Pigeons are simply feral rock doves that never left the city

Kracht's entry on the common pigeon reframes a bird most people consider an urban pest as, biologically, the same species as the rock dove, a bird humans domesticated thousands of years ago for food, messaging, and companionship before many escaped or were released into cities worldwide. Their comfort walking among crowds, their apparent fearlessness of humans, and their tendency to nest on building ledges rather than cliffs are all inherited habits from generations of domestication, not evidence of a uniquely urban species.

This lineage also explains their oddly specific homing ability, famously exploited in messenger-pigeon programs, which persists in feral populations even though nobody is training them for it anymore. Kracht's joke is that a bird descended from prized, carefully bred animals somehow ended up as the most disrespected creature on any city sidewalk.

Takeaway: the pigeon you're annoyed by is a domesticated animal's feral descendant, not a wild species that chose city life.