BART passengers may be surprised to see an unexpected set of wings when they get to their station. It’s not one of the many pigeons that show up uninvited, but instead, a Harris’s hawk named Pac-Man.
Pac-Man and his handler Ricky Ortiz come from an organization called Falcon Force. BART hired the company to help combat an excessive pigeon population at El Cerrito del Norte station, which has been extremely effective with handling the situation.
Glen Park Station is one of the BART stations with a high pigeon population.
According to ABC7 News, Ortiz said, “Usually when the birds see me walking they already know, so they usually start to take offif there are any. And if not then I just let him go and he usually just flies from perch to perch, and I call him back, and that’s enough to get ‘em out of here.”
The company makes sure that no pigeons are harmed in this process. The presence of a predator only makes it difficult for the pigeons to live there, forcing them to move somewhere else.
According to NPR, the owner of Falcon Force, Vahe Alaverdian said, “So they just basically go across the street into the otherparking lot and find the docks and so on to continue life … without getting harmed.”
In a podcast with The Crusader, Riordan science instructor Colleen O’Rourke said, “That’s literally what would be happening in the wild anyway.”
BART itself is impressed at the impact Pac-Man has had on the stations, which has prompted the transit company to expand their initiative across 12 more stations. Despite the reach of the initiative, people are usually unbothered by the presence of a hawk.
Riordan student Lucas Libiran ’26 said, “All the times that I’ve seen the hawks, they don’t really bother anyone and are with a human being at all times so I think I’d prefer to keep them rather than have pigeons everywhere.”
Interestingly, Pac-Man’s impact doesn’t stop there. He has become an icon, and they even turned the hawk into a mascot. He’s companions with an anime character named Nimbus, who was given the title “bard of BART.” Some Bay Area residents areconflicted in their feelings about the mascot.
Katelyn Leong ’25 said, “A big part of me is a little hesitant to get on board with this because it doesn’t really represent BART, just the aspect of pigeon population control, and I think it takes away from an iconic aspect of city life by smearing it with a trendy character.”
