Photos of a Beirut woman's rooftop sanctuary for pigeons

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BEIRUT (AP) — Every evening as the sun drops behind Beirut’s concrete skyline, Loubna Hamdan steps onto her rooftop and whistles. A flutter of wings follows. Dozens of pigeons — white, speckled, chestnut, black — circle above her, catching the day's last light. Here, the 36-year-old office worker has found an unexpected refuge.

Hamdan never imagined she would keep pigeons. The interest began a decade ago through her husband, Ibrahim Ammar, who has raised birds since childhood. She admired how calmly they settled on him and how he always sensed when one was missing.

“I fell in love with pigeons because of the way he loved them,” she said.

She scatters grain, checks the water and looks for any bird that seems weak or hurt. Ammar joins her, showing her how to handle them gently and how to read their behavior in the air.

As dusk deepens, the flock settles into the loft. “When the pigeons return,” Hamdan said, “it feels like home.”

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This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.