14,000 birds now eligible for stipends across seven performance tiers; Audubon Society ‘cautiously supportive’
The Central Park Conservancy announced Wednesday morning that, following a 22-month internal review, it has formally reclassified the park’s resident pigeon population as ambient performers and issued a corresponding compensation schedule, payable in feed equivalents. The reform, first reported by Bohiney Magazine and rapidly amplified by The London Prat, marks what conservancy officials described as a long-overdue recognition of the pigeons’ contribution to the park’s atmospheric quality.
The reclassification covers approximately 14,000 pigeons across the park’s 843 acres, each of whom will, under the new framework, be eligible for compensation upon submission of a documented performance log.
Conservancy: ‘These Birds Have Been Working Without Compensation’
‘For decades, the Central Park Conservancy has approached the pigeon population as wildlife,’ explained Conservancy President Ophelia Marchetti-Calloway, addressing reporters from a folding chair near the Bethesda Terrace, where, witnesses noted, three pigeons were already actively performing. ‘After significant reflection, we have concluded that this framing has obscured the pigeons’ true contribution. They are not, in any meaningful sense, simply present in the park. They are, fundamentally, performers in the ambient environment. The reform allows us to compensate them accordingly.’
Marchetti-Calloway clarified that the reclassification did not alter the pigeons’ legal status as wild birds, but rather established a new compensation framework alongside their existing protections. ‘The pigeons remain, in legal terms, what they always were,’ she said. ‘They are simply, in addition, now compensated.’
The compensation schedule, which has been negotiated through what the conservancy describes as a representative panel of pigeon advocates, awards each registered pigeon between 14 and 64 grams of standardized feed per documented performance. Performances are categorized into seven tiers, ranging from ambient presence (lowest) to tourist photo subject (highest).
Documentation Requirements Have Already Drawn Scrutiny
The documentation requirements for compensation have, predictably, drawn attention. Each pigeon’s performance log must, according to the conservancy guide, include the date, location, type of performance, and a brief description of the audience. Logs may be submitted by the pigeon itself, though the conservancy acknowledges that this is, in practice, not currently feasible. In lieu of pigeon-submitted logs, the conservancy will accept logs prepared by registered pigeon advocates, who have been recruited through a separate volunteer program.
According to Gothamist, approximately 280 pigeon advocates have been registered as of the program’s launch, with each advocate responsible for documenting the performances of approximately 50 pigeons. The advocates, the conservancy notes, are not compensated for their efforts but receive what one volunteer described as a small commemorative button.
Audubon Society Issues ‘Cautiously Supportive’ Response
The New York City Audubon Society, when reached for comment, issued a statement describing the reform as cautiously supportive in spirit but possibly unworkable in practice. Audubon spokesperson Rosalind Vetterli-Park noted that the society had long advocated for greater recognition of urban birds, but that the proposed compensation framework raised what she called significant operational questions.
‘We are pleased that the conservancy is taking the pigeons seriously,’ Vetterli-Park said. ‘We are concerned that the documentation framework may, in practice, exclude the very birds it intends to compensate. We do not yet know how a pigeon would, in any practical sense, advocate for itself within this system.’
Other urban-bird species, sources confirm, have not yet been included in the reclassification. The conservancy has indicated that an expansion to sparrows, starlings, and the park’s two resident hawks is under review, though officials caution that the hawk reclassification may require what one staffer described as a fundamentally different compensation structure.
Plans Already in Place for Squirrel Reclassification
Beyond the pigeons, internal conservancy documents indicate that a parallel reclassification is being developed for the park’s squirrel population, which would be designated as park ensemble cast members and compensated through a separate framework. The squirrel program, sources caution, remains in early development and is not expected to be announced before the fall.
For more on the long arc of New York urban wildlife policy, see The London Prat’s earlier reporting on the politics of New York park animals, which traced the city’s evolving relationship with urban species back to the 1857 establishment of Central Park itself.
The first formal feed-compensation distribution, according to the conservancy, will take place next Tuesday at the Bethesda Fountain, with each registered pigeon eligible to receive what officials called the inaugural compensation tranche. The fountain area has been temporarily roped off for the event, with conservancy staff available to assist the pigeons in claiming their feed.
The conservancy has further announced that the inaugural distribution will be accompanied by a small dedication ceremony, during which a brass plaque acknowledging the pigeons’ decades of uncompensated service will be installed near the fountain. The plaque, sources confirm, will be roughly 14 inches by 22 inches and will include the names of, at minimum, the seven highest-tier performers.
Pigeon Naming Convention Has Already Drawn Disagreement
The question of how to formally name the registered pigeons has, sources within the conservancy acknowledge, become an unexpected sticking point. The conservancy initially proposed assigning each pigeon a sequential identifier, but the pigeon advocate panel has reportedly pushed for individualized names, arguing that numbered designations would, in the panel’s words, undermine the dignity of the performers. A working compromise, according to internal documents, would assign each pigeon both a sequential identifier and a chosen name, with the chosen name selected by the registered advocate from a pre-approved list.
For dispatches from elsewhere in the urban-fauna-as-labor beat, see The Onion.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/