Philly Pigeon Tours to offer historical walking tour as city celebrates America's 250th anniversary

Philly Pigeon Tours — which offers guided walking tours exploring the behaviors and biology of city-dwelling pigeons — will be launching three days of tours specific to a side of American history not often explored with a series called Pigeons in America. 

The 90-minute tours will look at nesting sites and flocks along the tour's route in the Italian Market while delving into the history of pigeons in North America, from the once-abundant but now extinct passenger pigeon to the more familiar rock pigeons you pass on the street each day. 

Co-founder and tour guide Hannah Michelle Brower says the tour will be a historical journey exploring passenger pigeons and the Lenape people, as well as looking at how the arrival of European colonizers accelerated commercial exploitation and ultimately contributed to the extinction of the bird.

Part of the tour will also trek the path of the modern-day rock pigeon. 

Brower and partner Aspen Simone hope people walk away with some surprising facts and a new appreciation for the human-pigeon bond.

"One thing that surprises people is learning that our negative perception of pigeons is actually very recent," Brower said. "For at least 5,000 years, humans had an overwhelmingly positive relationship with pigeons — as messengers, food, companions, and even war heroes. It wasn't until the mid-1900s that public attitudes really began to shift."

Brower's own fascination with pigeons began a couple of years ago when she was walking to a grocery store in Bella Vista and encountered someone who found a pigeon that needed help getting to a wildlife rehabilitator. 

"I didn't know or care about pigeons at the time, but I cared that this person was so distressed," she explained. "Instead of walking home with groceries that evening, I walked home with a pigeon in a cardboard box."

While Brower searched for a rehabilitator, the pigeon named Primrose just wanted to be near her. 

"She sat on my shoulder and followed me everywhere," Brower said. "By the time I found a rehabilitator, I'd completely fallen in love with her."

A couple of weeks later, the rehabilitator told Brower Primrose had recovered but was too human-oriented to survive out on the streets, so Brower and her partner adopted her.

"Living with Primrose completely changed the way we saw pigeons. We started noticing behaviors we'd never paid attention to before and dove into the science and history of pigeons. We became fascinated — and couldn't stop talking about them. We planned to offer just one pigeon tour, but after the first tour sold out and people asked for more, it turned into Philly Pigeon Tours."

Pigeons in American tours will be held Saturday through Monday. Find more information at phillypigeontours.com/america.