As the star of “Little Wing,” Brooklynn Prince bonds with pigeons while helping a Vietnam vet recover his prize-winning passenger pigeon, which she initially stole, from Russian mafioso.

Prince, 13 and acting since she was 2, is completely candid that when she began this picture, these lowly fowl were more despised than loved.

“I would go to New York with my Mom and I was like, ‘Pigeons! They’re so gross.’ I was kind of scared of them and thought they’re basically rats that can fly and carry diseases.

“And then,” she continued in a Zoom interview, “when I read the script for a ‘Little Wing’ I was, ‘Oh! They can do so much more than steal your French fries.’ ”

“Little Wing” is adapted from a magazine article by best-selling author Susan Orlean (her “The Orchid Thief” became Meryl Streep’s Oscar-nominated “Adaptation”).

Prince’s Kaitlyn is a troubled teen, miserable because her parents are divorcing which forces them to move.  Desperate to save her house from being sold she hatches a crackpot plan to steal a race-winning champion passenger pigeon worth $120,000 and sell it to the highest bidder.

Luckily for Kaitlyn, its owner (“Succession” star Brian Cox) has no plans to bring in the police and jail this confused teenager.  Instead, he helps her when she’s given two pigeons.

For Prince, whose brilliant career was launched with the 2017 Oscar-nominated “The Florida Project,” “Little Wings” offered unexpected challenges.

“I’m going to tell you a story: I was actually really, really terrified of pigeons. At first, I went in and saw that they literally had a room just filled with a bunch of cages of pigeons. I was like, ‘Oh. My. God.’ Then I had some training to do by myself.  The bird handlers Lauren (Henry) and Roland (Sonnenburg) saw that I was scared so they were, ‘We’re going to give her the maximum time with the pigeons.’ They would just take me out to get to know the pigeons.

“But with all the birds calling and fluttering, I ran out and started bawling. I was so scared.

“It was like the first time I think where I was actually like, doubting my ability to do something and be brave.

“My ‘Mimmy’ told me, ‘You can do this. It’s okay to be scared.’ And Lauren just handed me the bird — and he’s the most chill thing.

“I loved him so much. Basically from there, the rest is history. I just became really comfortable with the birds and the birds got to know me.”

“Little Wing” is streaming on Paramount+