# Relocate Feral Parents - is it possible?



## SerendipityCA (May 2, 2008)

I have been posting a bit about the ferals who have taken up residence in my building and the one next door. A pair nested for a couple of years on a first-floor fire escape over the driveway my building shares with the building next door. This fire escape is directly outside the window of a studio (and a couple of feet from the resident's head when she sleeps). One of the parents was hit and killed by a car in July directly under the fire escape. Then a month later I found the juvenile on the ground in front of a truck, with a bad wound to the back of his head. He was euthanized at a rescue facility later that day unfortunately. When I visited the person who lives in the studio, she expressed hatred of pigeons and said her apartment was infested with mites. I looked out the window and found a dessicated juvenile corpse (just skeleton and skin and feathers), and a large nest. 

A few weeks later the management had the building and fire escape steam cleaned, and they put spikes up around the bottom of the fire escape. 

Unfortunately this didn't deter the pigeons at all, and I have lately seen a pair hanging out on that same fire escape. Sigh.

So my question is, if I built a nest box and put it somewhere nearby, would they likely use it?

I can do this on the roof of my building and I think nobody will mess with it. But it needs to be safe from the crows and hawks who fly overhead. 

There are other places I could possibly put it. Including, if I cut the mesh they put over our own roof/lightwell, my own lightwell. A pair used to nest right outside my kitchen window under my fire escape. But I don't know how my neighbors would feel about that.

There is also the roof of the carport, but it's exposed to view by several apartment buildings. Still, it's not CLOSE to any of them so I doubt the tenants would complain about that, and it's a big roof (probably 20' x 80' if you count the next door building's carport which is continuous with ours) and there's a tree overhanging it, I could put it near the tree where it wouldn't be seen.

So my questions are - would they be likely to use a nesting setup if I created an ideal one very close to where they are currently inclined to nest? And what setup would be safe from predators?


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## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

It's hard to say whether the pigeons would find your nest box to be a desirable thing or not. The feral pair that took over an empty airline carrier in my back yard seem to love it, and the male checked it out and decided to move in all on his own. I had no intention of it becoming a pigeon pad, but it did, and they are raising two babies in it right now. I guess you could construct your nest box and see.

Unfortunately, I think the downside of encouraging any pigeons to nest in/on or even near the apartment building is going to be continued problems with people who don't like the pigeons.

Terry


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## SerendipityCA (May 2, 2008)

TAWhatley said:


> Unfortunately, I think the downside of encouraging any pigeons to nest in/on or even near the apartment building is going to be continued problems with people who don't like the pigeons.
> Terry


Agreed, but I know the spot where they *did* nest (and where a pair was hanging out the other day) is really dangerous for them due to the hostility of the people who live in those two apartments. One of them has the head of her bed right up against the window so she's literally inches from the pigeons and complains mightily about mites in her apartment, all over her bedding etc.

Not to mention, now that they have steam-cleaned her fire escape she's got a fresh new start and is enjoying having no remnants of the pigeons there. So for them to start nesting again would be doubly offensive to her, I'm sure.

And, since the baby was badly injured with a severe wound to the back of his neck and fell off (not necessarily in that order), and I don't know whether she or her neighbor did it, I think it's a high risk situation.

They ARE going to nest, it's just a question of where. And I'm afraid they've picked out that spot again.


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