You see them on your morning commute. You can’t escape them as you dine al fresco. You can’t even think “sandwich” in a city park without being approached by a flock. Roughly one million pigeons live alongside New York City’s residents, yet the average New Yorker sees these feral birds solely as pests.

Before you scoff at those pigeons mumbling outside your apartment, take a second look at their regal roots.

Walk like a Pigegyptian It’s hard to tell where the pigeon actually originates from, but Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets and Egyptian hieroglyphics suggest pigeons were domesticated more than 5,000 years ago.

You’ve come a long way, baby. Introduced to North America from Europe in the early 1600s, pigeons who live in New York City today are descendants of the Rock Dove, a cliff-dwelling bird that’s historically found in coastal regions.

Ever seen a baby pigeon? Didn’t think so. Squabs stay in the nest with their parents for up to one month or until they can survive on their own. By the time they leave the nest, they so closely resemble adult pigeons, it’s hard to tell them apart from their parents.

Co-parenting at its finest. Both male and female Rock Pigeons produce “pigeon milk,” a liquid loaded with protein and fat for their offspring. Baby pigeons, or squabs, eat nothing but pigeon milk for the first three days, then gradually ween off to solids like seeds.

There’s a rescue organization. New York City Pigeon Rescue Central is where you can find out more about needy birds living across the city (by location) and what to do should you come in contact with an injured bird.

You can catch a disease (or three) from pigeons. There are three human diseases are associated with pigeon droppings: histoplasmosis, cryptococcosis, and psittacosis. Histoplasmosis and cryptococcosis are both caused by a fungus that grows in pigeon droppings, but can also grow in soil. Walking by your neighborhood pigeons’s stomping grounds won’t hurt you though, most cases appear after high exposure. While psittacosis (also known as ornithosis or parrot fever) mainly affects parrots and birds like cockatiels and parakeets, but may also affect other birds, like pigeons. However, psittacosis is very rare with less than one human case identified each year in New York City.

Pigeons lent a wing to major news organizations. Prior to opening an office in London in 1851, Paul Julius Reuter used pigeons to fly stock prices between Aachen and Brussels for a year until a more advanced telegraph was developed.

They have their own holiday. On June 13, the New York Bird Club and United Poultry Concerns celebrate National Pigeon Day, where members of the public are invited to celebrate pigeons and the joy they bring city residents.

If you’re a pigeon devotee, Cornell Lab of Ornithology is interested in you. Project PigeonWatch is an international research project where “participants observe pigeons and send their data to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, where scientists compile the information and use it to examine questions of scientific interest. People participate by counting pigeons and recording courtship behaviors observed in their neighborhood pigeon flocks.” Talk about flocking to the Ivy League.

Cash in. The Blue Prince, the most expensive homing pigeon in the world, was sold to a Chinese buyer for $200,000 at an auction in Belgium. The highly pedigreed racing champion isn’t your average bird. He’s since retired from homing pigeon races and is living out his days on a rooftop in China, where he’ll be used for breeding.

It wouldn’t be New York City without them. New York State Senator Tony Avella may have captured the spirit of the pigeon best when he said “Pigeons are often a city child’s first contact with nature and an elderly person’s only friend.” A feathered friend you can always count on, perhaps they’re not so bad after all.