Over the next year and a half, a 17-foot sculpture of a pigeon named Dinosaur will grace a Manhattan neighborhood. Among other things, it’s a reminder that birds evolved from T-Rex and company.

Early European settlers brought pigeons to the New World as a food source. As natural cliff dwellers, feral pigeons were at home in city heights, especially as skylines reached ever higher.

In both world wars, their homing ability and visual acuity made pigeons valuable messengers. In fact, they were more honored than any other animal for saving soldiers’ lives.

As the word “pigeonhole” attests, we tend to categorize individuals  before we take the time to know them. Maybe pigeons can also remind us that there’s so much more under the surface.