House Pigeon

TODAY'S BIG QUESTION: WOULD YOU LET A PAIR OF PIGEONS INTO YOUR HOME?  Thursday, May 28, 2020

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JASPER DOEST By Rachael Bale, ANIMALS Executive Editor Pigeons are not “flying rats,” and Jasper Doest is determined to change that perception. His photography project, “Pandemic Pigeons: A Love Story,” chronicles the lives of Ollie and Dollie, a pair of bold pigeons that has befriended his family while isolating in their apartment in the Netherlands. They’ve grown so comfortable that they come into the kitchen to check the dishes for crumbs (above, Ollie on a plate and Dollie around the corner) and into the living room to check out his daughters’ dollhouse. They hang around when the family eats sushi take-out, while the girls are doing their home-schooling, and when Jasper has his morning tea on the balcony. We recently published some of Jasper’s photos as well as a story he wrote about the experience. “Every time I’m cleaning their waste off our balcony, I do understand how people see pigeons as a nuisance,” he writes. “But my impulse to malign them evaporated.” (Pictured below, Jasper’s daughter, Merel, momentarily startled as Dollie swoops by and Ollie, left, lands on the balcony.)

If you can get past all that poop, pigeons really are quite remarkable. They’re resilient to the many hazards of city living. They can problem-solve, recognize individual human faces, count from one to nine, and tell the difference between cubist paintings and impressionist ones. Their homing and navigational skills have been prized for thousands of years, and domesticated racing pigeons can fly more than a thousand miles and at speeds upwards of 50 miles an hour. And despite their reputation, they rarely make people sick. To be honest, I never thought much about pigeons one way or another. They’ve never grossed me out the way they do many people, but I wasn’t particularly fond of them either. After working with Jasper on this story, I see them in a whole new light. Despite the social isolation and instability of the world today, “these daily visits have become a reminder of another reality,” Jasper says. “We are not alone on this planet, and we need to share it with all living beings as if our lives depend on it.” (Below, Ollie flying off after wandering around the girls’ dollhouse.) Don't get this newsletter daily? Sign up here.