidelines, and I try to toss out a little bit for the sparrows, also, but I know that the birds also become more assertive when they’re hungrier, as individuals, so I think that, on some days, some of the birds are just less motivated to take part in the feeding frenzy. 

The event made me think about how the day’s meal probably reminded the birds of their youth; it’s estimated that pigeons live for about 3 years, in the wild, yet they can live for perhaps 15-20 years, if taken good care of, in captivity. Now, I don’t quite believe that the birds I feed only live 3 years; I feel that they’re better taken care of than that, but certainly the meal must have been a warm reminder of the days when sandwiches were the standard fare (it’s a fair amount more costly to purchase sandwiches, for them, but I had food stamps, back then, and I could shoulder much of the costs, throughout a month, contingent on that my benefits were available for me to use, to purchase food, not seeds). Now, I spend my own money for everything I have to purchase, so it matters somewhat less, whether I purchase sandwich fixings for the birds, or it comes to seeds. Some of the birds even cozied up to the notion of trying to snatch some sandwich out of my hand, before I tossed out small portions of the meal throughout the flock, which surrounds me, as I feed them. 

Merry Pidge-mas!

 

Earlier today, I went out to feed the pigeons in the late morning.

The birds greet me, most of the time, some of them, at least, by flying up towards me.

A pair of siblings and their mother, from China, were taking photos and videos with the birds.

Another pedestrian was telling them that they should try being more interactive, and get a circle of birds round them. 

The guy asked me for some seeds, and he handed the kids a handful of seeds, each. It was a fun part of my day, to assist in giving them the pigeon experience that we have, here at Pershing Square.

Yesterday, I was in East LA, and the afternoon sun broke through the clouds and put out a glorious rainbow. 

I could most see the very end of the rainbow, off in the nearby distance.

The sparrows were out, as well, and I made sure to save some seeds for the little ones, as well. 

Wet pigeons are cuter than pigeons that aren’t wet.

An atmospheric river storm hit Southern California, this weekend, and it felt like a much-welcomed event, especially looking back, a bit, to this past year’s wildfire season, which claimed much of Pacific Palisades and Altadena homes in those areas. On a lighter note, however, a rain storm is an opportunity to catch photos that are rarer, in other circumstances.

Pershing Square, lately, has been seeing impressive numbers of pigeons show up to hang out on the stairway to the main plaza level of the park. 

I had a great idea come to me, from my Amazon Vine product reviewing gig, in the form of a clip-on telephoto / macro 2x mobile device lens, by Veedzoens, for this rainy day, seeing as how the birds had been showing up in such large numbers at Pershing Square, almost like they had taken over the place. What better photogenic opportunity could there be, for capturing some of the flock on camera using my telephoto lens?

The sparrows were the gatekeepers, as I approached the pigeons’ daytime roosting and hang out spot at the nearby stairs.

Now, the lens was made specifically for the iPhone, which has a different sized lens, and different on-device lenses, from my iPad Pro, but I was able to adapt it fairly well, to my device. As you can see, there’s some of the inside of the lens that got captured; this happens when the camera is zoomed out. Aside from that, the optical zoom feature of the lens offers a sharper image, and better close-ups than my standard iPad Pro cameras, which max out at 12 megapixels, for the rear camera.

My new 2x telephoto lens. There’s an attachment that goes with it that the lens screws on to, which is a clip for mounting the camera on the rear camera of a mobile device.

I ended up going out, twice, yesterday, in the rain, for the sake of feeding the pigeons, as it was a lot of fun to have a rainy day, with so many photogenic birds present, and I got to make use of my new telephoto lens for most of the photos captured here, from this day. 

I was finally able to get some good close-ups of Muffin, one of the new brown-ish colored pigeons of this flock of birds.

The birds are truly a landmark feature of this part of town. At various several times, during the day, such as after a meal, the pigeons will all fly up in to the air, and follow the leader, as they circle around the high rises, sometimes whisking around to the next street over (Broadway), and some of them fly back over some of the buildings, and they end up roosting back at their lofty places, such as on an apartment building’s ledge, or at the traffic signal. This daily ritual, featuring around 150 birds, or so, at a time, is a signal, at times, to other flock members situated on Broadway, who branch off, from there, to check out different feeding and roosting spots on the next street down, while others may recognize me, and they return to the staircase at Pershing Square, awaiting their meal. 

The birds are truly in their top form, when they’re out in the rain, and it’s a rich sensory experience to observe the pigeons as they work out eating their meal, as a flock, as well as during their post-meal socialization moment, and their flying in formation is a beautiful sight to behold. 

The pigeons perch on the traffic lights, as it’s one of their favorite spots to wait around for meal time.

Muffin, in the Rain (fan art, inspired by Clifford and Rosemary Ellis’ Antiquaries Prefer Shell, 1934)

Lady Gaga and Muffin, from the Beats1 Zane Lowe interview.

Halloween Hijinks Involving Pigeons, 2025.

 This Halloween saw a number of pigeon hijinks on my Facebook, but what about from other folks? Here are some of the art pieces and notable mentions that went down, this past Halloween.

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. 

New App: The Pigeon Costume Party Cam.

 Along the lines of the new book that I put out, on Apple Books, is the idea of that I’d like to place Augmented Reality (AR) costumes on the pigeons. I made this little HTML app that serves as a rough scratch version of the idea, using Gemini. The camera discovers birds within the view range and then places a bounding box and a wizard hat on the bird. Other than actually looking at birds, the viewer would just look like a camera view, although photos of birds work, as well.

The first scratch version of the Pigeon Costume Party Cam

 

Pigeon Costume Party Cam

Point your camera at some pigeons (or any bird) to begin!

Loading Machine Learning Model...

Error!

The Pigeon Costume Party Cam in action, on my site. 

 

New Feature: Pigeon Photobooth

Upload a photo of a pigeon, then drag the wizard hat onto its head!

Select a Pigeon Photo

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A work in development: The Pigeon Costume Parade children’s story.

I was brought up on a lot of children’s stories, being that my mother taught second grade, and she was primarily in charge of my early years in education. I imagine cute storybook-like lifestyles and lives of the pigeons, and one of them is The Pigeon Costume Parade, where a townsperson knits costumes for the town’s pigeons, and they have an annual costume parade. Here’s a mockup cover for the story.

A preliminary look at the concept cover of my children’s book idea.

Here’s one take on the book’s beginning:

 Here’s another set of concept images: not as linear as ChatGPT (above), but I like the illustrative styles pictured in ImageFX’s Imagen 3 generative image renders, here.

Now, the challenge would be coming up with a coherent illustrative style, in order for the story to make sense, visually, but the ideas are well done, with Imagen 3, by Google Labs. I think that the illustration styles have specific names for the styles, and I could, potentially, narrow down the artistry by refining the prompts, in a linear chat.

Update: Over the weekend, I was able to complete the book. I went with ChatGPT, since that was the most familiar platform that I was using to generate images in a consistent illustrative form. In subsequent editions, I’ll perhaps go for more detailed renders, from different engines, if possible. For now, you can check out the first edition of The Pigeon Costume Parade on Apple Books.

The Pigeon Costume Parade is now available on Apple Books. 

My next idea, for this book, is to look in to manufacturing plush doll toys of the costumed pigeons, for collectors and for children. Here are some early concept renders of that idea.

A felted pigeon doll, wearing a cow costume. 

These nesting pigeons have made it their daily routine to show up at my window to eat.

 

This cute pigeon pair shows up together, for a meal, after one of them scouts out the ledge, to make sure there’s food out. That’s when I spot them and put seeds out for them.