What To Do If You Have Problems With Pigeons

To some, pigeons are a visual and aesthetic problem. To others, they are only a problem when present in great numbers or when roosting on buildings or under bridges. Their droppings can disfigure buildings, and if left to accumulate, can cause serious disfigurement due, probably, to their acidic nature. But usually, pigeons do little if any actual structural damage to buildings.

Solutions

> Tolerance: To those for whom pigeons are an irritant or eyesore, remember that they are one of the few animals that will tolerate the environmental conditions humans impose on the inner city.

> Habitat Management: One of the essential keys to controlling excess numbers of pigeons around urban neighborhoods and parks is to limit the amount of done by humans. Frequently, large numbers of these birds are supported by well-intentioned individuals who regularly supplement them with bread, table scraps, or birdseed. Generally, feeding is incremental. From a modest beginning, the individual feeder encourages more and more birds to appear of stay in the area, thus requiring more feeding and further enhancing bird numbers. Eventually, the situation gets out of control, to the detriment of all concerned. The golden rule to pigeon feeding is moderation.

> Exclusions: Pigeons prefer to perch on flat surfaces and certainly need these to nest. Nests are usually built under shelter and as much in a cubby as the parents can find. Wood or metal sheathing can be installed on a ledge at an angle that denies pigeons the opportunity to use that surface. An angle of at least 45 degrees is needed, and 60 degrees is required to ensure that even the most determined attempt to land would be rebuffed. Bird wires will exclude pigeons from ledges, railings, awnings, and rooftops. Any of the types - single-strand, coils, or porcupine wire - will be effective, but where problems are severe or pigeons are numerous and persistent, the porcupine wire has been used most frequently. Netting is the tool of choice for many conflicts with pigeons as well as other urban birds when large areas have to be treated. Netting can be used to exclude birds from virtually any type of structure, from a house to an office building. To evict birds from window ledges, the netting is anchored to the roof, draped across the front of the structure and then tightly secured to the base and sides of the building. Netting can be used under bridges or inside buildings where pigeons perch on beams, girders, struts, and supports. The netting can be suspended below the perches to create a false ceiling that excludes the birds.

> Scare Devices: Homemade or commercial scarecrows are often used to attempt to frighten pigeons away from an area, especially where no strong attraction such as a food source occurs. These may or may not work. The types that move or are even motorized stand a better chance of achieving some result, but pigeons often accommodate quickly to any type of scarecrow used against them.

> Repellents: We do not recommend use of chemical repellents for pigeons because of the lethal consequences and its danger to other birds.

Physical Appearance

The classic appearance of the urban pigeon is of a plump-bodied bird with a small head, black bars on its inner wings, a white rump and a dark band at the end of its tail.

Habitat

Pigeons occur throughout the United States, Mexico, and most of southern Canada. They have not yet established a foothold in northern Canada and Alaska. Although primarily a bird of urban settings, large populations of pigeons are found in small towns as well. Under some conditions, such as around grainaries, large flocks of pigeons may occur in rural areas as well. Pigeons are gregarious and tend to be found in small flocks of around 20 to 30 birds, although far larger aggregations, which are made up of numbers of flocks, also occur.

Feeding Habits

Pigeons appear to be dietary generalists because they do sample all of the many foods offered them by people in city parks, but they specialize in seeds and grains. They are regarded as inveterate panhandlers by humans, but where they have been studied, the bulk of their diet is found to come not from foods directly provided by people but from waste grain or seeds from city flora.

Mating & Breeding

Pigeons breed throughout the year, even during winter, and can raise 4 or 5 broods annually. The female usually lays two eggs (less often one or three and, rarely, four), sheltering them on a crude and loosely constructed nest structure without lining. The nest is made of branch and root pieces and occasionally leaves. It is built on a ledge, such as a building windowsill or a bridge girder. Incubation takes about 16 to 19 days, and the young are fed crop milk for about the first two weeks. (Crop milk is a specially produced secretion that both parents produce from the lining of the crop, a sack-like food storage chamber that projects outward from the bottom of the esophagus.) Crop milk is a highly nutritious and efficient way of feeding young. Apparently, this way of feeding young has been acquired independently in such diverse bird groups as flamingos, pigeons, and penguins.

Public Health

Pigeons play a role in the environmental concern of histoplasmosis, and are known carriers of cryptococcoses and salmonella. However, there is little evidence linking pigeons directly to infections in humans.

- Information provided by the Humane Society of the United States

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