Pigeon Moves Into Williamsburg Apartment, Builds Nest In Pasta Strainer

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN — You know a neighborhood has reached peak gentrification when the natives are forced to make their homes in the pasta strainers of the young professionals.

Such has been the plight of Adelaide, a pregnant, down-on-her-luck Williamsburg street pigeon who noticed, in recent weeks, a fifth-floor window left slightly ajar in an apartment building near the Lorimer stop. With nowhere left to turn, the pigeon flew inside — and spotted, in the kitchen area, a squatter's paradise in the form of a bright-orange pasta strainer perched on a top shelf.

So, naturally, the pigeon turned it into a nest.

UPDATE: Adelaide's eggs are eggs no more. And we've got video.

"I got home around 7 a.m. yesterday, and as soon as I opened the door, there was a cacophony of flapping and banging sounds," 33-year-old Genevieve Roman, the human on the lease, told Patch. "So I could tell there was a bird in my house."

But the pigeon quickly shot out the window, and Roman thought that would be that.

"Then I noticed a couple sticks on my stove, and a few little bits of down on my kitchen floor," she said. "Then I saw the sticks poking out of the pasta strainer — and when I looked inside, I saw the eggs."

Roman returned home to her apartment this week after two months out of town. Before she left, she remembers leaving the window cracked a few inches, as her unit has a tendency to overheat.

Now, the young Williamsburg resident — who works as an immigration lawyer and describes herself as a "huge animal lover" — finds herself facing a tough choice. Evict the new subletter, or learn to co-exist?

The pigeon has continued coming and going as she pleases through the window crack. "I haven't done anything yet," Roman said. "She's still in my apartment."

"I was hoping that some organization or a person who raises [pigeons] would be able to take the eggs and put them in an incubator," she said. "But no one cares about pigeons."

Roman said she's also afraid to put the nest on the roof of her building, because last time she saw a nest up there, the landlord ended up throwing it into the garbage.

So she's now considering letting the pigeon stay — at least until the eggs hatch.

"I know it's crazy," Roman said. "But she’s been very low-impact so far. She doesn’t wander around my apartment pooping — there’s no bird poop anywhere. She just sits on the eggs."

And after looking into the gestation period of a baby pigeon, Roman said she found out "it's not that long. It’s like 20 days."

Roman also appears to have grown somewhat attached to her new roommate: In the 36 or so hours since she's been home, she's chosen a name for the bird — Adelaide — and made her an Instagram account. (The pigeon's Instagram bio reads: "I built a nest in a colander in a stranger's kitchen when she was out of town for 2 months and left the window cracked for air circulation.")

The immigration attorney has even begun calling the pigeon eggs her "anchor babies," and is considering setting up a live cam so people can watch them hatch, a la April the giraffe.

"I would be like the one idiot who keeps the bird," she said.

You can follow the adventures of Genevieve and Adelaide on Instagram at @adelaide_the_pigeon. And make sure to subscribe to the Williamsburg-Greenpoint Patch for breaking updates on the two baby street pigeons about to be born into a life of privilege in a bright-orange pasta strainer near the Lorimer stop.

Photos courtesy of Genevieve Roman