# squabs killed



## Pentimento (Sep 3, 2016)

Hello... I came across your post because I was looking for an answer to the same problem.  I live in manhattan and had a pair of pigeons nesting in a flower pot on my sixth-floor fire escape. Twice. The first time around, the first pair of squabs grew up beautifully and continued to hang out on the fire escape as a family, the four of them returning together as a group almost everytime I opened the window. But the event that is upsetting me so much right now occurred either last night or this morning with the second brood. The two babies were almost three weeks old and growing exponentially every day. Today when I opened the window, I saw the caracasses of the two piled one on top of the other. They were both attacked at the neck, one with its head missing. Feathers all over the place. Normally there's a group of pigeons that hang around (I recognize the same ones every day) but this morning there was not another pigeon in sight. It is devastating. Not wanting to just leave the carcasses there, my boyfriend disposed of them and then covered the remaining bits with more planting soil. Later on, the father came back and sat vigilant by the now empty nest for several hours. Do pigeons mourn? Do they recognize blue jays and hawks as predators? If they choose to nest again, is there anything I can do to prevent the same thing from happening again? I feel very helpless. If there's any advice out there, I'd love to hear it... Thanks!--Pentimento


----------



## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

You have already read the advice on this post. There is nothing you can do, other than stopping them from nesting there. Any more babies would suffer the same. Sorry. I'll send you a PM on starting your own thread.


----------



## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

*I have moved your post/s to its own thread.

I am so sorry to hear this, but the best thing you can do is make the area unfriendly to pigeons, remove the flower pot and anything else that can be made as a nest, close the area off. That is BEST thing you can do for the parent pigeons. You will be doing them a favor, because once predators know the area is providing for them they will continue to attack.*


----------



## Pentimento (Sep 3, 2016)

Thank you so much for your fast response and your help... It's just so heartbreaking... right now both the matriarch and patriarch are vigilant over the empty flower pot as if the babes were going to fly back somehow. I will do my best to discourage further nesting. Thanks again---Pentimento


----------



## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

Pentimento said:


> Thank you so much for your fast response and your help... It's just so heartbreaking... right now both the matriarch and patriarch are vigilant over the empty flower pot as if the babes were going to fly back somehow. I will do my best to discourage further nesting. Thanks again---Pentimento


*It is very heartbreaking, and it is sad for the parents, but they need to move on and find a safer place to nest. Thank you for helping them move on to find a safer place to build a nest. *


----------



## Woodnative (Jul 4, 2010)

Head missing and the body there sounds more like the work of a rat than an aerial predator. Rats will do this. Is it possible for a rat to get on your balcony? The parents will look for their young for about a day but will quickly forget them and go right back into nesting mode, courting, and laying new eggs. Pigeons are prolific and have a lot of babies. They are great parents but I doubt evolution allows them to greave too long or too deeply as they lose so many young to predators. I think animals that have only a few young that they put a lot of care and time into grieve deeper and longer (think humans, apes, elephants for example). 
If you enjoy them nesting on your balcony perhaps you can make a partially covered box in one corner of your balcony, raised up from the ground ( in a way that rats and other things could not climb up into it) and covered on top so aerial predators can not see it. This can be a box open on one side (perhaps with a one or two inch lip on the open side to keep eggs and nesting material in), you can even have the opening so that you can watch them from inside you building but they are not visible from the outside. Enjoy!


----------



## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

It could have been anything. Raccoons will do that, and owls will decapitate, and usually eat the head. Also weasels will take the head off. But owls are known for it. I have read that particularly the great horned owl. 

I don't think building them something on your balcony would be safe for the birds. Obviously something has found them, and there really isn't a way for you to make it safe from everything, and you don't know what it is. It would be more in the birds interest to chase them off and not let them nest there.


----------

