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Pigeons Swarm Chennai Airport, Nomads Roped In To Shoo Them Away

CHENNAI: A number of pigeons are swarming the Chennai airport premises for the last three days. Authorities were forced to hire a nomadic community to shoo them away.

Efforts by the airport personnel to shoo them away have failed; as the birds come back again and again, giving anxious moments to the authorities.

Many birds were spotted around the runway today, authorities requisitioned the services of Narikorava community, who are well versed in shooing them away using traditional techniques.

The gypsies were on the job to shoo the birds away, and have been very successful.

As part of the State Safety Programme, preventing wildlife (bird/animal) strikes to aircraft was identified by Directorate General of Civil Aviation as one of the most important safety priorities.

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Pigeongram: In Social Media Era, Odisha Keeps Age-Old Practice Alive

pigeons-generic-istock_650x400_81523790746.jpg (650Ã400)

BHUBANESWAR: With the onslaught of social media and e-communication services, pigeongram may have become a thing of the past across the globe, but the Odisha Police continues to keep alive this unique practice.

The service was put to test yesterday when the Odisha Police, in association with the Bhubaneswar chapter of Indian National Trust for Arts and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), flew 50 pigeons at OUAT Grounds here to deliver missives of heritage conservation to Cuttack, 25km away.

The ceremony was attended by people from all walks of life, including schoolchildren from Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.

Former DGP and state convener of INTACH, A B Tripathy, praised the police department for preserving the age-old tradition.

The determination of the men who run India’s only police pigeon service has “guaranteed the survival of a practice” that was prevalent in the Mughal era, he said.

SP (signal) BN Das said Odisha was the only state in India to use carrier pigeons to communicate among police stations.

The Odisha Pigeon Service started in 1946 when 200 pigeons were handed over to police personnel by the army on an experimental basis to communicate in areas with no wireless or telephone links, Das said.

The service was first pioneered in the mountainous Koraput district, and its success and reliability resulted in its introduction to almost all the districts of the state with over 700 sturdy Belgian Homer pigeons ferrying messages to assigned destinations.

For years, these dependable birds have been a vital link between remote police stations, where traditional communications failed, beating storms, disasters – and birds of prey, the SP (signal) said.

The messages, written on a piece of paper, were inserted into plastic capsule and tied to the feet of the Belgian Homer Pigeons, which can fly 25 km in just 15 to 25 minutes and live up to 20 years, he added.

The service, headquartered in Cuttack, was extensively used during floods and Super Cyclone in 1999, as radio networks were disrupted, said a senior police officer, adding that the pigeon service was also the only line of communication to the marooned town of Banki during the disastrous flood in 1982.

Ornithologist Panchami Manoo Ukil feels this practice needs to be preserved for the next generation to get an idea about the ancient traditions.

“Pigeon service is an art that dates back to the Mughal days. The birds delivered messages to the harems and battlefields. This unique tradition has historical significance and should be preserved,” he said.

Anil Dhir, a member of INTACH, said the heritage service has generated a lot of interest among the collector’s community.

“All the pigeons reached Cuttack within an hour,” he added.

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Rescuers Looking For Owner Of Mysterious Bedazzled Pigeon

Blinged out Bird!

A lot of us look at pigeons less than fondly – but clearly not all of us. A bird shelter in Arizona, USA, is looking for the owner of a pigeon found wearing a rhinestone-covered vest. The bird, now nicknamed ‘rhinestone bird’ and ‘Liberace’, was given to the Fallen Feathers rescue and rehabilitation facility for birds in Phoenix.

According to local reports, the pigeon was found by a woman in Glendale, wearing a blingy flight suit.

The woman said he wouldn’t fly away and she was afraid an animal would eat him, so she turned in the bedazzled bird to Judy Kieran – the founder of Fallen Feathers.

The bedazzled bird received instant online fame once Judy shared his picture on Facebook a week ago, in hopes of tracing his owner. Comments quickly flooded in, ranging from ‘fabulous’ to ‘fancy’ to ‘rhinestone birdy’.

“Looks like it’s maybe El Chapo’s pigeon with that fancy gold encrusted vest,” wrote one person in the comments section. “You have to name him Elvis!!!” joked another.

In fact, the lost bird received so much attention that Judy shared some better pictures later.

(We must say he’s a fabulous bird)

“Apparently he did belong to somebody, because he does keep going to cages and being as friendly as he is, he’s missing his home,” said Judy.

The search is still underway for Rhinestone Pigeon aka Liberace’s owner.

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Chinese buyer bids record $1.4 million for racing pigeon

Armando, the most expensive pigeon in the world.

A Chinese buyer bid more than $1.4 million for a prized Belgian racing pigeon in an “unprecedented” sale, according to the auctioneer that organized the sale.

The pigeon, named Armando, is considered to be the best long-distance racing pigeon “of all time” according to PIPA, the website that organized the sale. The bird has been dubbed by some as the Lewis Hamilton of racing pigeons, in reference to the Formula One racing driver.

“This type of champion is rarely offered for sale,” the site said.
The price spike came in the final hours of bidding, as two Chinese fanciers kept one-upping each other. The price went from about $600,000 to $1.4 million in about an hour, PIPA said.
Jiangming Liu, who works for PIPA in China, said the company was expecting Armando to fetch a high price but “multiple times less” than what he actually got.

“We’re all surprised,” Liu said.

PIPA said Armando is the most expensive bird ever to be sold at auction by a huge margin. The next most expensive is believed to be a bird called Nadine, which fetched more than $450,000 at auction in 2017. The buyer was a Chinese fancier named Xing Wei, according to media reports at the time.

Joel Verschoot, the Belgian breeder who put Armando up for auction, sold a total of 178 pigeons at auction for more than $2.5 million, including 7 of Armando’s offspring. He also sold a bird named Contador, which fetched more than $225,000, per PIPA.

Pigeon racing has become increasingly popular in parts of China among the country’s elite and its middle class.

Sun Yan, the deputy general-secretary of Beijing Changing District Racing Pigeons Association, said at least 100,000 pigeon breeders live in Beijing, and almost 90,000 of them are registered with Racing Pigeons Associations in different levels, to qualify for the games held in the spring and autumn.

Competitions can be lucrative for bird owners, with some prizes amounting to tens of thousands of dollars. Liu said in recent years, pigeon racing has been surging in popularity across China.

“Now other people, like regular people, are joining too,” he said. “It will be bigger in the future.”

Liu attributes the industry’s growth and increasing professionalism to a number of factors. It is the only legal bidding race in mainland China, where most forms of gambling are outlawed, and the sport is becoming increasingly accessible.

“Everyone can do it. From regular people to some rich people. Regular people buy cheap pigeons. Rich people buy expensive pigeons.”

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Indonesian pigeon sells for $100,000 amid national racing boom

Jayabaya

A pigeon named Jayabaya has become the most expensive bird ever sold in Indonesia. A racing pigeon in Indonesia has been sold for 1 billion rupiah ($101,700), breaking the national record for the most expensive bird ever sold in the country.

The male pigeon, named Jayabaya, was bought by Robby Eka Wijaya in the town of Cilodong in West Java to compete in Indonesia’s booming pigeon races.

Mr Wijaya bought the pigeon from his colleague after watching it compete in a number of different competitions.

He told the ABC he made an offer the owner could not refuse because the pigeon had “special features”, including a rare consistency and “stable mood”.

“One race can last over two days and nine rounds. Often birds can only perform for four rounds, but this bird is able to get into the top 20 at every competition,” he said.

Jayabaya competed against thousands of birds from across the country last year and received the highest score in the national competition, according to Mr Wijaya.

Pigeon racing is a traditional sport in Indonesia, mainly from the island of Java, but it has rapidly gained popularity ever since the creation of a national pigeon organisation.

Robby Eka Wijaya holds a sign of the pigeon he had just purchased named Jayabaya. The type of competition varies and includes speed racing, freestyle flying, as well as a table category, where the pigeons are expected to land back on a table at a certain time after flying.

In order to get Jayabaya to return during a competition, its owner calls out for him with his “girlfriend”, a female pigeon which shares the same cage as him, which Mr Wijaya says is a common practice.

“From what I’ve observed in the past 10 years, there are only two or three birds that are like him,” he said, adding that his friends has questioned his sanity over the amount he paid.

The popularity of pigeon racing in Indonesia has been partly attributed to high profit margins. Pigeons cost around 20,000 rupiah ($2) and the winnings can range from $7,500 to $10,000, or even a brand new car.

The registration cost to compete is also relatively low at a mere $13 to $16, according to the organisation of High Pigeon Fans Indonesia (PMTI).

However, Indonesian newspaper Kompas reports that the average participant pigeon racing competitions are anywhere between 1,500 to 2,000 people, making reaching the top 20 a feat in itself.

Mr Wijaya said it would be “easy” to be able to generate profit off Jayabaya, who is estimated to be two to three years old.

“There is already someone who is willing to spend 100 million rupiah ($10,200) for a set of eggs he fathers, but I won’t sell it,” he said.

In March this year, a Chinese buyer bought a racing pigeon for 1.252 million Euros ($1.98 million) during a pigeon auction by a Belgian breeder, the most expensive pigeon of all time.

The pigeon, named Armando, was described as the Lewis Hamilton of racing pigeons and holds a variety of records including best one day long distance pigeon in Belgium.

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On Pigeon Patrol, Rufus the Hawk Rules the Skies Over Wimbledon

WIMBLEDON, England — Imagine the fluttering kerfuffle.

Roger Federer is serving for the Wimbledon title. He tosses the ball and cranes his neck.

Plop. A gift from a pigeon, right on the forehead.

Luckily, something like that hasn’t happened. At least not yet, not during a big match in recent memory.

For that, Wimbledon can thank a brown and chestnut bird of prey with keen eyes, a four-foot wingspan and bone-crushing talons. His name is Rufus the Hawk, and he plays a crucial role at the world’s oldest tennis tournament.

Every day, in the early morning, well before the matches begin, Rufus soars the skies over the All England Club, on the prowl for pigeons.

Without him, Wimbledon just might descend into aviary chaos. Pigeons could reign supreme, not just in the air, but also in the rafters, on the rooftops and across the grass courts.

The place is perfect for pigeons. “All of the grass seeds, all of the nooks and crannies, and the food waste from the fans,” Wayne Davis, one of Rufus’s handlers, said. Without Rufus, he reckoned, pigeons would number in the hundreds.

Wayne Davis, one of Rufus’s handlers, with a younger companion of the hawk. “Feral pigeons breed year round,” he said. “If you have just one pair breeding in the rafters at Centre Court, you would end up by the end of the year with about 40 more birds. You could have Roger Federer serving and clouds of pigeons wafting about.

“And pigeon poop, too, of course.”

Flocks of pigeons became a growing problem in the late 1990s, a threat to the prim fastidiousness that Wimbledon prizes above all. That was when the All England Club telephoned Davis and his family-run Avian Environmental Consultants.

Another of their birds was the first to patrol Wimbledon. Then Rufus the Hawk took over. He has become an English icon.

From dawn to dusk, he soars, on the prowl for pigeons. He doesn’t kill them. He toys with them, barreling from above, twisting, turning, squawking and nipping at their wings, announcing to all that the skies over Wimbledon belong to him.

“The pigeons learned he was in charge,” Davis said. “Other than a few stragglers, they stopped coming around like they did before. He scares them away.”

Rufus would have been a fearsome predator in the wild. Although he weighs just 1 pound 6 ounces, he cuts a much larger figure with his confident bearing and cascade of feathers.

He can spread his talons almost as wide as a person’s hand, and he can see 10 times better than any human. He can focus on a pigeon from a mile way.

Davis and his daughter, Imogen, feed him by hand because his weight is important. At less than a pound and a half, he can become too hungry and might have a pigeon for lunch. Maybe in front of the royal box.

They have taught him to come when they whistle.

Most often, he does.

Rufus soars and (almost) always comes back.

On one occasion three years ago, however, Imogen Davis had to chase him down at a nearby golf course. He took off again, across a road, then out of sight. She followed the jingle of his small bronze bell, attached to a talon.

She found him in the middle of a pond, standing in a thicket of weeds, hovering over a freshly killed duck. She couldn’t let him eat it. A full tummy would mean he wouldn’t come home until he was hungry again.

She waded through muck and lily pads, then through waist-high water. When she trooped back to Wimbledon, past crowds lined up to watch tennis in their finery, she had Rufus in her clutches.

One time, he vanished overnight.

Wayne Davis had left the bird in the family camper, parked outside an apartment they stay at during tournaments. Davis tucked him into the black cage that is his bedroom, and cracked a camper window just enough for ventilation. In the morning, Rufus and his cage were gone.

Someone had broken in and stolen him.

“My heart sank,” Imogen Davis said. She, her parents and her siblings had bought Rufus from a breeder when he was 16 weeks old, and he had become a member of the family.

“It was terrible,” she said. “There were a lot of tears.”

By then, Rufus had celebrity status, even a Twitter handle. The theft of Rufus the Hawk became headline news.

“Game, set and snatched,” wrote The Daily Mail.

The police said to expect someone to be in touch, demanding a ransom.

Three days went by. Then, from a phone booth, someone telephoned the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. No one knows for sure what had transpired — maybe Rufus had gotten away from the birdnappers, or maybe they decided to simply give him up — but he had been spotted in a park.

Imogen Davis, another handler, said Rufus once stayed in the Centre Court rafters overnight. The animal welfare charity picked him up. Rufus went back to work. He hasn’t missed a day since.

Imogen Davis said Rufus has taught her important lessons. Like the morning he flew into the Centre Court rafters and decided to stay there.

Two hours passed. Then five. Then 10. He still wouldn’t budge. “Luckily it wasn’t during the actual tournament,” she said, a nod to the fact that Rufus polices Wimbledon year round. She and her mother, Donna, wrapped themselves in towels and spent the night on Centre Court.

“We didn’t sleep in the royal box,” Imogen Davis said. “We didn’t sleep at all.”

The next day, Rufus came down.

The lesson was a lot like Zen: Rufus never gets ruffled. He does things in his own good time.

Has he ever, in his own good time, decided to perch in the Center Court rafters during a match?

No, Davis said. She chuckled. “But if he did, he would just stay perched up there, saying, ‘I don’t know who Roger Federer is.’”

Bird birth control? B.C’s latest plan in tackling the pigeon problems on the SkyTrain.

Pigeons can be a real problem on B.C.’s SkyTrain transit system.

While the droppings are messy enough, the birds also put customer safety at risk. TransLink says they trigger track intrusion alarms, which can cause the driverless trains to brake automatically, leading to customer falls and service delays. Not to mention the smell and the various health hazards associated with bird droppings.

So TransLink and the BC SPCA have come up with a solution to help reduce the pigeon population at the VCC-Clark SkyTrain Station — birth control.

As part of a pilot project to control the population, an automatic bird feeder will be dispensing OvoControl.

(OvoControl feeder)

TransLink says it is a non-toxic, effective and humane contraception used in other cities to prevent pigeon reproduction and reduce populations naturally.

TransLink has already put up nets at stations, set up spikes and strips to deter them from roosting and hired a falconer to patrol stations with the most pigeons.

The move to provide birth control is being supported by wildlife and animal groups.

“Wildlife Rescue strives to reduce human-wildlife conflict in the urban environment and rehabilitates injured and orphaned wildlife,” Linda Bakker, co-executive director of the B.C. Wildlife Rescue Association said in a release.

“This project aims to humanely reduce the number of pigeons at areas that have a lot of potential casualties and injuries in pigeons. This project will reduce the number of injured, deceased and orphaned pigeons in these areas. Wildlife Rescue supports the BC SPCA in promoting humane wildlife management practices.”

The BC SPCA says with fewer new pigeons born, the population around the SkyTrain stations will be naturally reduced and fewer operational issues will result.

“OvoControl has been approved for use by Health Canada and only has contraceptive effects in birds,” Dr. Sara Dubois, chief scientific officer with the BC SPCA, said in a release.

“Pigeons must eat their daily dose (5g/bird) for the contraceptive to work, and it is designed to be fed in a manner to maximize pigeon feeding behaviour. We are happy TransLink is ready to partner with us and research what could be a very effective and humane long-term solution.”

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Pigeon droppings equate to 230 parked cars on bridge.

Crews tasked with cleaning a Saskatchewan bridge are in for a dirty job.

The City of Saskatoon said that over the last 50 years one of its bridges has accumulated nearly 350 tonnes of pigeon poop – which is roughly equal to 230 cars parked on the bridge.

It said the feces adds unnecessary weight and the pigeon droppings contain uric acid which can damage concrete, affecting the integrity of the bridge.

This also means the extermination of about 1,500 members of the feathered flock that makes the Sid Buckwold Bridge home.

The city said relocating or displacing the birds is not recommended because they are likely to fly back or move into other private properties or civic spaces. Homing pigeons are likely to return to their original roosting areas, making relocation difficult as a long term solution.

A local wildlife advocate is disappointed and questions why alternatives can’t be found that would allow the birds to live. “In Saskatchewan, a very, very, very common response is if it pisses you off, shoot it,” said Jan Shadick, volunteer director of Living Sky Wildlife Rehabilitation.

Regina and Vancouver rely on pigeon spikes, protective netting or cages to keep pigeons off their facilities. Toronto and Calgary do not practice Pigeon control.

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Let’s stick with pigeons for a moment.

Occasionally, you see them munching on a pizza rind or some other recognizable discarded food, but most of the time they seem to be pecking at nothing at all.

I am not planning to start a pigeon Facebook enterprise, but unlike virtually all New Yorkers, I do not loathe pigeons and give them credit for living a tough life on the mean and unforgiving streets of Manhattan.

And if you actually stop and look at them, which no one does, their plumage can be quite striking. Yes they are plump and the neck-snapping walk is mind-boggling — what evolutionary rationale could that possibly have? — but they demonstrate an unrelenting pluck to survive in the city that I find admirable.

Just like seagulls, you never see a young or old pigeon, and never a sickly one. They are all the same size and seem in excellent health. I’ve never seen a dead pigeon or a squished one, which is remarkable for all their bicycle- and car-dodging. Not to overthink this, for all of their daily vicissitudes they seem pretty content with their lives, although their expressionless faces could be masking all kinds of nameless dreads.

One activity that seems to definitely give them great pleasure is communal flight. As I look east from our 16th floor apartment, I often see sizable flocks of pigeons soaring in synchronized movements that have no purpose, just banking, turning this way and that, diving and climbing.

They are clearly playing. They will, as a group, alight on a random rooftop, cogitate for a while and then set off on another flight maneuver, happy as clams.

If there is an afterlife, this playful flying would not make me elect to come back as a pigeon. I’m on record as choosing to come back as a chickadee. But if I have no choice and I’m forced to come back as a pigeon, I could handle it. The key, it seems, is a sufficient stream of pizza rinds.

Seagulls seem a lot like pigeons. They are always scamming for food and can fly beautifully. They seem smarter than pigeons and have a more sculpted shape. Gratefully, they have eliminated the disturbing neck-snapping walk, and they are artful at catching food thrown at them by the bored human denizens of Crescent Beach.

Which brings me to a seagull story. It is a third-hand story and its veracity cannot be verified. It was told to me by my nephew on Cape Cod, and he is a known embellisher. There is a thin line between embellishment and prevarication, and I am pretty sure he was sticking to the embellishment side. Not betting my life on that, however.

It starts with a surf-casting fisherman and a nearby observing seagull. The seagull watches as the surf-caster baits up his hook and heaves it into the waves. This is repeated several times with no success, fish-catching-wise. This is where it gets interesting.

This story wants you to believe that a light goes on in the observing seagull’s brain. The light says one, there is food being flung into the air and two, I can fly. Ergo, an intercept is entirely possible. But the light does not fully grasp the concept of “fish hook.”

You probably see where this is going. A perfectly timed intercept is made and the hook lodges in the seagull’s beak, surprising both human and bird actors in this story.

Embellishment alert: The fisherman starts reeling in the seagull and eventually gets it on the beach where a concerned woman assists the fisherman to calm the seagull while he fetches his needle-nose pliers to extract the hook. The seagull is not pleased, and it takes a while to wrestle the hook out.

A moment passes as the humans and seagull digest what just happened. Another light goes on in the seagull’s brain. With good intentions, the concerned woman is carefully holding the seagull but gets no credit for this act of kindness. The light says take a nip of the woman’s cheek and get the heck out of here. End of story.

True story? We cannot be sure.

But it sure beats any pigeon story I know.

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Someone discarded 145 living pigeons this winter

WOLCOTT — Someone discarded 145 living pigeons this winter the way one throws out an empty disposable coffee cup — by tossing them into a trash dumpster.

The night caretaker at the northbound Interstate 65 rest area in White County found the first 57 birds in the middle of December as he took the trash out, said Kim Hoover of the Hoots to Howls Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in rural Pulaski County. Some of the birds trapped inside boxes died, she said.

She took the birds and found homes for most of them, keeping the blind and crippled birds at the rehabilitation center.

Then on Feb. 28, the caretaker found more boxes of birds in the same dumpster at the same rest area.

“Same mozzarella cheese boxes. Same person’s name and number on the leg ban,” she said.

The first group of birds found were standing in feces that were caked to their feet and matted in their feathers, Hoover said. It appeared they’d been in the dumpster for a while and were in poor health.

The second group was found in better condition and did not have trash piled on top of the boxes, indicating that they had not been in the dumpster that long, Hoover said.

That person’s name on the leg band is Bahman Ghassab from Dublin, Ohio, Hoover said. The bands also had a telephone number to reach Ghassab. The Journal & Courier called that number on Wednesday, but it is no longer a working number.

But after the find in December, Hoover said one of her associates did call the number, and Ghassab answered.

“He said he sold some birds to someone in Florida and in Illinois,” Hoover said, “and he would not give any more info than that.

“When asked why would you sell sick starving and injured pigeons and better yet why would someone buy them in this condition, the conversation ended,” Hoover said.

The Journal & Courier contacted John DeCarlo Jr., president of the National Pigeon Association. He checked the association’s membership list, and Ghassab is not a member.

“These birds don’t fly,” Hoover said.

The Journal & Courier texted photos of the birds to DeCarlo, who is in California.

“I don’t know why they don’t fly,” he said, noting this particular breed of pigeon is the Iranian high fliers.

The Iranian high fliers are capable of flight, unlike the one particular breed that Hoover mistakenly was told the rescued birds belonged to, DeCarlo said.

The birds might not fly because they are sick or are under fed or are under conditioned, DeCarlo said. Or they might have been altered so they can’t fly, he added.

Someone told Hoover the birds were likely part of an illegal gambling ring, but that doesn’t seem likely, according to DeCarlo.

The only gambling in the pigeon hobby is among racing pigeons, and these are not racing pigeons, he said.

The flightless pigeon breed is known as parlor rollers. They have been genetically bred not to fly, and when they are nervous or excited, they roll, Decarlo said. There is a competition among parlor rollers to see whose bird can roll the furthest, but it’s not cruel because this is the natural way these birds behave, according to several pigeon experts interviewed Wednesday by the Journal & Courier.

Everyone interviewed Wednesday was incensed by the way these birds were discarded.

Hoover said no one seems interested in investigating it as a criminal case.

“From what I’m told, they’re not pets; they’re not farm animals, so nobody does anything,” she said.

National Pigeon Association Secretary/Treasurer Tim Heidrich of Georgia doesn’t see why it couldn’t be prosecuted.

“To me, it’s like animal cruelty,” Heidrich said. “There are ways to get rid of them without being cruel about it.”

“There are quite a few small shows,” he said. “You can go to these things and sell them — give them away to the kids.”

DeCarlo suggested giving unwanted pigeons to 4Hers so they can learn the hobby and show them.

Finding so many birds thrown away begs the question of whether other birds met with a similar fate only went undiscovered at other locations.

“We don’t know if this is the first time,” Hoover said. “Is it happening at other rest parks? We don’t know.

“I just wish he’d stop. These birds don’t deserve to be thrown out.”

Mass. aims to unite taxpayers through hatred of pigeon poop

BOSTON — Along with all the usual declarations and deductions, Massachusetts residents have been asked to keep something else in mind this tax season: pigeon droppings.

In an unusual and at times stomach-turning appeal, the state agency MassWildlife proposed that one way to fight back against the sticky messes befouling cars and damaging bridges is for taxpayers to check a box on their tax forms to support the state’s endangered species program.

How so? Peregrine falcons are among the program’s beneficiaries, and they prey on pigeons.

“Hate pigeon poop? Save peregrine falcons,” begins the message on the agency’s website and in a recent newsletter. It goes on to picture a typical motorist driving home from work over one of the state’s major bridges.

“You’re thinking about dinner as you wait in traffic when — PLOP! — something white and black falls onto your windshield,” the post continues.

Next comes a scientific breakdown of the bird droppings that includes an explanation — for inquiring minds that need to know — of the precise difference between the dark and white portions.

Damage: And then, lest the reader believe it’s all no more than a yucky nuisance, this warning: “This paste-like substance is so acidic and corrosive, that it can damage your car’s paint job. And you guessed it, groups of birds all going to the bathroom in the same place can make man-made structures like bridges deteriorate faster.”

Enter the peregrine falcon, a magnificent predator that can attain speeds of 240 mph in high-elevation dives, no match for the slower and less agile pigeon, which just so happens to be one of the peregrine’s favorite feasts.

Peregrine falcons disappeared from Massachusetts in the mid-1950s and soon after in the entire eastern U.S., their demise largely blamed on the pesticide DDT, according to the state’s Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program.

After the chemical was banned, efforts picked up to reintroduce the raptor, sometimes confused with more common varieties of hawk.

Pigeon-hunting perches: To the surprise of some ornithologists, many of the newcomers eschewed their former rural habitats and became city dwellers. Instead of on cliffs, they began nesting on tall building ledges and bridges in urban areas where food sources — pigeons, especially — were more plentiful.

To help the falcons along, state officials and volunteers placed nesting boxes in strategic locations such as the Custom House Tower in Boston, the 28-story W.E.B. Du Bois Library at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and the heavily traveled Tobin Bridge spanning the Mystic River.

“Falcon cams” were even installed to offer a continuous livestream of peregrine comings and goings.

The restoration effort is partially funded by voluntary donations from taxpayers, who can choose to contribute to “endangered wildlife conservation” on their state returns. The money supports more than 400 threatened or endangered plants and animals, from bog turtles to timber rattlesnakes, but the peregrine falcon is easily among the most “charismatic,” said David Paulson, senior endangered species biologist for MassWildlife.

Donations: Contributions to the fund have been increasing but remain well below levels needed, according to state officials and wildlife experts. About 23,000 taxpayers gave $312,000 through the tax check-off in 2017, the last full year for which figures were available, compared with the $178,000 provided by approximately 18,000 taxpayers in 2013.

It’s not just bird lovers and conservationists embracing the slow but steady revival of the peregrine falcons.

State transportation engineers have noticed a reduction in the pigeon population on bridges with nesting falcons, officials said. Fewer pigeons means less waste building up on bridge surfaces, rusting the steel and increasing the costs for maintenance and bridge replacement.

“It’s almost like a symbiotic relationship,” Paulson said. “The structure provides the habitat, and the falcons kind of provide the pest management, for lack of a better term.”

Officials hope drivers when completing their tax forms will see the peregrine as a feathered friend that can make an unwanted splattering a bit less likely.

The falcons “are never going to eliminate (pigeons), but they can help to manage them,” Paulson said.

Man Shells Out $1.4 Million for a Pigeon

Don’t bet against the high-flying lifestyle of rare bird and sports.

A buyer has bid more than $1.4 million for a champion Belgian racing pigeon in a sale, according to the auction house Pipa, which oversaw the online auction for the rare bird.

This regal, emerald green-feathered bird is no regular pigeon you would frequent on the street — as you probably imagined.

In fact, lest you underestimate the athleticism of the mighty bird named “Armando,” look no further than this endorsement.

Nikolaas Gyselbrecht, the founder and chief executive of Pipa, told the Press Association: “This pigeon has a race record that has never been matched by any other pigeon.”

“In football terms you have Messi and Ronaldo – it’s that level.”

The praise for “Armando” continued from there.

PIPA

“This is a crowning glory of all those years in the pigeon sport. The icing on the cake,” Joël Verschoot said of the unique bird he put up for auction, according to the Guardian.

Indeed, Armando is apparently a champ who really goes the distance.

As to why a bird fetched such a high price, it comes down to Armando’s particular knack for the long-distance competition in China, where bird racing is a popular draw.

Bird owners can win plenty of their money back by betting on the correct winged competitor, with prizes in the tens of thousands of dollars.

That being said, your typical racer bird fetches $2,838, according to the BBC.

“This type of champion is rarely offered for sale,” according to the auction site. The high price leapt from $600,000 to $1.4 million in the final moments of bidding, according to the auction site, which features a close-up snapshot of the bird’s eye for reasons unknown.

Go Armando.

A City in Spain Plans to Exile 5,000 Pigeons. Will They Stay Away?

MADRID — The Spanish city of Cádiz will undertake what some may see as a Sisyphean task: relocating 5,000 pigeons hundreds of miles away after a complaint that the birds are driving away tourists from the terraces of cafes in the most visited part of the southern port city.

Carrier pigeons probably date back to ancient Persia. But under a plan announced last month by Cádiz officials, the pigeons themselves will be carried: They will be captured and transported next year to a thinly populated countryside location in eastern Spain. There, they will find a new home in a dovecote near the town of Ribarroja del Turia.

The exile solution to pigeon overcrowding is being presented as a more animal-friendly approach than that taken in other places, where pigeons are treated like flying rats to be culled or fed contraceptive pills that may also be consumed by other species.

The city will use “the most respectful and sustainable method” to keep its pigeon population under control, Álvaro de la Fuente, the city official in charge of environmental policy, said in a statement.

The city came up with the plan after Horeca, a regional federation of hoteliers, complained two years ago that the pigeons were menacing tourists, particularly in the city’s emblematic cathedral square.

“When the pigeon gets hungry, it can get very forceful and often doesn’t even wait for the tourists to leave their table to go for their food,” said Antonio De María Ceballos, a restaurant owner and the president of Horeca.

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oreca also argued that pigeon excrement presents a health risk for waiters and other employees who have to clean pigeon-occupied dining and drinking areas.

The risk, Mr. De María Ceballos said, was confirmed last year by a court ruling in Catalonia that upheld the disability claim of a Barcelona tourism official who said that she contracted pulmonary fibrosis from exposure to floating particles of bird excrement while working in pigeon-filled city squares.

“Nobody here has anything against pigeons or other animals, but something must be done when they proliferate to the point of presenting a health risk,” said Mr. De María Ceballos.

The city hopes to carry out the relocation next year. The 5,000 or so pigeons will have to be trapped and undergo health checks before they are transported and released in eastern Spain, about 375 miles from Cádiz. The hope is that the highly adaptable rock pigeons will be happy to resettle there rather than be tempted to make the return flight.

Mr. de la Fuente, the city official, is also calling on residents to play their part and stop overfeeding pigeons.

He argued that fighting pigeon overpopulation can also helped avoid the spread of “other plagues like rodents.”

City Hall will distribute 3,000 leaflets about how to deal with pigeons, hoping to educate rather than fine its residents for overindulging the birds.

In London, under legislation adopted a decade ago, people risk a fine of as much as 500 pounds ($636) for feeding pigeons around Trafalgar Square.

Infelction control at hospital being probed over pigeon droppings is good enough, says health secretary

Scotland’s health secretary has said she believes infection control is good enough at a hospital where two patients died after contracting an infection linked to pigeon droppings.

Jeane Freeman has ordered a review of the design, build, handover and maintenance of the flagship £842 million Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow as investigations continue.

The Cryptococcus bacteria, a fungal infection linked to pigeon droppings and soil, was found to be a contributory factor in the death of a child, while a second patient was also found to have an infection caused by inhaling the fungus Cryptococcus, although the health secretary has said it did not contribute to their death.

Pigeon droppings found in a plant room on the hospital’s roof are believed to be the source of the problem and investigations are continuing to establish how the bacteria entered a closed ventilation system.

The issue comes after problems with bacteria in the water supply at the adjoining Royal Hospital for Children last year which led to child cancer patients being moved.

In an interview on BBC Good Morning Scotland, Ms Freeman was asked: ‘Do you believe infection control is good enough at this hospital?’

She replied: ‘Yes I do. Yes I do and I think the statistics show that. The overall infection rate in the Queen Elizabeth is 4 per cent, the average across Scotland is 4.9 per cent. It is at least on par with all the other hospitals across Scotland and in fact doing a bit better.

‘But infection happens in hospitals. That’s why we have the Scottish Patient Safety Programme that has significantly reduced infection rates across our hospitals and healthcare settings over the last 10 years or so.

‘What you need to be able to do though is have those additional infection control measures to put in place as they have done at the Queen Elizabeth, with the HEPA (high efficiency particulate air) filters, with the anti-fungal protection for particularly vulnerable patients in the area where the Crypotoccocus infection was discovered.’

Ms Freeman said she hopes to announce the remit of the review by the end of the week.

She could not give a timescale for how long the review will take and said that while she wants it to reach its conclusions and recommendations as quickly as possible, it needs to take long enough to ensure it is ‘robust’.

She said: ‘There have been a number of instances where parts of the building, the fabric of the building, have been less than we would want it to be.

‘Some of those don’t directly affect patients but obviously our primary concern is that this building is, in its fabric, in its internal infrastructure, is absolutely fit for purpose, so that is why I’ve ordered the review and made sure that we will have independent expert advice to that review.

‘It will look at everything from the design, the construction, the commissioning and the continuing maintenance to try and identify what more might need to be done to ensure that the building is fit for purpose, but also whether there are any particular lessons for us as we go on to instigate other builds of healthcare facilities across Scotland.

‘The review of the Queen Elizabeth will have significant importance for all the new build that we’re undertaking.’

Scottish Labour health spokeswoman Monica Lennon said: ‘The Health Secretary says infection rates are on a par with other hospitals in Scotland but this is supposed to be a world-leading hospital.

‘The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital was an £842 million investment by the Government – the fact we are now having a review into its infrastructure suggests something has gone very wrong.

‘The review must answer honest questions about what has gone wrong here.’

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TRANSLINK PLANS ON USING A FALCON TO SCARE OFF POOPING PIGEONS

What do you do when birds poop all over your property?

If you’re TransLink, you send in a falcon.

In an effort to deal with pigeons nesting at the Commercial-Broadway skytrain station, TransLink is using a bird, to flip off other birds.

A Bird Poop Problem

A new platform for the station, set to open February 2nd, will allow commuters to enter westbound from both sides.

The company was hoping the amount of noise made by the skytrain and commuters would shake off the birds, but hasn’t so far.

With the threat of bird poop being a real concern for TransLink, the company decided to bring in a falcon.

Jill Drews, Senior Issues Management Advisor for TransLink says, “the falcon kind of goes in from time to time and scares them away. Hopefully, they remember this is not a safe place to be.”

But there’s more.

In addition to the falcon, Drews says electric strips, that cause a “very,very minor” shock will also be brought in. “It won’t harm the birds. But it’s just irritating so it will hopefully deter them from nesting,” she says.

Spikes and netting will also by installed in an effort to stop the birds from landing.

The pigeons in question could not be reached for a comment.

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Hospitals across Central Belt checked for pigeon threat

NHS Lanarkshire confirmed that additional checks will be carried out at Hairmyres, Monklands and Wishaw General with “remedial actions” taken if necessary.

NHS Ayrshire and Arran said all hospital plant rooms were regularly checked for “potential threats.”

John Paterson, NHS Lanarkshire director of property and support services, said: “Planned preventative maintenance programmes are being reviewed and refreshed in light of emerging details from the recent incident at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.

“We are currently carrying out additional checks for the presence of pigeons and taking any necessary remedial actions if found or reported.”

A spokeswoman for NHS Ayrshire and Arran, which runs hospitals including Crosshouse in Kilmarnock, said: “NHS Ayrshire & Arran Estates Department regularly monitors the safety of the plant rooms at all of our major sites against all potential threats or defects, including access by vermin.

“ Should any infection control issues occur, we work closely with our Infection Control department to deal with them immediately.”

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Pigeon droppings can STILL be seen at scandal-hit hospital where deaths of child and elderly patient were linked to bird mess infection – as officials order review into £842m design

Pigeon droppings could today still be seen on the ground outside a scandal-hit hospital where two patients died after contracting a fungal infection.

A child, said to be a cancer patient, and a pensioner both died at the hospital in Glasgow after becoming ill with cryptococcus, which is linked to pigeon droppings.

The 14-floor Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, one of the largest in Europe, is under scrutiny after claims the pigeon infestation was known about two years ago.

Separately, a third patient at the same hospital was last night seriously ill with the life-threatening disease of mucoraceous, which is another type of fungus.

Pigeon droppings on the grounds of The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow today

The Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board said two patients had tested positive for the condition, with one in a stable and the other in a serious condition.

Today, pigeon droppings could be seen on the ground outside the ultra-modern building, which opened in April 2015, costing £842million.

Meanwhile it also emerged that pest control had been called in this week to another hospital in the city, the New Victoria Hospital in Southside.

Healthcare workers reported concerns about pigeon droppings in an underground car park.

One worker, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said: ‘In the underground car park there is significant pigeon droppings which have remained for the last year.

Pigeons roost on top of the neurology building at the £842million hospital in Glasgow today

‘Every person who uses this stairwell steps in the droppings and tramples it through the whole hospital. No effort has been made to remove the pigeons from the car park.’

What is cryptococcus and who is at risk?

Cryptococcus is a yeast-like fungal infection found in soil and bird faeces that can infect humans who breathe it in.

The infection causes symptoms similar to those faced by people with pneumonia, including coughing, fever and headaches.

Cryptococcus, which normally affects people with weak immune systems, can even impact their mental wellbeing.

But most people who become infected to do not get sick – and it cannot be spread between people.

Pigeons can also transmit the fungal infection of histoplasmosis to humans, as well as bacteria such as E.coli and salmonella – and even a form of encephalitis which can cause the brain to inflame.

But most people who are exposed to pigeons have no problems because they do not come in contact with large quantities of infected droppings.

A spokesman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: ‘Our pest control contractor has been called to respond to a complaint received (on Tuesday) about pigeon droppings in the car park at the New Victoria hospital.’

The child who died from the infection was reported to be a cancer patient from the Grampian area, while the other person who was infected was an elderly woman, according to the Glasgow Evening Times.

The young patient was among those receiving treatment in the main adult building as a result of contamination in the water supply in the children’s hospital – which led to six paediatric patients developing infections last year, according to a source.

Children being treated in wards 2A, 2B and the adjoining bone marrow transplant unit were transferred to wards in the adult hospital while work is ongoing to upgrade the ventilation and water system.

A hospital source claimed the room the child was transferred to should have included a Hepa air filter.

The health board said portable Hepa filters are now being installed in ‘all the rooms identified as requiring them’ as part of additional infection control measures following the deaths.

The source said: ‘The child that died had been moved from the children’s hospital to a room in the adult hospital. The Hepa filter should already have been fitted.

‘I have been told that there are other rooms in the hospital, where HEPA filters should have been fitted but weren’t.’

Pigeons fly over The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow today after the incidents

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said a ‘small crack’ was identified in the wall of the hospital’s plant room – identified as the source of the infection – and spores from the droppings ‘may have entered the air supply via the ventilation system.

Snags, blunders and deaths at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital

March 2016 Operations cancelled because of sewage leak.

April 2016 Problems found at specialist children’s mental health ward. Its rooftop garden was deemed a health and safety risk; locks not fit for purpose and no staff alarm system to call for back-up.

September 2016 Patients and visitors complain of getting stuck in lifts.

March 2017 ‘Significant concerns’ raised by Healthcare Environment Inspectorate during unannounced visit – including dust and body fluids on patient trolleys and mattresses.

October 2017 Contractors carrying out routine maintenance smash a section of glass on the building’s roof. Emergency helicopters diverted.

November 2017 Automatic entrance doors opening too frequently because of sensor problems. Reception staff given heaters to keep them warm.

December 2017 Cladding similar to Grenfell Tower also found at the QEUH and removed.

March 2018 Bacteria found in the water supply at the Royal Hospital for Children, which is part of the site. Children with cancer, who have low immunity, infected and treated with antibiotics. Taps and ventilation system in the area now being upgraded.

August 2018 Pane of glass fell ten floors and shattered near front entrance, said to be the third time this had happened. Safety netting installed.

October 2018 Blocked waste-pipe damaged ceiling at the entrance of the building.

December 2018 Two patients contract Cryptococcus, linked to pigeons nesting in walls, but this is not made public until weeks later, when Jeane Freeman confirms infection contributed to the death of a child.

January 2019 Health bosses confirm that two other patients have been infected with an unspecified fungal organism caused by a ‘water leak’.

However, the source said they had seen pictures taken by a bacteriologist employed by the health board which showed the plant room – which contains air conditioning and ventilation equipment – in a ‘filthy’ state.

He said the room was ‘infested’ with droppings and pigeon feathers, suggesting several birds had been in the room.

The source said: ‘The room had a serious infestation of pigeon droppings. It was filthy.

‘The Health Board knew about the problem on December 23 but they didn’t take appropriate action. The pigeons were in that room.’

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has been approached for comment.

Today, Nicola Sturgeon was pressed on whether the ‘tragic’ death of a child at Scotland’s flagship hospital was linked to the NHS’s £900million repairs and maintenance backlog.

Ms Sturgeon said the situation was ‘a very serious incident that must be and is being treated seriously’.

The First Minister expressed her ‘deepest condolences to the families of the two patients who contracted the infection and who have subsequently died’.

Scottish Conservative interim leader Jackson Carlaw said the ‘alarming’ situation at the flagship hospital ‘raised wider questions about the Government’s record on the NHS, because there is a £900 million maintenance backlog on NHS buildings, including hospitals in Scotland’.

Pressing the SNP leader at First Minister’s Questions, he said: ‘Is it any wonder then that we do see problems emerging, not just at the Queen Elizabeth but at other hospitals across Scotland?’

The Tory stressed while tens of thousands of Scots had been successfully treated at the hospital the ‘tragic events’ had ‘shaken confidence’.

He also noted public spending watchdogs at Audit Scotland had reported there were currently ‘no coherent proposals to bring our NHS estate up to standard’.

Ms Sturgeon said: ‘At any given time there will be maintenance requirements in the health service estate.

Pigeon droppings could be seen on the ground outside the modern hospital, pictured today

‘The Scottish Government works closely with health boards through our capital allocations to health boards to make sure we’re providing, as far as we can within the resources available to us, capital provision to do that.’

Mucormycosis, a fungal infection suffered by two further patients at the Glasgow hospital

Two patients are currently suffering from mucormycosis at the hospital, which is a rare and severe fungus. infection from the fungi mucorales

The condition has a very high mortality rate of at least 50 per cent, with severe infection of the facial sinuses potentially extending into the brain.

Those at risk are people with impaired immunity from various causes, including serioid use, iron overload, burns or malnutrition.

The condition can be treated through the reversal of underlying disease or surgical management.

She added: ‘I’m not going to go into party political exchanges on this issue, it is too serious for that.

‘But obviously we work within a financial envelope and I think everybody knows that that has been under pressure in recent years and everybody knows the reasons for that.

‘But within that we have prioritised spending on the health service and we will continue to do so.’

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard also challenged her on the outbreak, saying: ‘The awful news that two patients, including a child, died after contracting an infection at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow has shocked us all.

‘Our sympathies, our thoughts, are with the families who have lost loved ones. This simply should not have happened.’

He also listed a number of incidents at the hospital since it opened four years ago, including a premature baby dying from an infection and 22 children becoming infected from bacteria in the water supply. He challenged Ms Sturgeon over whether this was ‘good enough’.

This chair covered in pigeon droppings was left in the open for three months at the hospital

The First Minister responded: ‘The evidence suggests there is no general problem with infection control.’

She added: ‘Nobody thinks it is good enough for any patient to get an infection in hospital.

‘Infections do happen in hospitals. There is probably not a hospital anywhere that hasn’t had some kind of infection outbreak and the implications for very ill patients can be severe.

‘That is why it is so important that everything possible is done to reduce infection and everything possible will be done in this case to ensure there is repetition.’

Across Scotland she said there had been a fall in hospital infections since a major outbreak of Clostridium difficile at the Vale of Leven Hospital in West Dunbartonshire more than a decade ago due to improvements in infection control.

Nightingale Associates, which was bought by Canadian firm IBI Group for £13million in June 2010, was the architect behind the hospital.

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HORROR ILLNESS Pigeon poo outbreak – Glasgow superhospital worker claims she was left so ill by pigeons she feared she was dying 2 YEARS before bird filth was linked to child’s death

Jennifer McLoughlin, 43, is suing health chiefs over the problems she suffered while working at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.

Jennifer told how she feared she was dying after being struck down by an illness she blames on pigeons.

She claims birds nesting in the ceiling above her desk sparked weeks of severe breathing problems.

The mum of two was an admin worker in the neurological unit at the hospital in Glasgow when she started to feel ill.

Tests later blamed her issues on her “environment” — and the flagship health complex is now at the centre of an infection scandal linked to pigeon droppings.

Jennifer was horrified when a bug connected to the birds’ mess was this week confirmed as a factor in the death of a child patient — two years after she raised concerns about the £842million site.

She said: “I knew it was those birds making me ill. I could hear them over my head every day in our office.

“It started with a cough and then it just got worse and worse.

“After a few weeks I was in a horrendous state — I thought I was dying. I couldn’t breathe, I was in and out of hospital and calling ambulances to the house.

“I visited my GP at first then found myself having to go to the out of hours team.

“I would suffer violent coughing fits so bad that I fractured my rib during one of them.

“I was put on eight different types of steroids and inhalers. They ran loads of tests on me — I had X-rays, CT scans and a scope put down my throat.”

Jennifer, of Clydebank, added: “I told them about the pigeons at my workplace and they put it down to environmental issues.

“The birds managed to get in through the air vents and were above us.

“I’d complained loads of time but nothing was done.

“To think something could have been done to save that child — it’s just absolutely disgusting.”

Jennifer needed a month off work as she recovered and on her return demanded to be moved to another office.

Her bosses agreed, but she claims the superhospital didn’t do enough after she raised the alarm in April 2017.

5 QUESTIONS THAT NEED ANSWERED

1 Why didn’t health bosses or the Government alert the public earlier?

2 Would they have made the deaths and infection public had the media not pressed them?

3 Why does an £842m ‘superhospital’ not have adequate preventative measures against invading pigeons?

4 How did pigeon filth enter a closed ventilation system?

5 Are other hospitals being checked for pigeon problems?

She said: “I told them that I wasn’t working in that office again so they moved us. My health got better but I started looking for other jobs straight away, I couldn’t work there anymore.

“I think they knew deep down they were at fault because I was off ill for a month and those days weren’t even subtracted from my sick leave.”

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman announced a probe into the superhospital on Tuesday.

It came as she confirmed the cryptococcus infection — which can be breathed in from bird droppings — had been a factor in the death of the child in December.

Another elderly patient at the hospital who also had the infection died from an unrelated cause.

The likely source of the bug has been traced to a plant room. As details of two more infection cases emerged this week, Ms Freeman admitted the hospital “may not be fit for purpose”.

Jennifer, who lives with partner John Fenner, 46, and her children Georgia, nine, and seven-year-old Keenan, now works at the Golden Jubilee in Clydebank.

She went to her union for support after leaving the QEU then contacted Thompsons Solicitors.

They are helping take legal action against NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, claiming her working environment was to blame for her health problems.

She said: “I’m suing them for how ill I was — my rib problem, all of the medication I had to take and how ill I was.

“Up until now they have been denying it — now they can’t hide any more. A child has died and who knows how many others have been affected.

“They should hang their heads in shame.”

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said it was “unable to comment on this ongoing legal case”.

A spokesman for Thompsons Solicitors added: “We are very keen that the health board engage with us to resolve the matter as quickly as possible.”

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TransLink trying to ward off pigeon problem ahead of new SkyTrain platform opening

TransLink is trying to deal with a bird poop problem around the Commercial-Broadway SkyTrain station.

Pigeons have been nesting at a new platform that’s set to open early next month.

The noise of the SkyTrain — and the hustle and bustle of the commuters — isn’t enough to scare off the birds. So, Jill Drews with TransLink tells us a falcon has been brought in.

“The falcon kind of goes in from time to time and scares them away. Hopefully, they remember this is not a safe place to be.”

Drews says they’ll also be setting up electric strips, “The shock is very, very minor, it won’t harm the birds. But it’s just irritating so it will hopefully deter them from nesting.”

TransLink will also be installing spikes and netting to stop the birds from landing.

The new platform at the Commercial-Broadway station is set to open on Feb. 2. It will allow commuters to enter the westbound SkyTrains from both sides.

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Florida Man Hunting Pigeons With A Net

There are some weird things that happen in Florida – after all, that is the foundation of the entire Florida Man subReddit, so is it really that shocking that a video has surfaced of a man catching pigeons in a net? Probably not for most.

The majority of questions surrounding the video is about what the man plans on doing with the birds. Although the video posted on World Star HipHop is pretty low quality and only just over 30 seconds in length, you can clearly see a man standing near a group of pigeons with something in his hand. It is soon revealed that “something” is a net that he throws over the birds – successfully catching several.

The video cuts off with the man putting the birds in the back of a vehicle. It is not clear if it is his vehicle or someone else’s – but we would put money on it being his. There is no further information on who the mystery bird man is, so that is also up to speculation. Knowing the internet his identity will not remain a secret for very long.

As for the legality of this man’s actions – well, according to the Chicago Tribune, it is not illegal to catch and eat a city pigeon unless it happens to be someone’s trained homing pigeon.

With that being said, a lot of people are assuming he was catching his dinner.

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