After flying to the nearest city to learn about the peregrine falcon, the world's fastest bird (and world's fastest animal)—capable of diving up to 240 miles per hour—The Kratt Brothers are disappointed to find only a flock of ordinary pigeons. But after accidentally activating his creature power suit, Chris transforms into a homing pigeon and finds himself lost in the big city. While trying to find his way home, Chris discovers that pigeons are not so ordinary and boring after all. Meanwhile, Zach decides to rid his skyscraper of all birds, including the family of peregrines that are nested on the side of the building, leaving it up to the Wild Kratts to harness the powers of both falcon and pigeon to save them.
Tropes:
- Amusing Injuries: Narrowly averted when a Zachbot goes to whack Chris with a comically large flyswatter, only to miss and send Zach through his own painting and the flyswatter instead.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
- Aviva leaves the Kratt brothers to go to Gears and Gadget Supplies, a store within the city. Jimmy leaves to go to his favorite pizza place a block away. Koki...leaves to visit her aunt.
- When Chris is getting chased by a peregrine falcon and Martin measures the speed of both animals, both brothers have this to offer.Martin: This is amazing! This is incredible!
Chris: This is scary!
- Big Applesauce: While not actually stated to be New York City, the bulk of the episode takes place in a city that looks identical to it, right down to the buildings. Aviva tasks Chris and Martin with finding a peregrine falcon in the skies so they can try out their new falcon powers.
- Big Eater: Martin, with pigeon powers, manages to eat a slice of Jimmy's pizza within a single second, about as well as if it were a glass of water.
- Bird-Poop Gag: Zach finds a flock of pigeons resting on a balcony of his skyscraper and wants them all to go away, ordering his Zachbots to get rid of them. Instead of disguising himself as a normal pigeon, Chris outs himself and gives Zach a useful piece of advice about pigeon poop that doesn't go over so well.Chris: Zach, wait!
Zach: You. Oh, so now you're Bird Boy and you wanna ruin my painting, huh?
Chris: No, I'm just trying to tell you that pigeons poop when they get scared, because it's a way to make them lighter for flying faster away from falcons. So if you scare the pigeons, well, then...
Zach: Boo!
[the pigeons fly away, pooping on Zach's painting in the process] - Continuity Nod: An accidentally-transformed Chris ends up eating bad food, just like in "Tazzy Chris".
- Deadpan Snarker:
- Not necessarily deadpan, but Chris sarcastically thanks Martin for "the play-by-play" when the elder brother tells him about the peregrine falcon's method of attack.
- Zach delivers a more deadpan reaction later on when he sees Chris and Martin divebomb for him and land on his roof.Zach: Oh, it's you. Let me guess, it's happy bird-day.
- Everyone Has Standards: Chris and Martin are fascinated by creatures and want to learn everything they can about them, but they immediately draw the line at pigeons — at least at first, before they come around once they study the animals.
- Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: Zach calls the transformed Kratt brothers "big flying chickens", then proceeds to laugh at him calling them chickens when they have falcon powers.
- Evil Is Petty: When a pigeon sits next to Zach and hungrily eyes his cookie, Zach teases it by putting the cookie in front of his face and then yanking it away. He gets distracted by a second pigeon and the first pigeon gets the cookie regardless, causing him to throw a fit and storm off with the Zachbot and his cushion on tow. Chris and Martin understandably get a good laugh over it and concede that they should give pigeons a chance instead of brushing them off.
- Evil Tower of Ominousness: Zach has a place of residence, but his Evil Lair is a skyscraper in the city that towers over every other building seen and is colored darker.
- Failed a Spot Check: No member of the Wild Kratts Crew manages to spot Zach's skyscraper located in the city. Chris and Martin in particular don't even have any idea why Zach is in the park on the outskirts of the city.
- Faint in Shock: Directly after insulting Chris and Martin, Zach turns around and sees a pigeon sitting on the edge of his balcony, who coos at him and causes him to faint in surprise.
- Foreshadowing: The Wild Kratts Crew jumping on the trampoline looks to be a fun thing before the plot starts. However, the concept of gravity comes into play as a topic of discussion, which comes in handy when Chris and Martin take out a few Zachbots who are threatening to destroy a peregrine falcon family.
- Glass Smack and Slide: Chris arrives back in the park after having gotten lost in the city and ends up slamming right into the front windows of the Tortuga's head, causing him to plummet to the ground, deactivate his Creature Power Suit, and return to normal.
- Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: The Wild Kratts Crew uses a trampoline to test the whims of gravity, and bouncing on it has the same effects as in the real world. A minute later, they're off to the city using the Tortuga's hover thrusters, which explicitly defy gravity and is only possible in cartoons.
- I'm Not Doing That Again: Chris has this reaction to his time spent with pigeon powers and getting lost in the city. Much to his confusion, Martin is all too eager to try out pigeon powers for himself even after going through anxiety about his missing brother.
- Keep Away: Martin and Chris do this with Zach's controller once they get ahold of it, before they punt it towards the Tortuga, where Aviva catches it and reconfigures it.
- Lactating Male: When Chris accidentally transforms into a pigeon, Martin remarks that he's not hungry for pigeon milk. Chris is male, but he transformed into a female pigeon who had been feeding her young moments before.
- Making the Choice for You: Peregrine falcons are found on every single continent except for Antartica, meaning that the Wild Kratts Crew could go anywhere to find them. Jimmy chooses the city, causing Chris to remark that he wanted to go to the Ethiopian highlands while Martin was aiming for the Brazilian pantanal.Jimmy: Well, you said wherever there are flocks of medium-sized birds.
Chris and Martin: Pigeons? - The Migration: Zach and his Zachbots are defeated by Aviva reconfiguring the remote he has that controls his Zachbots so that they become bird-bots instead. The bird-bots fly south for a two-week vacation and immediately take Zach with them.
- My Instincts Are Showing: Chris accidentally displays a lot of pigeon instincts while he's transformed, up to and including the pigeon homing instinct, which comes in handy when he gets lost in the city and needs to return to Martin and the others. When he does manage to return, he does a Glass Smack and Slide on the Tortuga that makes him deactivate his suit and return to normal, but he still wanders about and coos like a pigeon for a few seconds before Aviva snaps him out of it.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Chris leans on the activation button of his Creature Power Suit while the pigeon feeding her baby chicks milk pecks his nose. It causes the suit to activate, granting him pigeon powers and turning him into a pigeon that surprisingly acts just like a normal pigeon at first, right down to eating an old French fry on the ground.
- Pesky Pigeons:
- Martin and Chris think of pigeons as having nothing special about them, right down to the lack of powers. They're quick to change their mind when they see a pigeon go after a cookie Zach wants to eat, and getting a good laugh over it.
- Zach in general thinks all pigeons are pesky, right down to the point where he has no qualms having his Zachbots harm them for the sake of selfishly wanting his building clean.
- Title Drop: Koki does it near the end of the episode, after Chris gives his Subverted Catchphrase.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Martin decides to name the peregrine falcon hatchling Fluff. Chris calls him out on the weird name choice given that the hatchling will eventually grow up and not be so fluffy.Chris: Fluff?
Martin: Yeah, Fluff the falcon.
Chris: What happens when she gets older?
Martin: Ah, Fluff works for now. - Would Hurt a Child: Zach is all too willing to get rid of the peregrine falcon nest that sits in one of the crevices of his building, which has a hatchling that was born only a few days ago. This is even after Martin and Chris try to compromise with him by telling him he can clean his building after two weeks, when the hatchling will gain feathers and be able to fly.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: In order to catch the eye of a peregrine falcon and touch one to activate falcon powers, Martin decides to go the "wounded pigeon" route, which involves him faltering in his flight and selling the bit by complaining about how he ate some moldy bread and feels ill. It works, with a few hiccups.
- Zerg Rush: Zach tries to get rid of Chris and Martin by sending a load of Zachbots after them. Even though they're two transformed peregrine falcons, they still manage to wipe out a good chunk of them using the falcon's techniques for hunting prey. Realizing the fight could go on forever with Zach sending out more and more Zachbots, Aviva tells them to go for Zach's controller.
