The Affair of the Pigeons

 

The Affair of the Pigeons

Date: 1920s–1943

Story:
In his later years, Tesla became increasingly isolated, wandering the parks of New York City.
There, he developed a deep attachment to pigeons—especially one white female pigeon.
He claimed she would fly into his hotel room daily, and once said, “I loved that pigeon as a man loves a woman.”
Tesla insisted she had a special light in her eyes, and that he received visions through her.
One night, he claimed she appeared with a blinding light and died in his hands.
Tesla said at that moment, “something went out of my life.”
Critics labeled this a descent into madness, but some saw it as a symbol of his emotional torment and loneliness.
He had sacrificed marriage and personal life for science—and this relationship, however strange, was all he had.
The pigeon, strangely, died just months before Tesla’s own death.
Their bond remains one of history’s most bizarre and tragic love stories.

Key Characters:

Nikola Tesla
The white pigeon
Hotel staff at New Yorker Hotel
Journalists who documented Tesla’s last years

Reference:

O’Neill, Prodigal Genius
New York Times Obituary, 1943
Hotel New Yorker Archives