Guest Post by Heather Hohlowski
This Wood pigeon was the inspiration behind @theCooBox, a pigeon-centric Instagram account run by Zoltán, a native of Budapest, Hungary, and a lifelong friend to pigeons. One day, his boyfriend lent him a Canon 400D camera (“with a crappy lens” according to Zoltán) to see if he was into photography or not. Turns out he was. With thousands of feral pigeons in the city squares, and with a natural eye for composition, Zoltán has been posting stunning pigeon portraits on Instagram since 2015. Here are some of my favorites:
According to Zoltán, pigeons do have some fans in Budapest, mostly elderly, who feed the birds in the city squares: “They trust the ones they know but keep a distance from the ones they don’t. Some of the city squares have their local caretakers, who put out water and food regularly. When they arrive, the birds immediately flock to them and follow them around.” He describes one older woman who dresses as a witch and draws runes on the ground before putting the seeds down: “Even the hooded crows follow and trust her.”
Zoltán also found many pigeon fans at MondoCon, a huge annual event celebrating manga, anime, video games, role-playing games, and more. Zoltán photographed many attendees happily posing for him with two pigeon stuffed animals he brought along.
MondoCon attendees strike a pose with Zoltán’s pigeons
Unfortunately, the majority of the people in Budapest (as in so many cities around the world) do not like pigeons. As in many of our own Bay Area cities, pigeon spikes are a frequent sight in downtown areas and around high-traffic commuter hubs: “The majority of the people here do not like them — for reasons we can change if we put in the effort to make the city more pigeon friendly.”
Zoltán has found no local pigeon rescues in Budapest but he hopes to change peoples’ perceptions of pigeons through his photography. If his work can inspire more general interest in their wellbeing, then perhaps some day a rescue organization will develop — maybe Zoltán will start one himself. “I think people should know about the history — why these birds are with us — and take some responsibility and find ways to live together with them.”
See more of Zoltán’s work on Instagram @theCooBox.
