# Where do wild ones nest?



## Florencevegan (Jul 9, 2007)

ExcuseExcuse my ignorance, but I have been wondering where the wild pigeons whom I feed nest to lay their eggs and sit on them. I live in a tenement block of flats (apartment block) and I am on the top storey which is two floors up. I have planted two Oregon alder trees which are now the height of the building  but there are no nests in them, though the starlings enjoy sitting on the top branches. I have also cultivated the big back yard. Other than that, there is no green space for miles and very few trees except a few low elders which self-seed. So I assume the birds nest on the roof-tops and I see grass growing out of the pipes at the edge of the roofs, which I suppose the pigeons have skilfully "planted" there! But there is no hollow for a nest as such and I often find broken and empty egg shells. I assume the eggs have fallen out (in the strong winds?) or been stolen (and eaten) by magpies. I would like to know about all this. There have been very few new youngsters coming to the feeds in the past few months, though there were about half a dozen in the spring (joining a flock of about 100) and about the same number have disappeared and I wonder too where they die as I only find the occasional body, which of course I bury in my garden with due respect and sacred ceremony. (I have definitely lost one poor chap who had string tying both his legs together and who could scarecely walk - I tried all ways to catch him but it just made them all fly away together and lose trust). Others have disappeared to racing lofts I think as one lovely brown and white pigeon came back briefly (to see his Dad, Brownie?) and had two "bracelets" on, then disappeared again. (There are a couple with the bands on just now, and I tell them off for stealing the food of the poor when they have a home to go to!)(I gues s they have got lost but I have no idea where from.) A few months ago men from the Council went up on the roofs and cleared the drainpipes wof the grass clods and threw them down (breaking my roses in the process...) and I did worry that as well as throwing down nests and eggs, they were also clearing out all the soft material that had gathered to enable the pigeons to make nests up there. I know they gather bits of vegetation and start again, but this intervention in their habitat may have cost a genertaion of young. And of course the Council do this regularly. So it's a miracle that the population stays so stable, when the chances of procreation seem so low. But I suppose that's a good thing in that there will hopefully be no cull if numbers don't increase. 
Hoping for an education... thanks! 
Florence.


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## roy-me-boy (Dec 28, 2006)

Hi Florence,
The pigeons in my town nest on the ledges of the shop fronts some times in the open but mostly under the shop awnings.They also nest in the hanging baskets that the council put up in the spring and summer.Derelict buildings with easy access are another place for them.


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## John_D (Jan 24, 2002)

Basically, our urban-dwelling pigeons try to find something which their ancestral instinct suggests is like a cave or a niche in rocks.

(The truly wild pigeons - aka Rock Doves - on Islay live in caves, mostly on the western coast of the island, and nest on ledges inside, though I came across a long abandoned crofters' cottage where it was obvious they had been nesting and roosting.)

They may nest on a roof, if they can find something which would shelter them from wind and rain , like a chimney stack or one of those little concrete blocks which might house an electrical generator.

More often, they will prefer a balcony, under a bridge, a ledge which has something over the top to shelter under, in church towers ... any place they can feel safe and a little enclosed. I have even seen pairs of pigeons nesting on little ledges way down inside a disused well!

Unfortunately, a lot of them just have to settle for a bare minimum.

I have a pair on my balcony who have been there over three years now, and they have accepted the wooden nest box I put out for them in the most sheltered corner 

John


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## Florencevegan (Jul 9, 2007)

Thanks. Wish I had a balcony! But maybe not... I have a curious cat...!


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