It perches, it poops, and apparently… it spies. A British twist on the “Birds Aren’t Real” theory has launched, and it’s creepier, funnier, and way more believable than you think it is.  

It starts with a feeling. You’re walking home after a night out. Your mate’s mid-rant about taxis, and then you both stop. A pigeon stands in the middle of the pavement. It’s late – too late for a bird to be loitering. But here it is – watching. Not moving.

You step forward. It pecks at the asphalt. You step again. It hops to the side, the same distance between you. Then it flies up to a lamppost right above your head, and just…. stares. It just sits there. It looks like a bird. It acts like a bird. But something about it feels wrong – too timed like it was waiting.

You laugh it off. Obviously, it’s just a bird.

But then again… is it?

Welcome to the world of ‘Birds Aren’t Real’ theory – the viral conspiracy born in the U.S., but increasingly gaining popularity here in the UK. What started in 2017 as a protest prank by student Peter McIndoe to mock how wild conspiracy theories can go, has evolved into a digital-age satire, a cultural commentary, and – in some cases – a belief system.

TikTok is full of videos of pigeons perched on wires for hours, staring through bedroom windows, or freezing mid-flight. Reddit users share clips of the same pigeon turning up in the same spot every day. The “Birds Aren’t Real” TikTok account has over 837,000 followers, and the Reddit community counts more than half a million self-declared “patriots.” The theory’s taken root in the UK too, with its own Instagram accounts and websites pushing the narrative further. The more people joke about it, the more some start to genuinely wonder – what if there’s something to it?

According to the theory, birds – specifically pigeons – were replaced by surveillance drones during the Cold War. By now, most of the pigeons you see are high-tech spies. The new birds recharge on power lines and use their poop to track you. Absurd? Maybe. But it spread fast. “If it flies, it spies” is now a meme, a mindset, and a movement.

To figure out where the joke ends and something real begins, I met with Milena Goryannaya, 18, a student in Sheffield, and a pigeon truther.

“It’s not about all birds,” she says. “But I think some pigeons are drones.”

She shows me a clip – a pigeon standing completely motionless for six minutes. 

“It didn’t blink. Didn’t shift. Just sat there. That didn’t look like a real bird. Why wasn’t it moving?” Milena says.

She started noticing patterns with other pigeons as well. Same pigeon. Same window. Every other morning.

“Some weekdays I wake up early enough to do my morning routine before lectures,” Milena says. “Once, I was eating my breakfast and looking out the window when I spotted a pigeon staring at me. I didn’t give it any attention – until it repeated. I’ve started noticing the same pigeon every morning around 9:30 a.m.

“At first, I joked about it, but the more it kept happening, the more I started thinking… what if it’s not a coincidence?”

If pigeons are drones, why aren’t they used to catch criminals? Wouldn’t we know by now?

“Maybe they already do,” Milena says. “But the government never says that out loud. Their role could be just like CCTV cameras – you don’t see what they’re doing until you’re already caught. 

“Pigeons are just one part of a bigger system. No one would question where the footage came from if they were told it was from a security camera. That’s the whole point, right? The power is in the invisibility.”

For Milena, the idea isn’t even new.

“Governments have used pigeons in the war to carry secret messages across the borders,” says Milena. “If we trusted them then, why not now? The technology has changed, but the idea hasn’t. They’re fast and everywhere. At that point, a pigeon drone makes more sense than another obvious CCTV.”

To understand the other side, I spoke to Professor Ben J Hatchwell, an evolutionary ecologist at the University of Sheffield – a person who’s spent a career studying birds.

“This isn’t the first time I’ve heard this one,” he says with a smile. “And yes – birds are real.”

He’s patient and he’s clear. 

“Their behaviour is too complex to fake,” says Professor Hatchwell. “If you watch pigeons interacting, they behave normally, just like any other bird does. It’s not something you could build – not now, and not back then.

“There are robot dogs and robot humans; they might be very intelligent, but they certainly wouldn’t be able to behave in a natural manner.”

Still, we pushed him on some of the theory’s greatest hits. Why do pigeons perch on power lines?

“They’re just convenient,” he says. “For them, a power line is another thing to perch on, just like a branch or a tree.”

And the most famous question of all – why have so few of us ever seen a baby pigeon?

“They grow rapidly in the nest,” says Professor Hatchwell. “By the time they leave, they’re full-sized. You’ve almost certainly seen a young pigeon – you just didn’t know it.”

He chuckled. End of discussion? Not quite.

“There’s a peregrine falcon nest in Sheffield just by the Diamond Building,” he says. “Top of St George’s Church. You can watch CCTV. The main species they feed on is pigeons that they catch. When they catch them and tear them apart, they are flesh-and-blood. No wires. Not drones.”

Then he paused. Smiled.

“Unless maybe,” he adds, “they just know which ones are real.”

Was he joking – probably?

But that’s how it starts. Thinking deeper, we are surrounded by pigeons most of the time. 

“No one questions a pigeon,” Milena says. “They became so ordinary in our daily life, people are just used to them. They’re everywhere. They can fly and get where cameras can’t. Why wouldn’t the government use that?

“I don’t need to prove it to everyone. I just noticed these things. That’s enough for me. I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out that pigeons are spying on people.”

Maybe that’s the point. “Pigeons Aren’t Real” isn’t about making you believe. It’s about making you stop, look, and wonder – what if?

Professor Hatchwell is still confident. “I’ve studied birds and seen pigeons. Their behaviour, how they move, eat, and behave. If I found out that this theory is true, I’ll have to recalibrate everything I think about the world,” he says.

Yet… the idea lives on.

In 2025, rethinking everything is kind of normal. We live in a world where AI can fake your voice, and your phone knows what you’ve been talking about 10 minutes ago. Is a pigeon drone really that much weirder?

Maybe.

Just don’t be surprised when the pigeon is there again tomorrow. Same lamppost. Same stare. 

And this time, maybe it’s not just watching.