The black-and-white pigeon with elaborately feathered feet immediately caused a stir when it appeared at Alexandria’s Amtrak station in June. “Why is a penguin here?” ticket agent Octavia Scott says she and her coworkers joked. Commuters posted photos of the bird, which was quickly identified by online sleuths as a Lahore pigeon, a domesticated “fancy pigeon” prized by aficionados. While people online tried out monikers like Paul and Pickles for the bird, the staff decided to name him Gregory Alex—Alex for Alexandria and Gregory just because it seemed to fit the way he presented himself. “He’s like an old man,” Scott explains—elegant and a bit reserved.

Scott bought a bag of birdseed for Gregory after noticing he wouldn’t touch the food that commuters began to bring to the station—bread

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