By: Tenderloin Geographic Society
Technically rock doves, popularly sky rats, you’ll find every city in the world lousy with them. Pablo Picasso named his youngest daughter Paloma--interchangeably translated as dove or pigeon in Spanish. Picasso also declared good taste the enemy of art, so take that as you will.

Those of you who follow the Society are surely acquainted with the Pigeon of the Month Club, a somewhat arbitrary yet deeply felt aesthetic exercise that came about when our hatred of these filthy creatures came full circle and wound up at unholy fascination.

Through the efforts of little old Russian/Italian/Chinese grandmothers/grandfathers/aunties, pigeons are fed into oblivion and over-breeding, staining the sidewalk with their poisonous guano. Stumpy-toed, mite-bitten, feather bereft, the flaming phoenix on our city flag may as well be a pigeon, so pervasive is this fowl. We hold our breath as they inelegantly alight out of fear. We fear them more than bees when a flight of them nearly puts an eye out. But there they are, their existence an affront and yet a strange comfort.

And so, let us honor these ignoble beasts. But why should we have all the fun?
Help us choose the crowning glory of May, a pigeon to welcome the coming of spring. At this point, it’s far easier than sussing out favorites for mayoral candidacy:

The Tenderloin Geographic Society is San Francisco's home for colloquial cartography, citizenship services since 2006, and amateur ornithology since 2010. Stay tuned for the Tenderloin Report.