Numan Khan, a digital artist in the UK, started using AI to create his Instagram content – animals in human-like scenarios – a year and a half ago. These cute and often humorous scenes were an immediate hit. Before 2025, he had less than 10 thousand followers. Now, he has over one million. But there’s one animal in particular that he’s noticed seems to tug at people’s heartstrings online: the humble pigeon. His depictions of pigeons drinking matcha, wearing Timberland boots or holding hands with another pigeon get the most engagement of any other animal, like monkeys or even cats. “Pigeons are everywhere – you see them all over the world,” he says. “But they are not really considered and pretty much ignored.” 

Judging by the fact that he says pigeons are the “most loved animal” on his Instagram, it seems the young people that follow Khan are ready to see the bird in a new light. They are not alone – across social media, there’s an increasing number of pigeon posts: pigeon memes, ethereal pigeon photography, pigeon wedding cakes, emo pigeon poems, pigeon ASMR videos and TikToks about using pigeons as a litmus test for empathy. There’s even a new app, Carrier Pidge, where you can send a message to friends at pigeon speed (110 mph). In the age of AI, pigeons have become a symbol of slower communication and our forgotten connection with the natural world. 

It’s not just pigeons young people are interested in: there’s been a 1,088% increase in birdwatching among British Gen Z since 2018. This is largely because it gets you offline and in nature. But there is, of course, some irony in the fact that AI pigeon art or a vibe-coded pigeon app is going viral: not-so-simple (and even frightening) new technology is being recreate the beauty of birds that remind us of a much simpler time. 

Ask any “pigeon person” and they’ll tell you that the pigeons you see on the street today are descendants of rock doves once domesticated by humans, before we abandoned them after we no longer needed to use them as messengers. This means they rely on human scraps, since they have no natural food source on the streets of, say, New York. There’s even some pop-culture lure to this sad backstory: Woody Allen famously described pigeons as “rats with wings”. And thus, the scene was set for modern humanity to blame Pigeons for a problem that humans created. That was until the internet gave young people access to the information that true bird lovers have always known: pigeons need our help.

A misunderstood bird, pigeons have come to capture young people’s rising distrust in authority. It’s why pigeons have been subject to their own conspiracy theory (that they are drones), or why there have been so many iterations of similar posts going around this year that go like: “Well, perhaps the pigeons think YOU are ‘vermin’ too”. Brysen, a 21-year-old in America, says he's had a passion for pigeons since he was 12. In 2023, he started his Instagram page, Black Gold Avians, to advocate for the birds. “I think people today are waking up to the systems of unfairness and hypocrisy around us,” he says. “To understand the plight of pigeons and their history is to be faced with the ugly truth of human ego.”

“I think people today are waking up to the systems of unfairness and hypocrisy around us,” he says. “To understand the plight of pigeons and their history is to be faced with the ugly truth of human ego.”

Over the summer, Kirsty Webb, who is based in the UK, posted her rescue pigeonfluencer, Sausage, doing a mini tarot reading. It attracted more attention than just the bird community online. “I think more and more people are realising pigeons aren't just ‘flying rats’,” she says. “Pigeons helped us win wars and save lives. We failed them.” Meanwhile, people are discovering they can be what Abby Jardine, a content creator in New York, calls “purse pigeons” – highly affectionate and trainable pets you can bring to places like a dog. Jardine put her pet rescue pigeon, Pidge, in her purse first out of necessity: she needed to get to her now-husband’s apartment. Now, she says Pidge enjoys her bags more than her regular carrier (which she apparently gets carsick in). “There’s no going back,” she adds. 

“I didn’t see myself having a pet pigeon; it just happened,” says Jardine. “I found her when she was a baby, and she was out of her nest too early – I took her home thinking I would release her but, as I learned more about pigeons, I learned they make a really great pet.” Jardine posts videos of Pige in her bag at a party or getting ready with her. In her comments, people write things like: “Can we please make pigeons mainstream pets again?” And Jardine herself has a theory about why pigeons have captivated such an audience: their multiple thousand-year history with humans. “Other than this little hundred-year blip in our history of not liking pigeons, we innately like them,” she says. 

It’s true that what were once considered “street rats” seem to be re-carving a specifically pigeon-shaped place in people’s hearts: many young people feel passionate about speaking up for pigeons, even during a time when advocating for animal rights in general (through veganism or protesting) is not exactly popular. It’s something filmmaker Troy Vetri wasn’t expecting when he started making his documentary, Pigeon Religion. While the pigeon people in Vetri’s film are seasoned bird lovers and pigeon racers in New York, the film itself has attracted thousands of mostly young people on social media, despite still being in the festival circuit.

“When I started this film in 2020, I didn’t really know who my audience was going to be,” he says. “I’ve been surprised at the young people following and commenting on Instagram – it’s something I wasn’t really prepared for.” Since he started filming, too, a massive pigeon statue (a piece called “Dinosaur” by the artist Iván Argote) was put up in Chelsea, New York, with New Yorkers starting multiple petitions hoping to make it stay permanently. “People have become very aware that this animal is so harmless and gets treated like garbage,” says Vetri. 

“I think they feel disenfranchised and disillusioned with the state of the world... They see similarities in the way that pigeons are treated with the way that people are being treated”

Vetri speaks about pigeons in the same way I started to when researching for this article – once you start looking into pigeons, it’s hard to watch them scrounge for food across the city without feeling somewhat responsible. It’s not that I think pigeons are the most pressing issue of our time (nor are they the only reminder of humans’ complete disregard for the natural world), but they are animals you can tangibly help by ordering some birdseed. Perhaps that’s what is so appealing about pigeon advocacy, in comparison to tackling issues like climate change or factory farming: it’s something people don’t feel hopeless about. And the best part about all the recent pigeon posting is that it does seem to be inspiring real-world action, according to pigeon advocate Susan Joyce. 

Joyce says she’s witnessed an influx of young volunteers at the National Pigeon Advocacy Association. “I think they feel disenfranchised and disillusioned with the state of the world,” she says. “There’s a lot of eco-anxiety and political alienation, and they see similarities in the way that pigeons are treated with the way that people are being treated”. In other words, if a government doesn’t care enough about the wellbeing of its people, it certainly doesn’t care about the pigeons. In this sense, pigeons have become a mirror to the world we were once promised and the reality of the one we’re living in now. “What I love about pigeons is their resilience,” adds Joyce. “Despite the fact that they’re actually one of the most neglected animals on the planet, they’re just getting on with their lives and making the best of every day.”