October 3, 2009
Solving Problems with Pigeons
Pests to some, pigeons are one of the few birds that can tolerate the inner city environment
iStockphoto
It appears to be an ideal arrangement. Our cities provide room and board. In return, pigeons add a little warmth and live to our cold concrete canyons. So what's the problem?
In a word: droppings. Pigeon droppings are unsightly and they can damage buildings, monuments, and cars.
But there are humane, non-lethal ways to cope—make roosting and nesting sites inaccessible, reduce the free food supply, and limit hatching of additional birds.
What attracts pigeons to urban areas?
Common conflicts and solutions
- Roosting and droppings—single structure
- Large flocks in neighborhoods
- Large flocks in public places
- Food
- Limiting hatching
Why killing doesn't work
Public health and pigeons
Resources
What attracts pigeons to urban areas?
From a pigeon's point of view, city living can't be beat. Food and water are readily available. Predators are rare. Plus, there's plenty of free housing. Window ledges, rooftops, bridges, and warehouses offer space for whole flocks to rest and shelter.
Pigeons were originally Old World cliff-face dwellers. In our cities, they find plenty of artificial cliffs and ledges that make great nest sites.
Pigeons aren't too fussy about what they eat. They sample all of the many foods offered by people in city parks, even though they prefer seeds and grains. However, most pigeons don't depend on handouts or garbage, as is commonly assumed. These are pigeon convenience foods much like our fast foods and microwave dinners.
Common conflicts and solutions
Roosting and droppings—single structure
Pigeons like flat surfaces for roosting and nesting. And they usually build nests in as much of a cubby as the parents can find. Make flat surfaces unavailable to the birds and they will roost and nest elsewhere.
There are a few ways you can make flat surfaces no-pigeon zones. Wood or metal sheathing installed at a 45- to 60- degree angle as a cover over frequently used ledges will keep pigeons from landing. Bird wires will keep pigeons off ledges, railings, awnings, and rooftops. Where the pigeon problem is serious, strips that give mild electric shocks work better than wires. Choose netting to keep pigeons out of large areas. All of these products, including an angled ledge modifier can be viewed on the Bird Barrier website.
Sticky gel repellents made from polybutene can harm birds. The HSUS recommends they not be used. The dense, sticky gel adheres to and fouls feathers of any bird who come into contact. It can be most harmful to smaller species. In 2008, polybutene gel used on the Virginia Commonwealth capitol building killed 23 cedar waxwings.
Large flocks in neighborhoods
Virtually all of our conflicts with pigeons can be tied at one point or another to feeding. Not the casual, toss a piece of popcorn supplemental feeding of visitor's to a park, but the dumped bag of birdseed feeding that many pigeons aficionados feel necessary to "help" urban pigeons cope. It is of no help to pigeons, and in fact a great threat to them, when such feeding activities cause them to aggregate in large numbers. In neighborhoods, homeowners who feed pigeons may do so inadvertently or innocently, thinking the birds need a handout. Changing the type, amount and timing of feeding will help deter any conflicts the presence of large numbers of pigeons can create.
Large flocks in public places
These quintessentially urban birds spend much time in town squares, public parks, and similar open urban places. When the pigeon problem concerns the whole community, the whole community needs to get on a solution that:
- Changes human behavior, especially pigeon feeding and trash management.
- Excludes pigeons from buildings and other places where they are not wanted.
- Limits hatching of additional pigeons with dovecotes or contraception.
Food
To control pigeon numbers it is key to limit availability of food. Food attracts pigeons, and well-fed pigeons stick around—and reproduce.
Well-intentioned pigeon lovers can support many birds by regularly feeding them. Generally, feeding starts small but the easy meals attracts more birds and helps them raise more young. These situations can get out of control, to the detriment of all concerned. If excess feeding is already going on, the best thing for the birds is to reduce feeding gradually over several weeks.
Pigeons hang around town squares and public parks to help themselves to leftovers and dropped crumbs. Prompt clean up is the best way to discourage visits. Also, look for inviting habitat nearby such as convenient nest sites and open trash. When attractions are removed, pigeons are likely to spend less time in town squares and public parks.
Limit hatching
A pair of pigeons, breeding throughout the year, can raise a dozen or more young each year. If pigeons have plenty of food and space, their numbers can increase quickly. But there are two humane ways to limit additions to pigeon flocks.
Removing pigeons' eggs before they start to incubate will keep birds from raising young. But finding and getting to the nests—there's the rub. In some cities, people build special structures for pigeons to nest in. In the past, these dovecotes housed pigeons and doves raised for human food. Today, they attract nesting pigeons so people can remove their eggs.
If you want a less labor-intensive option, there's contraception for pigeons—OvoControl-P. Available in a kibble-type food, birds who eat it regularly lay infertile eggs. In March 2010, OvoControl received landmark general-use approval by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Those who now wish to use this compound without going through the sometimes laborious approval process can contact Innolytics, LLC for information about use.
The HSUS strongly opposes killing birds to manage pigeon conflicts. This includes use of the misleadingly marketed Avitrol brand poison. Promoted as a "flock frightening agent" or "repellent," Avitrol is, in fact, a nervous system poison. Birds who consume it suffer convulsions and die.
Users claim that the distressed behavior of poisoned birds frightens other flock members away. But in most cases, it simply kills a substantial portion of pigeon flocks. And any "frightening" effect of Avitrol on surviving birds is very short lived because remaining birds return quickly and reproduce. This creates an endless cycle of killing.
By the same token, The HSUS views the common practice of trapping and removing pigeons skeptically. Trapped birds are typically killed, and if not must face a life of confinement. The removal of birds without getting at the cause of their being conflicts in the first place is simply an incomplete management concept.
Not just cruel, killing by any means simply doesn't work to solve the conflicts that humane options can resolve without killing.
People may fear pigeons, or more specifically their droppings, are a health threat. These fears usually focus on histoplasmosis, a fungus that grows in dropping-enriched soil, and on diseases caused by Cryptococcus and Salmonella. However, there is little evidence linking pigeons directly to human infections.
Histoplasmosis fungus is common in the eastern and central U.S. As many as 80 percent of people tested in these areas prove to have already been exposed without knowing. People diagnosed with this disease typically work where bird or bat droppings accumulated (poultry farmers, contractors clearing old buildings) or explore caves where bats lived rather than merely live near pigeons.
Obviously, people want to avoid contact with any animal droppings. Ordinary good hygiene, such as washing hands and leaving shoes at the door, are adequate prevention if you accidentally contact animal droppings.
Despite the very small risk of harm to people, disease risk has been used to justify killing pigeons where the nuisance of large roosts annoys people.
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