Pigeon-watching hotspots to see around town #3: The Central Library High-Flyers Flock.

Downtown Los Angeles architecture is one of the primary lures for tourists and sightseers, and, for bird lovers, the Central Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library has a neat, al fresco pigeon flock, which, just in recent years, discovered a perch, atop the Library's titling signage, on 5th, nearby where the Library's main entrance lies, just up the street. 

The Richard J. Riordan Los Angeles Public Library (Central Branch) flock of pigeons, perched atop the outside of the apiary, as well as on the ledge, where they find shelter from the sunlight, during the day.

The street is lined with young Magnolia trees, of which feature a delightful floral fragrance;

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at the time being, the trees flower very sparsely, or not at all, just yet. They're being grown to shape them properly, for their full adult tree form, I figure. There's also some classic street lamps, a former pond (I think), which has been filled up with dirt, and which feature dwarf natal plum shrubbery - it makes for a nice (maybe not the nicest - wood chips?) feeding pen for the birds. 

An exciting meal, with the Central Branch LAPL High-Flying Pigeon Flock. Many of the birds present, on a daily basis, here in the spring time of 2024, are babies - there's perhaps 10, or so, young ones, whom had just this season come out, in to the public, for the flock's daily fare, outside the Library's facade.

For people, the ledge surrounding the feeding pen makes for a suitable spot to sit and feed the birds: it's an exciting spot to visit, with gorgeous architecture across the street; various sides of the street - there's the U.S. Bank Building, the Gas Company Lofts, The Millennium Biltmore Hotel, 444 Flower, The Westin Bonaventure Hotel, and, the Library, itself, features notable architecture, itself, for that matter. 

Back when I had my iPad Pro, I caught some great video footage of this flock, from the bird-feeder's perspective, as they spot me, preparing a meal for them. 

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This flock is a somewhat closed form flock of pigeons - the location, despite being quite nearby other flocks of birds, doesn't typically get a lot of newcomers and transient port birds, although there is some mixing and mingling around, of other birds, here and there. I'm not sure where the birds nest, either. 

Check this flock out, when you're in town! They're great birds.

Update 11/02/2024: Big news to update readers and visitors to this flock about - since I first posted this article, back in late April of 2024, a new influx of pigeons; approximately double the long-time original numbers of about 2 dozen, had shown up and joined the library flock's numbers. Although it's intimidating to take on the feeding of ever more numbers of birds, over time, the flock took well enough to the newcomers, and the new ones assimilated well, in their new location at the library. 

This being the case, the birds aren't so isolated, after all. The exciting news is, is that, apparently, the new birds might be a bit young, compared to the rest of a typical local flock's average age of the constituent birds, and the new ones haven't been imprinted with negative conditioning signals, all that much, at all. Some of them have been bold, in coming up to me when I have food out, preparing to toss the food to them, and they sneak in, some of them, and nearly fearlessly, at that. Yesterday, I was able to grab one, and I held it, for a moment, just as a test. Today, I chose to try out hand-feeding some of these newcomer young birds, since they're being competitive for a chance to eat as much as they'd like to, which, they usually do; it's just that they perhaps forget that they would be fed their full, or the constraints of flock behavior may cause them anxiety, so they step all over each other, in this case, trying to get a shot at eating out of my hand. 

This had got to be a quite major milestone, for these birds, on account of the location and ease of access to the birds, with their being situated on 5th Street, nearby the north side entrance to the library, which is a major pedestrian thoroughfare. Hopefully the birds don't get mistreated and un-homed for, or from, the area. In other words, if you do take one home, please be sure to bring it back and release it in the presence of the other pigeons. I'm sure that the at-home experience of taking one of these birds back is all that satisfying, at this point, because they're still inherently a bit scared of people. It's just not ideal. 

Other than that, new individuals have been arriving to feed the birds, in addition to that I see to their feeding on nearly every day, out of a week, and it's open and fair game to go ahead and try out feeding these birds. It's a pretty exciting flock to feed, comparatively, especially if you want to try out hand-feeding them. I recommend using seeds or peanuts.

Pigeon-watching hotspots to see around town #8: Santa Monica Pier and Bluffs Flock, by Day and by Night.

 

The world-famous Santa Monica Pier Lighted Display Arch, in Santa Monica, CA, USA.

Santa Monica is definitely one of the Los Angeles region's most popular tourist destinations, with many attractions within the city; the Santa Monica Pier, being the most prominent landmark in town, with the sun's setting happening over the Pacific Ocean, each evening, off over the horizon, or beyond Malibu and Topanga Canyon. It's nature's majesty at some of its best, on the west coast. 

Taking a closer, more localized look around the area, we are witnessing a novel animal amusement park beginning to develop, in recent years. The locals might have typically been considered to have been wondering what to do about this huge flock of hundreds of pigeons, nearby the pier? The topic had even made the news, back in 2022, when a man took up the call to action, at a time when the fear of birds, due to the pandemic, had further pushed pigeons, amongst the public, out on a lonely boat, at sea, so to speak. 

Unforeseen, a rich and bustling wildlife scene has become established, with huge numbers of squirrel families now populating the bluffs, and the pigeons show up for a piece of the action, as well. 

Hordes of squirrel families have propogated themselves on the Santa Monica Freeway / Pacific Coast Highway bluffs, neighboring the Santa Monica Pier. The bluffs feature exciting natural ecology for both squirrels, as well as pigeons, to thrive, amongst the tourists and local wildlife lovers, alike.

The pigeons and squirrels make for a lively and dynamic daily foray, amongst the panoramic views of local beach-side ecology and the ocean horizon.

The pigeons and squirrels of the Santa Monica State Beach Bluffs work out who's eating what, out of what I throw out, for the birds. 

An Iranian pigeon checks out a squirrel who'd bossed his way in to getting some of the food, while the other critters and a fellow pigeon look on.

These day time photos were from a recent Day 1: of a weekend, 2-day excursion,in which I'd ended up at the beach, to do recycling. This pigeons and squirrels dynamic is really a new thing, over the past year or two, or so - there definitely had not been so many squirrels. There's really a lot of them, but there's so many tourists, and they seem to all get by, just fine, as is, and I'm sure that the city's Animal Control staff can figure out what to do, if there were a problem about overpopulation, or something. 

The next time I came down to Santa Monica (earlier, last night), I arrived around evening / just past sundown, for my Day 2 excursion. This time, I spotted another pigeon presence novelty - the underneath-the-pier night shift pigeons. A nighttime flock of pigeons who are active, still, is quite rare, here in the Greater Los Angeles area, so - making Santa Monica a stop, in your day, whether it be night time, or sun out, seeing the pigeons out, doing their thing, can fit in to most any tourist schedule.

As I walked along the beach, passing underneath the pier, some of the local pigeons flew down from the rafters, and they decided to check me out, to see if I had any food for them.

Some pigeons from the pier flock, at nighttime, mingling as they discover a prospect for a meal.

I had some bread, so I gave them what I had, and the birds were happy. 

The next time you're out in Santa Monica, perhaps you'll encounter these pigeons, along your path, on and around the beach and bluffs.

A pigeon pursues a potential companion, or young one, as pigeons will do.