Center City tour

Photo by Holden Blanco.

On our Center City Pigeon Tour, encounter Philly’s pigeons from Independence Mall to City Hall!

Your guide will bring you through Center City, visiting pigeon flocks that live everywhere from grassy parks to nooks in buildings. You’ll observe pigeons interacting with people and the built environment, navigating hostile architecture, and bathing in fountains.

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This calendar only shows Center City tours. See all Philly tours.

What you’ll do

We’ll start the tour at a historic park, where we’ll teach useful birdwatching skills.
Next, we’ll visit a pigeon flock with unique coloring. We may occasionally see a red-tailed hawk on the hunt!
We’ll walk through Center City, encoutering smaller groups of pigeons looking for food or roosting.
Lastly, we’ll visit City Hall, where we’ll discuss pigeon history and observe a larger flock snacking, drinking, and bathing.

What to expect

Duration

This tour lasts 1½ hours. Out of respect for your time, we aim to start and end the tour right on time.

Distance

1 mile / 1.6 km

Meetup / ending location

We start the tour at the Independence Visitor Center at 599 Market Street, and end at City Hall, about 1 mile / 1.6 km away.

This is a one-way tour route, but both locations are a short distance from public transit.

Accessibility

Sidewalks in this neighborhood are relatively flat. We are not aware of permanent obstacles to wheelchairs or other mobility devices along our route. Unexpected obstacles (like construction) may occur, but we’ll route around them.

If you have specific mobility needs or questions, please get in touch and we’ll work to meet your needs.

Restrooms

There are restrooms inside the Independence Visitor Center.

Food and water

We don’t have planned stops for refreshments during the tour, but there are abundant options near our start and end points.

Public transportation

Take the Market-Frankford Line (“The L”) to 5th St / Independence Hall.

To get from City Hall (our end location) back to the Independence Visitor Center, take the Market-Frankford Line from 15th St / City Hall to 5th St.

Parking

The meetup location has the following parking nearby:

Autopark at Independence Mall (closest)
Many other paid parking garages

We do not recommend parking in 2-hour street parking, as it’s unlikely you’ll be able to return to your car in time after the tour ends. Street parking in this area is both challenging to find and strictly enforced.

What to bring

Pigeon tours are rain-or-shine — just like pigeons — so make sure to be prepared.

Weather-appropriate clothes and footwear
Sun protection, including sunscreen, sunglasses, maybe a hat.
Water
Cash (or Venmo) if you’d like to tip your guide
Your binoculars, if you have a pair you like

If you don’t have your own binoculars, no worries — you can borrow one of our loaner pairs!