Look, every once in a while you walk through a downtown and the pigeons are simply not interested in you. They have moved on. They have, internally, made some peace with the cuckoo clocks. The 90-minute walk that produced this photo essay was, for the photographer, a small revelation about the limits of urban-bird charisma.

Below: twelve.

1. Bruckenstrasse and Edelweiss, 9:14 a.m.

A medium-sized rock pigeon (Columba livia) on the curb outside the souvenir-shop entrance, declining to acknowledge the photographer’s presence at six-foot range. The pigeon was, per the photographer’s direct visual observation, awake.

2. The bench outside Hofer’s Bakery, 9:21 a.m.

This pigeon has selected the only sun-warmed slat of the bench and is, the photographer believes, in the early stages of a midday roost. The strudel exhaust from Hofer’s underground production cellar has produced, by 9:21 a.m., a faint warm column of air that this pigeon has correctly identified.

3. The lamp standard at Bruckenstrasse and Hauptstrasse, 9:33 a.m.

A pigeon perched at the precise lateral midpoint of the lamp’s horizontal cross-arm, regarding the photographer with what appeared, on review of the photograph, to be deep professional indifference.

4. The roof of the Helen Welcome Center, 9:48 a.m.

This pigeon was photographed approximately fourteen feet from one of the documented downtown rooftop goats (subject of separate Bavarian Brainrot coverage). The pigeon’s body language with respect to the goat is, in the photographer’s read, one of long-standing operational coexistence.

5. The window ledge of the Heidi Motel & Windmill Suites lobby, 9:57 a.m.

Two pigeons, side by side, on the ledge below the second-story balcony, looking inward at the lobby. They are, in the photographer’s subjective read, watching the lobby televison, which on Tuesday morning was tuned to the Atlanta NBC affiliate and which was, at the moment of the photograph, broadcasting a commercial for the Mercedes-Benz Stadium guided tour.

6. The roof of the second smallest cuckoo-clock store on Bruckenstrasse, 10:09 a.m.

The pigeon is on the very edge of the dormer. The photographer experienced, briefly, real concern. The pigeon was fine.

7. The seat of an unattended outdoor patio chair at the Bodensee, 10:21 a.m.

This is a juvenile pigeon. The photographer hung back. The juvenile pigeon, on the chair, communicated by posture that the chair was now, in some morally meaningful sense, the juvenile pigeon’s chair. The photographer did not contest the juvenile pigeon’s claim.

8. The base of a downtown trash receptacle, 10:34 a.m.

This pigeon has identified the small gap between the trash-receptacle’s base and the sidewalk as a viable repose location. The gap is, by the photographer’s estimate, approximately three inches in vertical clearance. The pigeon fits.

9. The midpoint of a crosswalk, 10:46 a.m.

The pigeon is in the crosswalk. The pigeon is not crossing. The pigeon is standing in the crosswalk, looking due south, doing nothing. Three vehicles have, in the period since the photograph was taken, slowed to allow the pigeon to clear the crosswalk. The pigeon has not cleared the crosswalk.

10. The crown of the giant glockenspiel housing at the corner of Edelweiss and Bruckenstrasse, 10:53 a.m.

The pigeon’s body is, in the photograph, in unobstructed silhouette against the ornamental brass crown of the glockenspiel. The Bavarian Brainrot newsroom is unable to confirm whether the pigeon was present during the most recent 11:00 a.m. chime; the photograph was taken at 10:53 a.m. and the photographer’s walk continued.

11. The gravel parking-lot edge behind the Helen Tubing & Waterpark dispatch building, 11:08 a.m.

This pigeon was photographed in a flock of eleven. The flock was, at the moment of the photograph, engaged in the consumption of approximately one and a half discarded soft pretzels of unknown provenance. None of the eleven pigeons looked at the photographer. None of the eleven pigeons broke off from the consumption activity.

12. The small bronze plaque commemorating the 1979 dedication of the Edelweiss Strasse footbridge, 11:22 a.m.

The final pigeon was photographed on top of the plaque. The plaque, which is the size and orientation of a small letter envelope, accommodates one pigeon. The pigeon, on the plaque, completes the photo essay.

— Romi Fitzgerald