by johnnymarin | May 27, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
Why do pigeons roost on roofs or gutters?
Pigeons like comfortable sunny places that are safe from predators and has abundant food and water. The nests are built of twigs but quickly become so covered in droppings that they look like a big pile of waste. When the babies are born, they are a dull brown and are perfectly camouflaged in the nest. Gutters are dish-shaped and provide great nesting sites that securely hold the nests. Pigeons nest and roost on and in houses because it gives them a good view of nearby feeding areas or because they have gained access to the interior of the building. They usually access buildings through broken windows, missing or loose vents or any other small gap or opening. Pigeons also like high places because they are able to keep a close watch on their surroundings and spot predators. Pigeons are social birds and each flock works as a team. Someone always has an eye out for danger.
Where do pigeons normally live?
Pigeons live in every part of the world but the North and South Poles. They started out as pets, but through accidental or intentional release have developed into perhaps the most common feral bird. Originally, they liked places with lots of grain, like farms, especially when they are near areas with good nesting sites in high and inaccessible places, like cliffs or buildings. Once known as ‘rock doves’, pigeons live anywhere there is adequate food and shelter and are common in most urban and suburban areas. Stadiums and fast-food restaurants, parks and bridges, airports and schools – all are common pigeon environments.
What is the difference between parrots and parakeets?
Parakeets are also a group of parrots. However parrots are much larger than parakeets. Parakeets are less than a foot while parrots can go to one metre long and some can weigh around four kg.
Is a flaky beak normal in parrots?
A parrot’s beak serves not only in eating, but also as a ‘hand’ in climbing. Like our nails, birds beaks are made of keratin and keep growing throughout their life time. There is always new beak tissue growth under the existing beak and, after some time, the outer beak is being sloughed off. You may see a parrot hurry the process of outer beak peeling by rubbing its beak against hard surfaces. Sometimes a poor diet will cause problems to birds’ beaks.
This can be remedied by offering a variety of fresh foods and high quality multi-vitamins/minerals supplements. A good tip is to provide a piece of cuttlebone to your pet parrot for its beak grinding. This will increase its intake of calcium and help to prevent the beak from overgrowing.
About Pigeon Patrol:
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 Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by johnnymarin | May 26, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
A few years ago, there was talk about how one no longer spots the humble sparrow within the city. Noticed how the number of crow sightings have also reduced? Once a staple of the Bengaluru skyline, crows are becoming a rare sight. We spoke to ornithologist MB Krishna — who, confirming that the number of crows has, in fact, reduced in the city — says that this is a warning sign.
“It’s not only crows, but a lot of other garden and woodland birds in the city whose numbers have also dwindled. As a rough rule of thumb, this drop has been by 95% for many species over the last three decades. Although there is no quantitative study done across the city yet, just like the sparrow decline, the reduction of crows is noticeable,” says Krishna, who adds that there are many reasons for this.
Crows, says Krishna, are essentially scavengers and are not getting enough food in the city. They also require a certain amount of tree cover, because crows build nests on trees and need twigs to make their nests. Due to the drastic reduction in tree cover, crows are unable to reproduce. “Another reason is the rise in pollution levels. Birds have a high metabolic rate, since flight requires a lot of energy. Therefore, crows take in a large proportion of toxins. Pollution also adversely impacts the population of some insects, which are a source of food for birds. So, crows are directly or indirectly not getting enough food,” says Krishna.
An offshoot to the reduction of crows in the city is that the number of pigeons seem to have drastically increased. “Not only pigeons,” says Krishna, adding, “The number of barn owls has also increased. Unlike crows, pigeons and barn owls can adapt to multi-story buildings. The increase in garbage in the city means that there are more rats, which is what barn owls feast on.”
So, what impact does this have on the ecology? “More than an ecological impact, birds are a warning system. Crows are important scavengers of human debris (the garbage that people throw out), but they also have a big role in sending out warning signals that something is amiss. Considering that a successful species like crows is seeing a decline in numbers sounds a warning bell to us all. The decline in green cover and the alarming rise in pollution levels will invariably have an impact on us, just as it has had on crows. These birds are telling us that it’s time to act,” signs off Krishna.
About Pigeon Patrol:
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 Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by johnnymarin | May 24, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
Crested pigeons are native to Australia and one of the growing number of birds that have adapted to the impact of humans on the environment and moved into urban areas.
Originally birds of the inland, restricted to arid and semi-arid, they have gradually spread, colonising Adelaide first in the 1980s during a severe drought and later appearing in Perth and Melbourne. Crested pigeons are now commonly found on most of the mainland, with the exception of the tropical northern areas.
Like all pigeons and doves these birds have a plump body with a rounded chest and the feathers on their flanks are modified to continuously produce powder down which is used to preen feathers.
They are easily identified from other similar birds as they have a thin black crest on the head. The only other pigeon in Australia with a crest is the Spinifex Pigeon, also found in arid areas.
Crested Pigeons have grey-brown plumage which has a pinkish tinge on the underparts and pink legs and feet and a red eye ring and eye. The wings are barred with black and decorated with glossy green and purple patches that are amazingly beautiful when caught in the light.
These birds are found in lightly wooded grasslands in rural and urban areas and always near water. They feed in pairs or small flocks and are often seen on golf courses, in parklands and urban streets.
They are ground feeding birds and eat native seeds and grasses and seeds from introduced crops and weeds. Clearing land for agriculture has significantly extended their range.
The birds build a delicate nest of twigs in small trees or dense bush and produce two eggs.
Both male and female birds have a unique glandular crop which secretes “crop-milk” on which the young are reared.
One of the most intriguing features of these birds is the whirring noise made by their wings when they are alarmed and take flight. This noise is caused by an adaptation to their wing structure resulting that the eighth primary flight feathers are half the width of the others.
This difference produces a high-pitched sound when the wing is pushed down and has become a critical part of an alarm system that warns the rest of the flock to flee the danger.
No other related pigeon has this survival feature.
About Pigeon Patrol:
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 Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by johnnymarin | May 23, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
Exercise, as we know, is important for everybody. And this pigeon got the memo, too. It was recorded on camera hard at work as it ran on a treadmill – er, make that an escalator bannister.
The video (above) posted on Twitter shows a pigeon defying an escalator by running in the opposite direction. But give it the benefit of the doubt, maybe it was just exercising.
The video has gone viral, for good reason.
The escalator-treadmill-workout also appears to be a conspiracy in the pigeon world. In 2012, another video of a pigeon similarly using an escalator to work out went viral as well.
About Pigeon Patrol:
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 Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by johnnymarin | May 17, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
A new pigeon species related to the extinct dodo bird has been found at a Central Otago fossil site near St Bathans.
The Zealandian dove, which lived in the South Island some 19 million to 16 million years ago, was identified from a few fossil bones found at St Bathans over the past 16 years.
One of the bones found on the wing was similar to the tooth-billed pigeon (found only in Samoa), the crowned pigeons of New Guinea, and the Nicobar pigeon (South East Asia), Doctor Vanesa De Pietri from Canterbury Museum said.
The latter was the closest living relative of the extinct dodo and the solitaire (another extinct, flightless bird) from the Mascarene Islands in the Indian Ocean, Dr De Pietri said.
“Based on the St Bathans fossils, we think that the Zealandian dove is part of this Indo-Pacific group. It is probably most similar to the Nicobar pigeon and is therefore a close relative (or at least a cousin) of the famous dodo”, she said.
“The Zealandian dove is the first record of this group found in the southern part of the nearly submerged land mass known as Zealandia.”
Te Papa curator Alan Tennyson said the loss of diversity in fauna may have contributed to the bird’s extinction.
“The disappearance of these pigeons from New Zealand’s fauna was likely linked to the marked climatic cooling that took place between 14.2 and 13.8 million years ago. Until then New Zealand’s subtropical flora and fauna was very diverse with fruit-bearing trees such as laurels,” he said.
“This loss of floral diversity certainly had an impact on fruit and seed-eating birds, and may have been responsible for the subsequent loss in pigeon diversity in New Zealand.”
Previous fossils which had been found at the St Bathans site now numbered in the thousands and documented New Zealand’s history of biodiversity, professor Sue Hand of UNSW Sydney said.
“For many of New Zealand’s very distinctive bird lineages, such as moa and kiwi, the St Bathans fossils provide their oldest and sometimes first deep time records,” she said.
The cast of a Dodo skull and leg, taken from a dried head and leg held by the Oxford Museum of Zoology in the United Kingdom. Canterbury Museum acquired the objects from Oxford in 1871 in exchange for kiwi skeletons. Canterbury Museum also holds the largest collection of dodo bones outside Europe. Photo: Canterbury Museum
The discovery of fossils and identification of the pigeon species in relation to the dodo was a rare occurrence at St Bathans, Doctor Trevor Worthy of Flinders University said.
“Pigeon fossils are rare in the St Bathans fauna and are outnumbered by about 30 to one by parrots, which perhaps reflects the relative abundance of these tree-dwelling birds in the St Bathans fauna,” Dr Worthy said.
The Zealandian dove was the second pigeon to be found at the St Bathans fossil site, Canterbury Museum professor Paul Scofield said.
“Some years ago we described the St Bathans pigeon, which we believe is a relative of New Zealand’s two living native pigeons and to the Australian topknot pigeon,” Dr Scofield said.
“We have now also found a leg bone that we can attribute to this species. As a result we can now confirm that the St Bathans Pigeon is also closely related to Indonesian and Melanesian mountain pigeons.”
New Zealand now only had two species of native pigeons, the New Zealand pigeon and the Chatham Island pigeon.
About Pigeon Patrol:
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 Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by johnnymarin | May 16, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
Waterfowl are stinking up the city’s ancient lake and faecal bacteria is putting recreational users at risk.
Ducks, geese, Australian-banded coots and pigeons make up a large chunk of the avian species dropping faeces into and around Hamilton’s 17,000 year old Lake Rotoroa.
And its future hangs in the balance.
Pigeons have been an especially prevalent in recent years, according to Hamilton City Council’s 2017 Lake Domain Management Plan.
Bacteria levels in the lake are too high, said water resources engineer and scientist Tim Cox. Monitoring at sites around the lake, over several years, show elevated levels of bacteria from birds.
“The number one issue with the lake is bacteria,” Cox said, “faecal bacteria that makes you sick.”
Add to that the amount of nutrients entering the water from stormwater run-off and nutrients already settled into the lake sediment and you have a recipe for toxic algal blooms with no easy fix.
“We still see the lake go green at times and produce an algae that’s toxic – this blue-green algae that prevents swimability at certain times of year.”
There is a willingness to restore Lake Rotoroa to a swimmable standard. But there are also gaps in knowledge and the potential for conflict over what’s most important.
Hamilton City Council is gathering data in an effort to find out what the state of the lake is and it’s getting help along the way.
Waikato Regional Council is undertaking a year-long study to test for bacteria in the water, Niwa conducts regular tests and University of Waikato researchers are testing fish for heavy metals to see if arsenic in the lake bed sediment is being taken up by the fish.
Cox, a member of advocacy group Restore (Restorative Ecological Strategies to Optimise Rotoroa’s Environment), said new data will help devise a way forward.
Possible solutions include constructing wetlands, reducing waterfowl numbers, educating people as to what not to put into the stormwater system, expensive engineering solutions like removing sediment or treating with alum.
“In my opinion, there is still some work to do,” Cox said. “Not even just being toxic for swimming but even the look of it – the aesthetic of the lake would improve if we could get those nutrient levels down a little bit and get the algal growth limited significantly at certain times of the year.”
Hamilton City Council parks and recreation manager Maria Barrie said water quality is a key theme in the Lake Domain Management Plan and three steps are in place to achieve it: clarify the state of the lake; identify water quality measures for recreational use and develop a strategy to improve water quality.
But University of Waikato biological scientist Professor Brendan Hicks said the lake has, since 1992, slowly improved in terms of the nitrogen and phosphorus levels, algal blooms and water clarity.
Rotoroa is finding its way on its own – albeit slowly.
“It’s not going anywhere and as urban lakes go, it’s in pretty good shape, really,” Hicks said. “There is a public perception that it’s a dead lake and nothing could be further from the truth. It’s jumping with eight species of fish and it is, in many ways, quite healthy until you go looking and poking around at some of the places with the larger intensities of wild fowl.
“When you do that, you find what you expect to find, which is high levels of poop in the water.”
The Lake Domain Management Plan looks to manage the birds and fish to “ensure a sustainable and desirable level of biodiversity”. It discourages people from feeding bread to birds. Bird seed is suggested instead
But Hicks said it’s not as simple as just managing the birds.
“People don’t know what they are managing for,” he said. “They haven’t asked the right questions.
“If you expect to go canoeing or you expect to go waka ama or swimming, or you just want to fish and maybe eat a fish, then you’ve got to look at the risks and the areas you can do those sorts of things.
“If you are a parent of a three year old, there is nothing more fun than taking your kid down and watching them squeal with delight as the ducks waddle around their feet. Again, that’s another perfectly valid thing you might want to do at the lake.”
About Pigeon Patrol:
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 Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
