South Kensington Pigeon...?

Prettier (!) in large.

I was taking pictures of this pigeon to pass the time (whilst waiting to meet up with a friend, not whilst avoiding work...!), and it got me to thinking about the phenomenon of the "South Kensington Pigeon"... They are many types of pigeon to be seen about town, and if you woke up somewhere random in London with no recollection of where you were or how you got there, the pigeons themselves would give you quite a few hints of your rough location at least...

First of all, there are definitely standard "London pigeons" that don't give you many clues about where you are: they're the street-wise ones that look rather bedraggled and dirty, and are missing toes or feet. These can be seen on pavements throughout London, although they are most common in busy parts of town, and even on buses and on the underground. Those are standard London pigeons; it is a treat to see a very healthy-looking one, and one can usually assume that it is simply young if it looks healthy. Standard London pigeons don't really help you to identity your location.
At the other end of the scale are "Chelsea pigeons" which are the healthy-looking ones that are plump and clean, and although there is still a chance that they're missing toes, it is less of a given (young or old). Chelsea pigeons are found in affluent areas throughout London, but particularly in boroughs with good street cleaning as it is fibres (including hair!) and litter that ligature pigeons' toes/feet and cause them to atrophy or get infected (and thus lost...).
Wood pigeons tell you that you are most likely outside the centre of town. If there are more wood pigeons than feral pigeons (descended from rock doves) then you are almost certainly outside zone 3... Collared doves are a rare treat, and I've never seen one inside of zone 3 so they can help too. If the pigeon will take food from your hand then you're probably in zone 1, and if the pigeon will land on you uninvited then welcome to Trafalgar Square.

South Kensington pigeons are a subset of Chelsea pigeons in that many of them look healthy, but the funny thing about South Kensington pigeons is that if you point a camera at them, they develop the power to hypnotise tourists! Tourists in South Kensington are so used to seeing sights, that they'll point a camera (/iPad) at anything that is drawing attention. I have noted this on several occasions, but when I turned around after taking this shot, there were three other people photographing it! There were two pigeons asleep on the well-lit "London Underground"; sign above me (a much better picture for a tourist!), yet the tourists were only interested in the one that I was pointing my camera at...

This individual is actually rather atypical as its left foot is lost so it hobbles around, and it is moulting so its head looks patchy. The hypnotising effect definitely marks it out though, and it otherwise seemed pretty healthy, perky and clean.