Pigeon fans celebrate National Pigeon Day.

By Elina Bolokhova

On a warm June afternoon in Central Park last year, a pack of 10-foot tall paper-machie puppets towered over the heads of a small gathering of people lounging on lawn chairs. The puppetmasters, perched precariously on stilts beneath dove costumes, turned gracefully and spread pairs of fleece wings. Their delicate cloth feathers fluttered in the wind.

In the background, a young woman strummed a ukulele and sang off-key. A girl holding a platter of homemade cookies shaped like birds smiled stiffly as she posed for a photograph.

It was National Pigeon Day, an event to be celebrated anew on June 13 with a gathering at Central Park’s Pilgrim Hill. The unofficial holiday is the brainchild of Anna Dove, founder of the New York Bird Club. Dove is such a fan of birds that she had her name legally changed from Kugelmas after the death of her beloved dove Lucy.

“It is a time to reflect too on the three to five billion Passenger Pigeons that ranged across eastern North America that are now extinct,” Dove wrote on National Pigeon Day’s blog, noting that the New York Bird Club is committed to promoting “the positive portrayal of pigeons.”

Writing to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Dove requested that National Pigeon Day be declared official and suggested that June 13 be used to teach children about the “significant role pigeons played in the history of the World.”

It is by no coincidence that National Pigeon Day falls on the anniversary of carrier pigeon Cher Ami’s 1919 death. Cher Ami served for several months on the front lines of World War I and successfully delivered 12 important messages, including his last, which he delivered despite being shot through the breast. When Cher Ami died of his multiple war wounds, a taxidermist preserved his body and it is now on display at the Smithsonian Institution.

It was Woody Allen who first coined the phrase “rats with wings” in his 1980 film “Stardust Memories,” and it has haunted the pigeon ever since. But pigeons haven’t always evoked such a negative response. The Spanish brought them to the America, known as the rock dove, as a source of food. A few birds escaped the fate of the cooking pot and settled near human towns.

The pigeon has proven to be surprisingly clever. Like the parrot, a pigeon can recognize its own reflection in the mirror. A study at Harvard has shown that pigeons conceptualize and even more astonishingly, Japanese researchers at the Keio University trained pigeons to discriminate between paintings by Picasso and Monet.

But pigeons also produce droppings and a single pigeon can leave 25 pounds worth a year. This is the main grievance that drives city dwellers to curb their numbers. Last year, Cecil Pitts, 65, was fined $500 for being “a public nuisance” because he was feeding pigeons in his Queens backyard.
However, there is no law that makes pigeon feeding illegal in the city, which is something that City Councilman Simcha Felder (D-Brooklyn) has unsuccessfully campaigned to change.

“If people like pigeons, take them into their homes, feed pigeons in your house and let them crap all over the place in your living rooms,” Felder reportedly said in a news conference outside City Hall, summing up the frustration of the “anti-pigeonites.”

Aside from the occasional child who will run headlong into gathered packs, pigeons now face a new threat from human beings: poaching. The birds are netted and taken to out of state shooting ranges, where they go from $5 to $10 per head. City and state agencies have joined forces to combat this illegal activity, according to the city Health Department.

National Pigeon Day festivities will recognize this; Dove will hold a candlelight vigil for pigeons taken by poachers. Activists will rally to protest shooting ranges and feeding laws, as well as to promote humane population control. Samples of high quality bird feed will be provided by the Long Island-based Pigeon Store, so pigeon-feeding veterans can continue a tradition and novices can give the activity a try.

But don’t try it in Central Park; feeding the birds is prohibited.