How Philly's "pigeon people" turned a pet bird into a walking tour
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Hannah Michelle Brower and her partner, Aspen Simone. Photo: Courtesy of Holden Blanco
Philly's "pigeon people" want to change your mind about one of the world's most maligned birds.
Why it matters: Aspen Simone and Hannah Michelle Brower — often spotted carrying their pet pigeon, Primrose, around town in a transparent backpack — have created a walking tour that challenges the "rats with wings" stereotype and traces the birds' surprising history.
Their motto is simple: "Pigeon haters welcome."
- Saturday through Monday, the couple is leading tours inspired by the nation's 250th anniversary that explore America's complicated relationship with pigeons. They'll meet at Get A Gato cafe at 10am.
- Tickets are $25 for adults and $10 for children 4 and up.
Zoom out: The tours began last year when the couple lost their jobs because of federal budget cuts — Brower as a public health consultant and Simone at a tech agency that worked with the federal government.
- More than 1,100 people have taken their tours, they tell Axios.
Flashback: Throughout history, humans have relied on pigeons.
- To the Romans, pigeon dung was the best fertilizer, Simone says.
- The Lenape — Pennsylvania's Indigenous tribe — relied on them for food and made tools from their bones.
- And the British used homing pigeons during World War II to secretly carry intelligence in Nazi-occupied Europe.
Yes, but: In the 1960s, a "pigeon scare" reshaped how the birds were viewed in America, Simone says.
- It was fueled by Alfred Hitchcock's film "The Birds," a disease outbreak in New York linked to pigeon droppings, and closer to home, city police officers firing blank rounds to drive pigeons away from City Hall.
The intrigue: Simone and Brower even bought into the stereotypes.
- When a woman in their Bella Vista neighborhood begged Brower to take in a malnourished young pigeon, her first thought was that the bird would make a better meal for a city cat.
- Still, she brought the bird home in a cardboard box. Simone's reaction? "Ewww, gross."
But Primrose's fiery orange eyes, emerald feathers, and quirky habits (she'll fly to the sink when she wants a bath and nuzzle when she wants to be petted) won the couple over.
- They spoiled her with parrot toys and treats like split peas and spotted dick pudding.
- One day, when they were walking with Primrose, a stranger gave them a book on pigeon watching.
- It sparked an obsession. They dove into the birds' genetics and fascinating navigation skills — until they decided they wanted to share their knowledge with others.
What they're saying: "We both really value a sense of interconnectedness with our environment, the ecosystem, wildlife, the Earth and other people," Brower says.
- "The way that we talk and think about pigeons really mirrors the way that we talk and think about groups of people, especially groups of people we may perceive as undesirable or enemies," Simone says.
The bottom line: Philly Pigeon Tours hopes to turn the city's overlooked neighbors into feathered friends.