Mark my words: 2026 is going to be the year of the pigeon and I for one couldn’t be happier. I’ve been on Team Pigeon for years now, appreciating their beauty and tenacity while others kick out at them on the street and shriek away from their flapping wings as if the dragon Smaug himself is swooping down to pluck humans with his talons.
Pigeons are everywhere at the moment. My social media is flooded not only with delightful videos of these industrious birds building one of their haphazard nests around a fresh litter of kittens or making best friends with an elderly gentleman, but the brands have started to cotton on too. Pigeon T-shirts, hats, stickers, sweatshirts – you want it, they’ve got it. I will accept that there is an element of confirmation bias at play here given my fondness for these tiny, gutsy, mangle-footed postmen of the sky. However, when I lick my finger and hold it aloft in the winds of popular culture, I can feel it coming. Pigeons will be huge this year.
Actor Sarah Paulson brought light to the plight of the pigeon while on a press tour in October of last year. On the popular Las Culturistas podcast she said she hated the misconception that pigeons are “rats with wings”. She told hosts Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers “They mate for life. They are not dirty. They are talked about as if they are disgusting. Pigeon hate must be stopped.” Paulson also referenced the fact that humans domesticated the pigeon thousands of years ago so that they could be used to carry messages. They were used in ancient Greece and the Roman empire. They were, right until the second World War, the most reliable form of sending intel, sometimes even attached to tiny parachutes and dropped behind enemy lines by the Allies before flying back to England with messages from the resistance.
[ Emer McLysaght: I get sick delight from seagulls robbing chips from crying kidsOpens in new window ]
The majority of the pigeons we see in our cities are not truly wild birds, but feral descendants of domesticated rock doves. Once the domesticated birds were no longer useful to humans, they were left to fend for themselves. They were bred on a diet of grains but there’s not much in the way of grains on the menu on Grafton Street on a Sunday morning so instead they scavenge and eat opportunistically. And you have the nerve to call them disgusting? After what we did to them?
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My one and only beef with pigeons occurred around 15 years ago when I was renting a flat in Fairview. The eaves were positively bedevilled by pigeons – every pigeon in Dublin it felt like, at times – and the nonstop cooing and moaning did have me googling pest controllers in the wee small hours. In the end I accepted that they had as much right to be there as I did and I moved out. I’m of the opinion that “vermin” like pigeons and seagulls and rats are just trying to survive in a world where humans are the invasive species. The reason pigeons are so comfy clinging to the side of a building is because their ancestors, the rock doves, are most at home on a cliff face.
My reputation as a pigeon fancier has, over the years, influenced gifts from friends. Just this past Christmas I received a delightful pigeon scarf and earrings as a Kris Kindle present. I have pigeon art, pigeon ornaments, even a tattoo of a pigeon wearing wellies. If ever there was a bird in need of protective footwear it’s the pigeon. Their mangled or missing feet do nothing to endear them to a public that despises them. The cause of their foot problems is often down to spending so much time around humans scavenging for food and therefore their delicate little talons get entwined in human hair and other lengths of waste materials. There is a small but mighty movement of people who take the time to catch birds whose feet are bound and use seam rippers to free them. I would love to join their ranks but alas I fear I would spend most of the time crying.
The tide is turning in favour of pigeons, though. I’m calling it now. Best to be on the right side of history and next time you see a pigeon nestled in between the spikes placed to keep them off a ledge, you should doff your cap to her and salute her as the adaptable queen that she is.
