“I spend $80 a day, daily, nonstop, 365 days of the year. $29,000, that's what I pay for these birds to care for them so they can eat, because they're not going to be here long. We're only here for a little while.”
— LUIS, FEEDER
Seven New Yorkers, two forms of devotion:
THE FEEDERS: Self-appointed guardians who treat care as a calling. Nita traded art and journalism for Central Park, where the pigeons and squirrels are her family. Luis spreads seed on the same Bushwick corner every day for the birds that kept him out of trouble. And Artist Mother Pigeon has a wild flock of her own and takes on the netters who trap city birds for live pigeon shoots.
THE FLIERS: Old-school competitors who hustle for birds and bragging rights. Hubert nabs birds off rival roofs and never lets anyone forget it. Tommy pours himself into a new flock after his wife died. Dave fights to keep his coop as the neighborhood gentrifies around him. And Carlos opens a pigeon shop and finds out the difference between keeping birds and moving product.
“The main thing about pigeon flying... is catching other people's pigeons. I ain't catching nobody's bird and giving them back. I don't care who you are.”
— HUBERT, FLIER
“I want people to realize that the pigeons are our brothers and sisters. They're just like us. They have the same types of emotions. They communicate, they have language. They have feelings, they have love.”
— NITA, FEEDER
“When I was a kid there was ten people on my block that flew birds and now I'm the only one in a 30, 40 block vicinity that has birds”