# Advice for keeping pigeons off of/away from my home?



## zzyzx

Hi,

I know this is a pro-pigeon board so I am prepared to get flamed into oblivion but I am hoping for some helpful advice. Please keep in mind that I am not a pigeon-hater and I am trying to come up with a humane solution.

My neighbor has a second-story deck off of which they hang two bird feeders. Small birds feed at the feeders and in the process they knock seed onto the grass below. This attracts pigeons (around 20) who eat the food off of the grass. The front of my house faces this deck and lawn, which is about 50-60 feet away. The problem is that the pigeons 1) roost on my roof when they are not feeding, depositing lots of unsightly droppings, and 2) get startled when my garage door opens, and they fly into my garage. In my garage some slam into the back window and die (after suffering, and bleeding all over my garage and it's contents), while others just get spooked and stay in there (pooping all over my garage and its contents). I have tried leaving the garage door open but more pigeons fly in later. They are also very difficult to shoo out of the garage which has a high ceiling. I have gotten better about timing the garage door (it seems worse when a car is going by) so I have not had this problem lately (knock on wood). 

The poop on the roof is a serious problem however because I am trying to sell my home, and it is 2+ stories so I can't really get up there to clean it on an ongoing basis.

I know the food source is the main issue, but my neighbor refuses to acknowledge that the bird food is attracting the pigeons (sigh), and thus will not remove the feeders or move them to the front of her house.

I'm not going to hurt the birds and I don't want to get into a nasty legal fight with my neighbor. So, any ideas or suggestions to keep the pigeons off of my roof would be welcome. I suspect I will have to go the HOA/legal route but I figured this was worth a try.

Thanks for listening.


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## Lovebirds

zzyzx said:


> Hi,
> 
> I know this is a pro-pigeon board so I am prepared to get flamed into oblivion but I am hoping for some helpful advice. Please keep in mind that I am not a pigeon-hater and I am trying to come up with a humane solution.
> 
> My neighbor has a second-story deck off of which they hang two bird feeders. Small birds feed at the feeders and in the process they knock seed onto the grass below. This attracts pigeons (around 20) who eat the food off of the grass. The front of my house faces this deck and lawn, which is about 50-60 feet away. The problem is that the pigeons 1) roost on my roof when they are not feeding, depositing lots of unsightly droppings, and 2) get startled when my garage door opens, and they fly into my garage. In my garage some slam into the back window and die (after suffering, and bleeding all over my garage and it's contents), while others just get spooked and stay in there (pooping all over my garage and its contents). I have tried leaving the garage door open but more pigeons fly in later. They are also very difficult to shoo out of the garage which has a high ceiling. I have gotten better about timing the garage door (it seems worse when a car is going by) so I have not had this problem lately (knock on wood).
> 
> The poop on the roof is a serious problem however because I am trying to sell my home, and it is 2+ stories so I can't really get up there to clean it on an ongoing basis.
> 
> I know the food source is the main issue, but my neighbor refuses to acknowledge that the bird food is attracting the pigeons (sigh), and thus will not remove the feeders or move them to the front of her house.
> 
> I'm not going to hurt the birds and I don't want to get into a nasty legal fight with my neighbor. So, any ideas or suggestions to keep the pigeons off of my roof would be welcome. I suspect I will have to go the HOA/legal route but I figured this was worth a try.
> 
> Thanks for listening.


First of all, no one is going to flame you as long as you are not harming the birds. You seem to care about what happens to them, but at the same time don't want them at your house and I understand that. Hopefully someone with more imagination than me.. will be along with suggestions. 
I'm afraid though, that as long as there is food for the pigeons, they aren't going to go anywhere. 
Just wanted you to know that someone was reading your post and other will check in with thier ideas.
Good luck.


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## Feather

I too understand what you are going through. I have heard that those big plastic owls work to keep the pigeons from sitting on your roof, but everytime I see one there is a pigeon sitting on top of it's head.

There are humane ways to do this, but as Renee said, the food is the problem.

Good luck with this, and thank you for trying to resolve your problem without hurting the pigeons.

Feather


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## KIPPY

My air conditioning unit is on my roof so I was able to hang aluminum strips (something that moves and is shiny) from that. It seems to be working for some pigeons but not the ones that live close by. I guess they are just use to me and my backyard and their not going anywhere. Which is fine but it was getting way out of hand. I have a normal 40 pijes (fine with that) but it was growing to 100 at least.

My neighbor has an owl on her roof. I've seen about 5 on her roof at one time.

There was one web site that had some bird deterrants. They have a hanging eye thing (yellow, red and black). They were like $60.00 for 5 or 6 of them. I wasn't willing to drop 60, not knowing if they would actually work.

I also got one of the owls with the moveable head from Walmart for my patio. It works on some but not all.

Good luck to ya and Thank you for trying more humane methods. If you find something that works well, Please let me know.


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## warriec

Since they are already eating from your garden i suggest a pigeon trap. you can buy these mail order. the problem is that you will need to dispose them & because pigeons are homing it could cause an additional problem


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## A_Smith

I have heard that putting 2 cds together to reflect light will scare the birds away. (untill they get useto it) They think the reflection is large scary preditor eyes.  Now you know what to do with the free disks that you toss in the trash from junk mail. I have not tryed this but it's worth a try.


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## warriec

there is no real solution than to capture the birds and relocate them. even after this you may find a new flock very soon unless the neighbor stops feeding.


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## zzyzx

Thanks everybody for the ideas!


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## mr squeaks

Sounds like a stalemate, _unless_ you could get your neighbor to use feeders with something to catch the seeds before they hit the ground OR *change the type of feeder she uses*.

I have a feeder that WAS a hanging one until the wires broke. Now it sits on a ledge on my apartment balcony and feeds the smaller birds - no pigeons. Even when I've thrown extra seeds on the grass, very rarely have pigeons come around...and there are pigeons around. Must have better eating areas!

Unfortunately, the more food, the more pigeons. They have found a food source and are letting their friends know too!

Sure hope something works out for you!


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## andinla

*Maybe you*

can find a resonably priced new bird feeder for your neighbor that will not allow seed to drop every where. 

The Pigeons are not going to go away with a food source for free. Also it is winter and they have a hard time with finding food most days. 

trapping and relocating is really a bad suggestion it is time consuming and they might have young ones in a nest nearby that need their parents, also they will fly back home most likely. 

Well one good thing is you will be leaving the neighborhood soon and won't have to put up with pijie pooh.. 

Thank you for not harming them.

Andi


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## warriec

why dont you make it unpleasent for themby scaring them off or throwing water at them


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## Whitefeather

mr squeaks said:


> *Even when I've thrown extra seeds on the grass, very rarely have pigeons come around...and there are pigeons around. Must have better eating areas!*


I hear there's a great place about a mile from you. 
No traffic or crazy drivers to contend with. just a lovely lakeside picnic area with a wonderful variety of seeds on the menu.    

Cindy


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## piney_creek

Ask her to change bird seed/feed to something that the birds will eat all of the seed/feed. There is no waste with black oil sunflower, maybe she will change.


Black Oil Sunflower Seed

Black oil sunflower seed is the most important seed in any backyard bird feeding plan. Almost any bird that visits a bird feeder will readily eat black oil sunflower seeds, and studies have shown that, given a choice of seeds, more species of birds will choose black oil sunflower seeds over any other food that is offered.

The shell of the black oil sunflower seed is thin and easily broken by birds, even those with small beaks. Once opened, black oil sunflower seeds offer more nutrients than any other type of seed, a higher ratio of nutmeat to shell, and the quality of protein is among the highest of any plant food on earth.

The high oil content in black oil sunflower seed, along with the high fat content, provide instant energy for the birds that eat them - something that is of critical importance in winter bird-feeding. In addition, black oil sunflower seeds are high in fiber and contain Vitamin E, biotin, choline, thiamin, and zinc.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who published a landmark study of bird food preferences in 1980, recommends that sunflower seeds be offered to birds all year round, and black oil sunflower seeds are by far the most preferred type by the greatest number of bird species. Cardinals, chickadees, nuthatches, house and purple finches, and grosbeaks are among the species that showed preference for black oil sunflower seeds in the study. But rather than list all the bird species that picked black oil sunflower seeds as their first choice in the study, it would be easier to list the two species that didn't - starlings and tree sparrows.

Chickadees and nuthatches are notorious for stashing away black oil sunflower seeds for later consumption, usually under tree bark, creating their own private caches of food to get them through the roughest days of the winter. Chickadees even grow additional brain cells for the winter just to keep up with their hiding places. One study showed that chickadees seemed to know exactly how many seeds were in each cache and would become extremely agitated when one or more seeds were taken away in their absence.

Quality and freshness count in selecting black oil sunflower seeds. The heaviest, fattest ones go into the production of sunflower oil for cooking, one of the healthiest cooking oils on earth. At the other end of the spectrum are the smallest, lightest black oil sunflower seeds found in the least expensive bird food mixes sold by mass marketers and grocery stores. As birds dig through the mix looking for the few black oil sunflower seeds it contains, most of the inexpensive filler seeds the birds don't eat wind up on the ground. And when the birds do find the few black oil sunflower seeds in these inferior mixes, they weigh them in their beaks and often toss them aside because the kernel within is not worth the trouble and energy it takes to open it the shell. 



Copyright © 2004 Shaw Creek Bird Supply

PINEY


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