rats of the sky

Whenever Im at the zoo, and I see a sparrow or something just hopping around near the food courts, I think of how arbitrarily we choose to revere one animal, and disregard the next. Well, not arbitrarily, but geographically... still, it seems to me that sparrows and robins and pigeons get a pretty unfair shake. Because, while I love the rainbow colors of tropical birds, theres a beautiful subtlety to neutral colors that is often disregarded. Anyway, I was interested in this project, undertaken by Berlin-based artists Julian Charriere and Julius Von Bismark, in which pigeons were dyed (organically and non-harmully, Im told) all the colors of the rainbow, in an effort to make people see the beauty in the everyday, and reconsider their negative associations with what are often called the Rats of the Sky.  

They do look beautiful, dont they?

via here