by Pigeon Patrol | Jun 21, 2021 | Pigeon Predators, Pigeons, Pigeons in the News, Raccoons, Sparrows, UltraSonic Bird Control
The theory that pigeons’ famous skill at navigation is down to iron-rich nerve cells in their beaks has been disproved by a new study published in Nature.
The study shows that iron-rich cells in the pigeon beak are in fact specialised white blood cells, called macrophages. This finding, which shatters the established dogma, puts the field back on course as the search for magnetic cells continues.
“The mystery of how animals detect magnetic fields has just got more mysterious” said Dr David Keays who led the study.
Dr Keays continued: “We had hoped to find magnetic nerve cells, but unexpectedly we found thousands of macrophages, each filled with tiny balls of iron.”
Macrophages are a type of white blood cell that play a vital role in defending against infection and re-cycling iron from red blood cells. They’re unlikely to be involved in magnetic sensing as they are not excitable cells and cannot produce electrical signals which could be registered by neurons and therefore influence the pigeon’s behaviour.
Dr Keays’s lab, based at the Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna, worked together with Dr Shaw from the University of Western Australia, and Drs Lythgoe and Riegler from the UCL Centre for Advanced Biomedical Imaging in London.
“We employed state-of-the-art imaging techniques to visualise and map the location of iron-filled cells in the pigeon beak” said Dr Mark Lythgoe.
The search for the actual mechanism that allows migratory birds, and many other animals, to respond to the Earth’s magnetic field and navigate around their environment remains an intriguing puzzle to be solved.
“We have no idea how big the puzzle is or what the picture looks like, but today we’ve been able to remove those pieces that just didn’t fit,” said Dr Keays.
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Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Bird Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
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Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca
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by Pigeon Patrol | Jun 21, 2021 | Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons, Pigeons in the News, Raccoons, Sparrows, UltraSonic Bird Control
Photographs, especially of humans, are widely used as stimuli in behavioural research with pigeons. Despite their abundant use, it is not clear to what extent pigeons perceive photographs as representing three-dimensional objects. To address this question, we trained 16 pigeons to identify individual, real-life humans. This discrimination depended primarily on visual cues from the heads of the persons. Subsequently, the pigeons were shown photographs of these individuals to test for transfer to a two-dimensional representation. Successful identification of a three-dimensional person did not facilitate learning of the corresponding photographs. These results demonstrate limitations of cross-recognition of complex objects and their photographs in pigeons.
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Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Bird Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products ten years in a row.
Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca
Pigeon/Pigeon Patrol / Pigeons Roosting / Vancouver Pigeon Control /Bird Spikes / Bird Control / Bird Deterrent / Pigeon Deterrent? Surrey Pigeon Control / Pest /Seagull deterrent / Vancouver Pigeon Blog / Birds Inside Home / Pigeons in the cities / Ice Pigeons/ What to do about pigeons/ sparrows , Damage by Sparrows, How To Keep Raccoons Away, Why Are Raccoons Considered Pests/ De-fence / Pigeon Nesting/ Bird Droppings / Pigeon Dropping/ woodpecker control/ Professional Bird Control Company/ Keep The Birds Away/ Birds/rats/ seagull/pigeon/woodpecker/ dove/sparrow/pidgeon control/pidgeon problem/ pidgeon control/flying rats/ pigeon Problems/ bird netting/bird gel/bird spray/bird nails/ bird guard
by Pigeon Patrol | Jun 21, 2021 | MBCA, pet bird, Pigeon Control, Pigeon Droppings, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeon Predators
Hanging on roof and window ledges throughout the Bay Area, pigeon spikes serve as one of the many deterrents that protect local buildings from the oft-maligned birds.
Pets Gone Wild
San Francisco’s pigeons are feral “rock doves.” Ornithologists believe the pigeon was the first domesticated bird, originally prized in the Middle East 6,000 years ago for the delicious meat of its squabs and the fertilizing prowess of its waste. Pigeons are highly adaptable; they nest in a wide variety of locations and will eat almost anything.
Flying Rodent?
An estimated 3.5 million feral pigeons live in the Bay Area. Large populations also live in New York City; London; Seville, Spain; Venice; and New Delhi. The characterization “rats with wings” became popular after it was used in Woody Allen’s 1980 film, “Stardust Memories.”
Edgy Critters
Pigeons are edge-landing birds. When landing above ground, they land only on peaks or at perimeters, where they can use their claws to grip for stability. To deter pigeons from a building, only those areas need to be blocked.
No Stabbing
Many pigeon spikes are not pointed. Birds Away/Pigeons Away, a 25-year-old company based in Concord, uses only blunt-ended prongs. It decided spikes were inferior to prongs because they injured birds and snagged flying debris like large leaves, newspapers and plastic bags.
Feathered Hero
Domestic carrier pigeons have been used for centuries to transmit messages during wartime. An American bird, G.I. Joe, received a medal for his courageous flight in World War II, traveling 20 miles to safeguard the lives of British soldiers.
Winged Plague
Pigeons can transmit heart and kidney diseases to humans, as well as salmonella and encephalitis. They also carry parasites like ticks, mites, fleas and lice.
Artistic Decision
The de Young Museum is protected from pigeons by an invisible “shock track” on its edges that is charged with a low voltage.
Bird Brains
At the Balboa Park BART station, pigeons tried to nest between the spikes, but they got stuck and eventually starved. BART has also tried to deter pigeons with fake owls and rubber snakes.
Ugly and Injurious
Highly acidic pigeon feces can corrode paint and most metals. The droppings on sidewalks can also lead to liability issues, like slip-and-fall lawsuits.
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Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Bird Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products ten years in a row.
Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca
Pigeon/Pigeon Patrol / Pigeons Roosting / Vancouver Pigeon Control /Bird Spikes / Bird Control / Bird Deterrent / Pigeon Deterrent? Surrey Pigeon Control / Pest /Seagull deterrent / Vancouver Pigeon Blog / Birds Inside Home / Pigeons in the cities / Ice Pigeons/ What to do about pigeons/ sparrows , Damage by Sparrows, How To Keep Raccoons Away, Why Are Raccoons Considered Pests/ De-fence / Pigeon Nesting/ Bird Droppings / Pigeon Dropping/ woodpecker control/ Professional Bird Control Company/ Keep The Birds Away/ Birds/rats/ seagull/pigeon/woodpecker/ dove/sparrow/pidgeon control/pidgeon problem/ pidgeon control/flying rats/ pigeon Problems/ bird netting/bird gel/bird spray/bird nails/ bird guard
by Pigeon Patrol | Jun 21, 2021 | 4-S Gel Bird repellent, Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Deterrent Products, Bird Law, Bird Netting, Bird Spikes
New research has shown that feral, untrained pigeons can recognise individual people and are not fooled by a change of clothes.
Researchers, who presented their work at the Society for Experimental Biology Annual Conference in Glasgow on the 3rd of July, have shown that urban pigeons that have never been caught or handled can recognise individuals, probably by using facial characteristics.
Although pigeons have shown remarkable feats of perception when given training in the lab this is the first research showing similar abilities in untrained feral pigeons.
In a park in Paris city centre, pigeons were fed by two researchers, of similar build and skin colour, wearing different coloured lab coats. One individual simply ignored the pigeons, allowing them to feed while the other was hostile, and chased them away. This was followed by a second session when neither chased away the pigeons.
The experiment, which was repeated several times, showed that pigeons were able to recognise the individuals and continued to avoid the researcher who had chased them away even when they no longer did so. Swapping lab coats during the experiments did not confuse the pigeons and they continued shun the researcher who had been initially hostile.
“It is very likely that the pigeons recognised the researchers by their faces, since the individuals were both female and of a similar age, build and skin colour,” says Dr. Dalila Bovet a co-author of this work from the University of Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense. “Interestingly, the pigeons, without training, spontaneously used the most relevant characteristics of the individuals (probably facial traits), instead of the lab coats that covered 90% of the body.”
The fact that the pigeons appeared to know that clothing colour was not a good way of telling humans apart suggests that the birds have developed abilities to discriminate between humans in particular. This specialised ability may have come about over the long period of association with humans, from early domestication to many years of living in cities.
Future work will focus on identifying whether pigeons learn that humans often change clothes and so use more stable characteristics for recognition, or if there is a genetic basis for this ability, linked to domestication or to having evolved in an urban environment.
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Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Bird Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products ten years in a row.
Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca
Pigeon/Pigeon Patrol / Pigeons Roosting / Vancouver Pigeon Control /Bird Spikes / Bird Control / Bird Deterrent / Pigeon Deterrent? Surrey Pigeon Control / Pest /Seagull deterrent / Vancouver Pigeon Blog / Birds Inside Home / Pigeons in the cities / Ice Pigeons/ What to do about pigeons/ sparrows , Damage by Sparrows, How To Keep Raccoons Away, Why Are Raccoons Considered Pests/ De-fence / Pigeon Nesting/ Bird Droppings / Pigeon Dropping/ woodpecker control/ Professional Bird Control Company/ Keep The Birds Away/ Birds/rats/ seagull/pigeon/woodpecker/ dove/sparrow/pidgeon control/pidgeon problem/ pidgeon control/flying rats/ pigeon Problems/ bird netting/bird gel/bird spray/bird nails/ bird guard
by Pigeon Patrol | Jun 14, 2021 | Bird Spikes, Columbidae, Doves, history of pigeons, MBCA, Pigeon Droppings
Odors are known to be essential for navigation during homeward orientation and migration of some bird species. Yet little was known about their chemical composition. An international team has now identified volatile organic compounds that can be used for olfactory navigation by homing pigeons and proved the existence of suitable regional chemical gradients in the air on a landscape-scale in Tuscany.
Many bird species can find their way home even after being brought to remote or unfamiliar locations. Over 40 years of research on homing pigeons have shown that environmental odors play a crucial role in this process. Yet the chemical identity of these odors has remained a mystery. An international team of scientists from the Max Planck Institutes for Chemistry (Mainz) and of Animal Behavior (Radolfzell), and the Universities of Konstanz, Pisa and Mainz has now identified potential chemical navigational cues that could be used by homing pigeons. Based on the collected data, the researchers were also able to create regional olfactory maps for marine emissions, biogenic compounds, and anthropogenic mixed air and to establish the existence of regional navigable chemical gradients in the air.
During the scientific mission, which took place in 2017 and 2018 in the Italian region of Tuscany, the researchers measured a suite of airborne volatile organic compounds (VOCs) over a period of months at the pigeon’s home aviary. Some of these compounds are emitted by trees, the pine fragrance one smells during a walk in the forest. Other pungent natural emissions come from the sea, while still further VOCs can be emitted from industry. The measurements enabled regional maps to be constructed connecting chemicals with wind direction and speed. Additional measurements were taken in selected regional forest environments and by air using an ultralight plane flying at 180 meters – the average altitude of flying pigeon. The scientists merged the information they had gathered during the field campaigns with GPS tracks obtained from released birds. Thus, they generated multiple regional, horizontal and vertical spatial chemical gradients that can form the basis of an olfactory map.
Olfactory maps based on environmental odors
“Ornithologists from Germany and Italy have shown in more than 40 years of experiments, that pigeons use airborne odors to navigate home,” explains Nora Zannoni, post-doctoral researcher at Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and the study’s first author. Those results have shown that pigeons construct an olfactory map based on the distribution of environmental odors they have perceived over several months at the home aviary. This knowledge is then used as a compass at the point of release to return back home from unfamiliar sites. “By proving the existence of regional chemical gradients in the air around the experimental site we provide support for the olfactory navigation hypothesis and with atmospheric measurements we have found which chemicals can be used for navigation,” adds Zannoni. Some compounds come from forested areas (monoterpenes) or the sea (DMS) while others are emitted from cities and industrial complexes (trimethylbenzene), spots that act like chemical lighthouses.
One of the biggest challenges during this research campaign was its multidisciplinary character. “We had to combine the different approaches of several scientific disciplines – atmospheric and analytical chemistry, ornithology and animal behavior, computer science and statistics,” says Martin Wikelski, managing director at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior.
“It’s amazing really,” adds Jonathan Williams the project leader at the MPIC’s Atmospheric Chemistry Department in Mainz. “We uncovered these chemical gradients using several tones of ultrasensitive scientific equipment, but the same complex odor information can be analyzed and converted to a regional map by a 400-gram pigeon.”
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Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Bird Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products ten years in a row.
Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca
Pigeon/Pigeon Patrol / Pigeons Roosting / Vancouver Pigeon Control /Bird Spikes / Bird Control / Bird Deterrent / Pigeon Deterrent? Surrey Pigeon Control / Pest /Seagull deterrent / Vancouver Pigeon Blog / Birds Inside Home / Pigeons in the cities / Ice Pigeons/ What to do about pigeons/ sparrows , Damage by Sparrows, How To Keep Raccoons Away, Why Are Raccoons Considered Pests/ De-fence / Pigeon Nesting/ Bird Droppings / Pigeon Dropping/ woodpecker control/ Professional Bird Control Company/ Keep The Birds Away/ Birds/rats/ seagull/pigeon/woodpecker/ dove/sparrow/pidgeon control/pidgeon problem/ pidgeon control/flying rats/ pigeon Problems/ bird netting/bird gel/bird spray/bird nails/ bird guard
