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The Bird Flu

Pigeon Patrol — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 05:07:00 +0000

Ever heard of the bird flu? Keep on reading to find out more about what it is!

So what is the bird flu?

The Bird Flu also known as the Avian influenza refers to the disease caused by infection with avian (bird) influenza (flu) Type A viruses. These viruses occur naturally among wild aquatic birds worldwide and can infect domestic poultry and other bird and animal species

When was the bird flu?

The year 2005 has been dubbed ‘the year of bird flu’. Across the globe, the fear of avian influenza has caused government officials to place a higher priority on developing plans to deal with pandemic influenza. A survey published on 23 December 2005 by the World Health Organization (WHO) named avian influenza as the number one health concern. This heightened concern exists despite any evidence suggesting sustained human-to-human transmission of the potentially pandemic H5N1 strain of avian influenza virus. Experts have been closely monitoring occurrences of H5N1 since it first appeared in 1996 in the Chinese province of Guangdong.

The number of confirmed human H5N1 infections doubled in 2005. Of the 142 cases of human H5N1 influenza reported as of 30 December 2005, over half have been fatal. That statistic sparked a media frenzy that H5N1 may develop into the next pandemic strain of influenza. A serological survey published in the Journal of Infectious Disease by Bridges et al. (185, 1005–1010, 2002) showed that although the incidence of human H5N1 infection might be higher than previously thought, the mortality rate might be much lower. Up to 10% of 1,525 asymptomatic poultry workers had antibodies to the H5N1 virus. Most of these human cases are thought to have developed after contact with infected animals. Documented reports suggest that H5N1 can infect many bird species and mammals, in addition to humans. Although more serological studies in affected areas are needed, the 2002 study suggests the virus can infect humans without producing the extreme mortality commonly associated with the H5N1 strain. Yet the fear remains that mutation or reassortment of viral genomic segments with those of other endemic strains of influenza might result in a highly virulent human virus.

The WHO, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization have established extensive surveillance and reporting programs for H5N1 influenza. The year 2005 witnessed an explosion of H5N1 outbreaks in poultry and migrating wild bird populations in Asia, spreading to Russia and eastern Europe. That dissemination occurred despite massive vaccine inoculation programs for poultry initiated by local governments in Asia and culling of infected bird flocks elsewhere. Although not yet reported, experts have expressed concern over the appearance of H5N1 in Africa, where surveillance and control measures are subject to regional conflicts, thereby heightening the risk that a highly transmissible human form of H5N1 virus might evolve. Thus, a race against time is now on to develop and generate effective human vaccines to prevent H5N1 infection and to produce sufficient amounts of antiviral drugs that might lessen disease severity. Therapies aimed at controlling innate immune responses should also be pursued, given the clinical evidence that H5N1 elicits ‘cytokine storms’ that can contribute to disease pathogenesis.

Is all the news dire? No. In fact, the present threat of pandemic influenza has spurred several encouraging steps. There seems to be greater accountability in disease surveillance by local health authorities, who supply critical field samples to international agencies that constitute the WHO Influenza Surveillance Network. The WHO has established several laboratories dedicated to analyzing new isolates of influenza virus, thereby providing much-needed standardized epidemiological information on viral samples obtained from geographically separate regions and monitoring how the virus is evolving from earlier isolates. Should a pandemic strain of human influenza arise, these laboratories can quickly identify the relevant ‘genomic fingerprint’ and advise vaccine manufacturers.

Another welcome consequence of the focus on avian influenza has been a resurgence of interest in vaccine manufacturing. Because which H5N1 influenza isolate will have the ‘right’ combination of mutations that allows it to spread quickly throughout human populations cannot be predicted in advance, vaccine manufacturers need to develop new means for rapid production of effective vaccines. At present, methods for the production of influenza vaccines require billions of chicken eggs, a resource that might be unavailable given the lethality of the virus in avian species. The use of reverse genetics in vaccine design as well as mass production using vaccine-certified cell lines hold the promise of streamlining production schedules and reducing potential bottlenecks based on the availability of eggs. The WHO and the US National Institutes of Health have several recombinant H5N1 prototype vaccine strains derived by reverse genetics from viral isolates from southeast Asia. Both agencies have provided these clones to licensed manufacturers for the development and testing of vaccines, some of which have already entered clinical trials. Governmental licensing agencies need to expedite their review process for vaccines produced by cell-based manufacturing methods. Sufficient incentives or collaborative partnerships must be extended to vaccine manufacturers to retool their production facilities so they can meet the global demand for viral vaccines.

Yet planning for the possibility of a future pandemic must also be done on the local level. As witnessed by the SARS outbreak in 2003, substantial economic consequences can result from the mere threat of a highly transmissible disease. It is imperative that local governments, businesses and other institutions develop and test contingency plans that can be deployed in their communities should a pandemic strain arise. Such contingency plans should be independent of vaccination programs (vaccination with the present viral formulations should be encouraged) or antiviral prophylaxis for exposed people, as no guarantee can be made that sufficient supplies of such agents would be available. These plans should include infection-control measures, identification of essential personnel and possible alternative work procedures (such as telecommuting), and a means of communication to rapidly disseminate critical information. All community members should be educated on the specifics of their plan and what to do in the event of such a health emergency. Such planning might avoid future revisionists from proclaiming 2006 as the year of bird flu. Source

The virus continued to kill chickens and to occasionally infect and sometimes kill people. But as the years passed, the number of human H5N1 cases subsided. There has not been a single H5N1 human infection detected since February 2017. This is the good news

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Pigeons In Religions

Pigeon Patrol — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 04:49:32 +0000

Did you know Pigeons had a part in many religions? Keep on reading to find out more!

Pigeons In Religions

Pigeons in Judaism and Christianity

The dove features strongly in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, and references to frequent sacrifices exist in both. There are a number of references to the sacrifice of doves in the Talmud, a series of Jewish texts compiled between AD 250-500. Although the texts were compiled in AD 250-500, they are thought to relate to much earlier periods. The texts not only describe the sacrifices but also how the sacrificial birds should be reared and the correct ways of killing them. The dove is better known for its part in the Old Testament story of the Great Flood, however, when one returned to Noah with an olive branch. As a result, the dove has always been linked with peace and good news and is still released at the start of the Olympic Games today for this reason.

Pigeons and the Romans

Roman Mosaic
3rd Century AD

Pigeons in religions. The Romans had a great affinity with the pigeon and although they sacrificed the dove to the goddess Venus, and therefore revered the bird, they also bred different varieties and used the pigeon widely as a messenger. Historian and philosopher Caius Pliny, writing in the 1st century AD, says: “Many people have quite a mania for pigeons, building turrets for them on house roofs and tracing the pedigrees of single birds…”. The pigeon is commonly depicted throughout the Roman period but never in more detail than the superb Dove Mosaic discovered during the 18th century at Emperor Hadrian’s Villa. Another detailed mosaic, dating from 200 BC, shows a priest beside a shrine with an adjoining dovecote. The dovecote is detailed with pigeons on the roof and flying above it. This mosaic further confirms the connection between worship and the breeding of pigeons.

Pigeons and Islam

Prophet Mohammed
Depicted with Dove

Islam has had strong associations with the pigeon throughout history and that association continues today with large flocks being found in the holy city of Mecca, where breeding sites are provided for the birds and where pilgrims to Mecca purchase grain to feed them.

Pigeons Waiting Outside
21st Century Mosque
to be Fed

At the shrine of Mohammed in Medina (western Saudi Arabia) the thousands of pigeons that gather there are commonly referred to as the ‘Prophet’s birds’.

Pigeon racing and fancying is still a popular sport in the Muslim world and the breed of pigeon known as the ‘Arabian Laughter’ is believed to have been introduced by Mohammed and is still bred today.

Pigeons and Hinduism

The Hindu religion has also revered the dove throughout history, with the bird being mentioned as far back as 1500-1200 BC in the Rig Veda, an ancient hymn dedicated to the Aryan Deities. There are countless illustrations of the pigeon throughout Hindu history, depicted with various deities. The pigeon is still revered today, with huge flocks of pigeons being fed on a daily basis in temples throughout India, in many towns and cities in the UK and many other European cities. Source

Pigeons and Sikhism

The Sikh religion, founded in the 16th century, considers the dove to be a symbol of peace, harmony and goodwill. Sikhs believe that God’s light is in all creatures including pigeons and other birds. As with the Hindu religion, Sikhs feed pigeons around temples in India and throughout the UK and many European cities today.

The feral pigeon that is directly descended from the domesticated rock dove is now perceived as being a pest and a nuisance in towns and cities throughout the world, and yet the bird is still revered in the 21st century. Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs continue to revere the pigeon and the huge flocks of pigeons that can be seen in and around temples and places of worship confirm this. In towns and cities throughout the UK the continued growth of multi-racial groups has ensured that the feral pigeon is, to some small degree, still a symbol of peace and harmony.

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Why Are There So Many Pigeons In The Cities?

Pigeon Patrol — Tue, 24 Nov 2020 05:32:37 +0000

Ever thought about why there are so many pigeons in your city? I have, I always notice a flock of pigeons hanging out on posts and rooftops and individually roaming the streets. But why are there so many? Keep on reading to find out! It may surprise you.

Pigeons In The City

Some people feed pigeons bread crumbs or keep them as pets in rooftop coops. Others see the animals as pests, carriers of disease or simply “rats with wings.” But whatever you think about these birds, there’s one fact no one will argue: Pigeons are everywhere.

Have you ever wondered how one kind of bird managed to take over urban areas as far apart as Washington; London, England; Mumbai, India; and Melbourne, Australia? Or why it is that pigeons are so plentiful in cities and not eagles, turkeys, hummingbirds or vultures?

Well, the first thing you need to know about pigeons is that they’re actually doves. Or doves are actually pigeons. Scientifically, there’s no difference between the two.

“In some languages, there isn’t even a separate word for ‘pigeon,’ ” said Colin Jerolmack, a scientist at New York University who studies human societies.

There are still pigeons living in the wild today. They evolved on the shores of North Africa and the Mediterranean Sea, where they make their homes on rocky ledges and cliffs. And it was this natural love for hard surfaces that made them a perfect fit in urban areas.

“They actually really like concrete, marble and stone, so they prefer to live and build nests not in the trees and shrubs and grass, but alongside buildings,” said Jerolmack, who wrote a book called “The Global Pigeon.”

But perhaps the biggest reason you’ll find pigeons in cities around the world is because humans brought them there.

At least as long as 5,000 years ago, the people of an ancient Middle Eastern civilization known as Mesopotamia started putting out houses for these birds. As the birds became more tame, people began breeding them for food in areas where other wild animals had become scarce.

Later, people learned that they could also use pigeons to carry written messages over long distances, thanks to the birds’ homing instinct.

“You can take a street pigeon in D.C. and drive it down to North Carolina and release it, and, more often than not, it’ll find its way home,” Jerolmack said.

As you can see, pigeons can be quite useful. It’s been only in the past 80 to 100 years that people started disliking the birds, Jerolmack said. And much of the dislike comes from misunderstanding.

For example, there’s really no solid evidence that pigeons pass diseases on to people. And once you get to know them, you might change the way you think.

Did you know that pigeons mate for life, for instance? Or that once their chicks hatch, both parents take turns feeding their young a liquid produced in their digestive tract called “crop milk?”

Anyway, humans have only themselves to blame for the pigeons cooing on every corner.

“We bred them and domesticated them, and kept them in cities as we developed cities,” Jerolmack said. “So they’ve always been here, from the beginning.”

But perhaps the biggest reason you’ll find pigeons in cities around the world is because humans brought them there.

Later, people learned that they could also use pigeons to carry written messages over long distances, thanks to the birds’ homing instinct.

“You can take a street pigeon in D.C. and drive it down to North Carolina and release it, and, more often than not, it’ll find its way home,” Jerolmack said.

As you can see, pigeons can be quite useful. It’s been only in the past 80 to 100 years that people started disliking the birds, Jerolmack said. And much of the dislike comes from misunderstanding.

For example, there’s really no solid evidence that pigeons pass diseases on to people. And once you get to know them, you might change the way you think.

Did you know that pigeons mate for life, for instance? Or that once their chicks hatch, both parents take turns feeding their young a liquid produced in their digestive tract called “crop milk?”

Anyway, humans have only themselves to blame for the pigeons cooing on every corner.

“We bred them and domesticated them, and kept them in cities as we developed cities,” Jerolmack said. “So they’ve always been here, from the beginning.” Source

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When Birds Get Inside Your Home

Pigeon Patrol — Tue, 24 Nov 2020 04:28:42 +0000

Outdoor spaces just aren’t the same without colorful, chirping birds that flutter and dance before our eyes. Unfortunately, birds have a troublesome habit of getting into indoor spaces that aren’t made for wild animals. The problem is especially acute during the cool season. If you’re dealing with bird problems in the home, you need to know what causes indoor bird infestations and what you can do about them.

Why Do Birds Come Inside?

Birds come inside for many different reasons. In some cases, indoor spaces mimic birds’ natural habitats or provide suitable, sheltered locations for the construction of nests or perches.

In other cases, carnivorous birds follow small animals like mice inside. With a steady supply of prey, they find it easier to remain inside than brave the uncertain outside world.

Even birds that don’t hunt indoor pests may be drawn to easily accessible food sources, including grains and seeds, inside the home.

How Do Birds Get Inside Your Home?

The chimney isn’t the only way that a bird can enter your house; exhaust vents and small holes in your roof are also prime targets. If you didn’t actually see the stray bird come out of your fireplace, check your attic to see if there are more of them living on your property. 3. Put screens on your windows and doors

Birds tend to spend more time indoors during the cool season. Some of the most common pest species inside Arizona homes include:

House sparrows that can easily penetrate small holes and vents
Woodpeckers that can easily break apart wooden structural elements to create nests or food sources
Birds of prey that use sheltered areas as perches

How to Handle Birds Inside the Home Source

It can be overwhelming and even frightening to deal with birds inside the home. Fortunately, there are a number of proven strategies that can help mitigate the problem:

Cut off carnivorous birds’ food sources by controlling indoor pests like mice and rats
Install ventilation screens and other barriers to entry
Patch holes and other “weak points” in your home’s siding, roof, foundation line and garage
Put out a bird feeder to discourage food-seeking behavior inside the home
Call a professional to handle stubborn infestations

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Should You Care About Pigeons Roosting?

Pigeon Patrol — Tue, 24 Nov 2020 04:13:36 +0000

Do you have pigeons roosting at your property? Not sure if they cause any harm or if you should get rid of them? Keep on reading to find out what pigeons may do to your property!

Pigeons may seem harmless, but these pest birds cause millions of dollars in damage every year to buildings, ventilation systems, machinery, statues, roofs, and much more. Bird droppings and nesting materials left by pigeons pose physical problems and health hazards that can become very serious if not corrected quickly making prompt and effective professional bird control is often essential.

Pigeons Roosting

Pigeons find our window ledges, rooftops, bridges, and warehouses to be ideal substitutes for the natural ledges in cliff sides that they have always used as roosting, nesting, and sheltering sites. When flocks grow too large and become a nuisance, killing the birds is often the first plan of action.

Potential Health Hazards:

There are many health risks associated with pigeons and their droppings. The bacteria, fungi, and ectoparasites that they and their droppings harbor are numerous. The four most common ways disease is passed by bird to human are: inhalation of fecal dust, food and water contaminated with bird feces, direct contact with feces, and parasitic transfer.

Pigeon droppings can expose humans to many diseases, including salmonella, Newcastle disease, candidiasis, encephalitis, orthosis, and toxoplasmosis. In addition, they can also carry cryptococcosis, and coccidiodomycosis, which cause meningitis. The droppings may also harbor growth of fungus, which causes histoplasmosis. Fleas, lice, mites, and other pests often live on these birds, hitching a ride to where ever they want to jump off. Pigeons may also attract other pests, such as rats, which feed on dead pigeons and food that well-intentioned bird lovers may scatter for them.

In addition to disease, bird droppings are known for triggering people to slip and fall, which makes it especially important to rid the birds from highly trafficked areas. Source

Damage Caused by Pigeons:

These are messy birds, leaving droppings everywhere they go, particularly near their roost sites. Pigeon droppings are not just gross, they are also full of uric acid which makes them extremely corrosive. The droppings are the direct cause of millions of dollars in damage to buildings and other structures. Particularly vulnerable are painted surfaces, awnings, signs, and other similar surfaces. A tragic example of the corrosiveness of pigeon droppings is the Minnesota bridge accident in 2007, which was found to be the direct result of bird droppings eating away at the metal bridge supports until they weakened.

In addition to the damage cause by their acidic droppings, pigeon nests can also cause damage. Pest birds will often build nests in gutters or on roof corners blocking essential drainage systems. Every year several warehouses experience roof damage, and even collapse, when drainage systems have been blocked and standing water rises just six inches. Bird nests can also block ventilation systems, which not only prevents exhaust of potentially harmful gases, but also has the potential to spread diseases. Fire is also a potential hazard. Nesting materials are usually flammable, consisting of twigs, straw, grasses and dried droppings. When pest birds build their nests inside electric signs or other machinery there is a great risk of fire.

Pigeons are creatures of habit and highly social. Once they have found a cozy spot the will return again and again, bringing along more of their pigeon pals. Prolific breeders, pigeons can hatch several broods a year, sometimes even laying a new clutch before the previous have even hatched. Often our buildings and structures have architectural features such as drain spouts and eaves that make perfect nesting spots for these birds. Pigeons are comfortable around humans and they’re hard to scare away or deter. Once a flock of stubborn unwanted pigeons have set up shop in/on your building, it can be stubbornly resistant to removal, often requiring the services of a pest control or animal control professional. As is true of many pests that invade our homes and businesses, the first step to controlling feral pigeons is to remove their food source.

Tips to deter pigeons:

Don’t feed the pigeons.
Screen drains and gutters to make your property less attractive to pigeons.
Encourage children to pick up spilled food – and teach them NOT to feed pigeons
Keep areas around trash bins and outdoor dining areas clean
Eliminate water sources such as bird baths, over-watered lawns, or kiddy pools.

If you need help to prevent or eliminate pesky problem pigeons, please contact us!

Hope you learned more about why you should take action when pigeons are roosting on your property

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Reducing Number In Pigeons

Pigeon Patrol — Thu, 05 Nov 2020 07:23:35 +0000

Do You Wanna Know How To Reduce The Numbers In Pigeons Roaming Around?

Keep on reading!

The need to reduce numbers in feral pigeon populations in urban areas has been the subject of intense debate for decades with town and city councils making little impact on the problem due to lack of investment and, in many cases, a reluctance to think laterally. Although the feral pigeon has been a common feature of urban life for the last 100 years there is no doubt that urban flocks are now growing faster than their numbers can be controlled. The reason for this unprecedented rise in feral pigeon numbers is due, almost exclusively, to the availability of food and the methods used to control the birds. Other factors such as the availability of good roosting and breeding facilities also play their part.

The feral pigeon is completely at home in urban environments, exploiting humans for food and using buildings for the purposes of roosting and breeding. This is because the feral pigeon is a descendent of the rock dove, a cliff-dwelling bird that was commonly found feeding and breeding along rocky coastlines prior to its mass exodus inland to make its home alongside man.

Pigeons (Rock Doves) in
their Natural Habitat

The reason that the rock dove chose to desert its natural habitat is the obvious availability of food combined with the optimum breeding and roosting potential offered by buildings, which resemble cliff faces. In its natural habitat the only real predator of the rock dove was the peregrine falcon, an extremely efficient predator that preyed on both pigeons and gull chicks.

In these natural environments flock size was restricted and maintained at levels dictated by the availability of natural food sources and the extent of predation in the area concerned. In urban environments, however, the picture is very different with man being the sole predator of the feral pigeon and food sources guaranteed.

Peregrine Falcon

Today the feral pigeon can be seen in virtually every area of the globe other than the two polar icecaps, exploiting man for food and his buildings for the purposes of roosting and breeding. Man has attempted to control the feral pigeon by using a variety of lethal controls, including poisons, narcotics, cage traps and shooting, and yet the pigeon has shrugged off all these attempts at population control and continued to live and breed in close association with man undeterred. Lethal controls have been complemented by an arsenal of deterrents, provided in an effort to deny or restrict roosting and perching opportunities (thereby reducing guano-related problems). Anti-roosting systems such as anti-roosting spikes have proved extremely effective at displacing pigeons from areas that pigeons roost and nest; but may not be a total solution as pigeons may simply move to other areas nearby.

Rifle Used for Pigeon Culling

So what other options are available to control and contain the problem? The answer to the question really lies in the source of the problem: available food and the means by which we currently control the birds. The use of lethal control as a means of controlling and reducing pigeon populations has been found to have no effect in terms of reducing pigeon flock size. Scientific research has even found that lethal controls can have the opposite effect, resulting in an increased flock size as a result of rejuvenation within the flock. Although we now have the science which proves that all attempts to reduce flock size by lethal means will be a wasted effort, the use of lethal control on pigeon populations is still extensive in the UK and many other countries worldwide. Why then are lethal controls used at all? Culling has been relied upon for decades by the pest control industry as a highly lucrative and revenue-rich service. If it were withdrawn as a control option many contractors would simply go out of business.

Pigeon Loft used for
Breeding Control

The only proven method of reducing pigeon flock size as part of an area-wide control system is to use a method pioneered by PiCAS International involving the use of artificial breeding facilities. This stand-alone method of control has been scientifically* proven to reduce pigeon flock size and is currently being employed throughout mainland Europe by councils and commercial organizations alike. The principle of a scheme using artificial breeding facilities is to provide a pigeon loft or dovecote in which feral pigeons can be encouraged to roost and breed and from which their eggs can be removed as laid and replaced with dummy eggs. This method of breeding control has been found to be extremely effective in reducing flock size and maintaining that reduction indefinitely

Whether a dovecote or pigeon loft is used the principle is the same – pigeons are encouraged to take up residence in the facility provided and as soon as breeding commences their eggs are removed as laid and substituted with dummy eggs. The hen bird will then continue to sit on the eggs for a period of between 18 and 25 days before realizing that the eggs will not hatch, at which time she will then abandon them. If eggs are removed without substituting with dummy eggs the hen bird will re-lay immediately and continue to re-lay each time her eggs are removed.

This may result in long-term health-related problems for the hen bird (such as a severe calcium deficiency) and as the goal is to maintain a small healthy flock of pigeons this is clearly not desirable.

The two types of artificial breeding facility available for use as a breeding control are very different in respect of both design and siting criteria, with a pigeon ‘loft’ normally provided on or possibly even within a building and a dovecote provided in an open space and at ground level. A pigeon loft would normally be provided by a property owner on a specific building or site in an effort to control breeding flocks of feral pigeons within that localized area. A dovecote would normally be provided in a green open space, such as a public park, where the scope of the facility would be the control of large feeding flocks of feral pigeons. In the case of a dovecote-based system a designated public feeding area would normally be provided adjacent to the dovecote in which the general public would be encouraged to feed pigeons, as the food would act to attract the birds to the dovecote facility.

The additional benefit of a designated feeding area, certainly where deliberate and persistent feeding of pigeons is identified as being the root cause of the problem, is that the facility will draw feeders away from their normal feeding areas in town and city centers and relocate them to green areas where pigeons can be better tolerated. Many councils will use the ‘carrot and stick’ approach when offering a system of this nature, providing feeders with legitimized areas in which to feed pigeons but large fines if they continue to feed outside the designated areas.

The main source of all pigeon-related problems in urban areas is deliberate and persistent over-feeding of pigeons by a small number of people who normally feed large quantities of high quality food 7 days a week. To a lesser extent the methods most commonly used to control pigeons (lethal controls) exacerbate and further entrench problems caused by overfeeding. The combination of overfeeding and the rejuvenation of pigeon flocks through the use of lethal controls has resulted in deeply entrenched problems in virtually every city in the Western world.

sourceFlock of
Urban Pigeons

In some countries the feral pigeon has a religious significance and this fact has also acted to further embed the problem. Muslim, Hindu and Sikh cultures feed pigeons for religious reasons and although the feeding of pigeons for these reasons still continues in many UK towns and cities today, there is a view that the feeding of pigeons is the preserve of the older generation with younger generations taking little interest in the bird. In multi-racial cities like Leicester, for example, where the council embraces the concept of culling and where ethnic minority groups offer huge quantities of food to feral pigeon populations on a daily basis, feral pigeon flocks have grown to unsustainable proportions, creating deeply entrenched problems for property owners.

The problem has become so entrenched that several years ago PICAS International was called in to humanely remove nearly 2000 breeding pigeons and their young from 7 residential roof-spaces in council-owned properties in the city. This indicates the scale of the problem and confirms that citywide overfeeding of feral pigeons, combined with the over-use of culling, will only ever result in upwardly spiraling pigeon flock size.

For any urban pigeon control system to be effective there must not only be area-wide controls provided in the form of pigeon lofts and dovecotes with designated feeding areas, but also an acceptance by property owners that they must play their part. The only body that can be a catalyst for area-wide controls is a council, but if property owners fail to control pigeons on their own properties and allow entrenched roosting and breeding problems to occur or to continue any programme provided by the council will inevitably be compromised. Breeding controls can be astonishingly effective, but if property owners fail to exclude pigeons from their properties those same birds will continue to breed unchecked, further compounding the problem throughout the area. If breeding controls are provided in the form of lofts and dovecotes, however, and if both the local authority and property owners pull in the same direction, a vast majority of pigeons that are excluded during proofing programmes will end up in loft or dovecote facilities where their breeding can be controlled.

The average property owner can provide an extremely effective pigeon control system by installing deterrents in areas where roosting, breeding or perching exists and, if the problem justifies it, by providing an artificial breeding facility in the form of a pigeon loft. The combination of these two controls on one building or site will not only reduce the incidence of soiling in sensitive areas, but will also reduce flock size year on year, resulting in a small manageable flock of pigeons. This must be the goal of every property owner based on the fact that it is simply impossible to eradicate the feral pigeon completely. Although deterrents cannot be considered to be cheap, if the correct choice is made and if the product is sourced and installed by the property owner concerned at least 20-30 years’ protection should be afforded. The correct choice of deterrents is key, with some anti-perching products such as repellent gel only providing between 3 and 12 months’ protection and bird exclusion products like nylon bird netting only offering 5-10 years’ protection. The anti-roosting spike will, however, offer the property owner up to 30 years’ protection without the need to maintain or replace the product, making it an economical and aesthetically pleasing choice.

When a council chooses to provide an area-wide control system for feral pigeons (and very few UK-based councils do provide area-wide systems) expert guidance is critically important. Control systems that are designed to resolve entrenched pigeon-related problems are complex, particularly if the root cause of the problem is persistent and deliberate feeding by the general public. Many UK-based councils have attempted to address the problem by using hard-hitting and aggressive campaigns threatening pigeon feeders with large fines or imprisonment and often undertaking deeply unpopular culling operations at the same time. In each and every case these campaigns have failed due to the fact that the council concerned has failed to understand the underlying reason why people feed pigeons. The ‘problem’ cannot be dealt with as a littering offense or an anti-social act; it must be dealt with by education and persuasion rather than by threats and legislation.

If public feeding is identified to be the cause of the problem a system of controls must be provided that take the impact of persistent feeding into consideration at the same time as identifying large-scale pigeon roosts and closing them down. The principle of an effective area-wide control system using dovecote-based artificial breeding facilities is to provide the general public with an area specifically set aside for the purpose of pigeon feeding and to confirm that feeding is allowed in this area, but nowhere else.

A high-quality public education campaign must be launched confirming what the council is trying to achieve and why. Once a dovecote and designated feeding area facility has been provided in a central and accessible area the task of encouraging the feral pigeon population to feed on the site and take up residence in the dovecote is the next step.

Where pigeon-related problems exist as a result of public feeding the public education campaign will guide feeders to use the dovecote site for this purpose and as a result pigeons will follow, thereby resolving problems for property owners. Where breeding or roosting-related problems exist, however, it will be necessary to exclude pigeons from these areas with physical deterrents or to provide a loft-based artificial breeding facility or a combination of both.

One of the main reasons that area-wide control systems break down is the failure of councils to identify large-scale overnight roosts and force property owners to close them down and exclude pigeons. Councils have the power to force any property owner to undertake works to exclude pigeons from their property or, if the property owner refuses, to undertake those works itself and then bill the property owner. Even in light of these far-ranging powers, however, councils are deeply reluctant to take this action even though it may make render the area-wide control system a failure.

Of course, it is not always advisable or desirable to exclude pigeons from an existing roosting or breeding site, particularly if there is no area-wide control system in place to provide alternative accommodation. This does not stop property owners and companies like Network Rail excluding tens of thousands of pigeons from buildings and roosting sites under railway bridges every year. These excluded birds simply become someone else’s problem and the cycle begins again. This is why it is so important to provide a system of sustainable controls, such as the use of artificial breeding facilities, that will continue to control both breeding and (in the case of dovecote-based systems) feeding indefinitely, with little or no cost involved other than the initial outlay. These systems are popular with the general public and property owners alike as they humanely relocate pigeons to areas where they can be tolerated, accommodated and controlled without the need to resort to unpopular, invasive and unsustainable controls such as culling.

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Difference Between Pigeons & Doves

Pigeon Patrol — Thu, 05 Nov 2020 07:12:23 +0000

Looking to learn the differences between pigeons and doves?

Well, look no further, because you’re in the right place!

In this blog you’ll learn:

Size and Appearance of Doves and Pigeons
Are Doves and Pigeons Considered Pests?
Cultural Significance of Doves and Pigeons
Pest Control for Pigeons
FAQ

What Are Their Differences In Size And Appearance?

Doves and pigeons are both members of the family of birds known as Columbidae. They are similar in many respects, but there are still some noticeable differences between them.

Doves

Doves are smaller than pigeons. Some weigh as little as 22 grams (less than an ounce). The most noticeable aspect about them is their pointed tail.

The most plentiful breed of doves in America is the mourning dove or rain dove. They typically range in size around 12-inches in length and weigh between 4 and 6 ounces.

The head is rounded with a distinctive crescent-shaped area of dark feathers under each eye. They are a light grayish-brown color with lighter, pink coloration underneath, and a dark speckling on their wings.

They are strong fliers, capable of reaching speeds up to 55 mph. At takeoff and landing their wings make an unusual whistling sound, a phenomena known as sonation, the deliberate production of sounds without using the throat or vocal cords.

The adult males have some bright purple-pink patches on the sides of their neck, along with light pink coloring reaching the breast. On the crown of their head is distinctly bluish-grey in color.

The female, by contrast, is a bit smaller than the males and instead of the male’s bright plumage have more brown coloration overall.

Doves eat seeds almost exclusively and prefer open or semi-open habitats such as prairies, grasslands, and lightly wooded areas while avoiding swamps and thick forests.

They are generally monogamous and both parents participate in feeding and caring for their young. After a noisy courtship flight, the male will lead the female to several potential nesting sites in various trees until she chooses one, then helps her build the nest.

She normally lays two eggs and one or the other of them always remains with the eggs, then later with the young until they’re mature.

Doves will put on a broken-wing display in order to distract a predator who is approaching the nest and their young. They do this by fluttering about on the ground as if they’re helpless or injured, then flying away when the predator gets close.

Pigeons

Pigeons are larger than doves and have a rounded tail instead of a pointed one. They are usually 13-inches or more in length and can weigh as much as 4kg (8.8 pounds).

The most common variety of pigeons are the rock pigeons. They’re usually light gray on their upper body and belly, with a darker gray on their head and breast.

They can be identified by the distinctive iridescent purple and green coloration on their neck and breast. They’re not native to the United States. They were introduced into America from Europe in the 1600’s. This means they have no natural predators to limit their population.

Homing pigeons were selectively bred from rock pigeons to take advantage of their innate ability to find their way home over incredibly long distances. This ability is believed to be a function of magnetoreception, the ability to use the earth’s magnetic field to navigate.

Their long-distance flight speed (over distances of 400 miles) has been clocked at 50 mph sustained speed, but they can go as high as 90 mph in racing contests.

Rock pigeons have been domesticated for thousands of years, as food and as message carriers. The males are usually larger than the females and stand taller.

They have larger beaks, with eye cores (fleshy growth around the eyes), round heads and thick napes. Females, however, are shorter with smaller beaks and ceres. They have flatter heads and larger breasts than the males.

Courtship rituals are noisy. The male will puff out his chest, strut around the female bobbing his head and cooing insistently.

He will often turn completely around during his display. Once the female accepts him, they mate for life and will often re-enact their courtship over and over throughout their lives.

Pigeons are quite content to nest on building ledges, rooftops, girders, and the rafters of warehouses. They eat seeds almost exclusively and will take turns foraging when they have young in their nest.

Source

Are Doves and Pigeons Considered Pests?

Yes & No.

Doves aren’t considered pests. They generally don’t nest in and around human habitations, although they have been known to do so occasionally.

For the most part, they are considered a game bird and sportsmen enjoy a good dove hunt as much as hunting for turkeys, pheasants, or any other wild game.

When it comes to pigeons, however, the situation is a bit different. Factories often have quite extensive problems with them nesting in the rafters of warehouses or the upper stories of a power plant.

It doesn’t take long before their population expands to the point where they become a genuine nuisance.

Their droppings discolor machinery, stairways, railings, pallets, crates, and anything else (or anyone else) unfortunate enough to be under when they “let go.” It leaves a pungent, unpleasant odor and the biochemicals in it can accelerate the deterioration of whatever it touches.

What Is The Cultural Significance of Doves and Pigeons?

Doves

For most of human history, doves have been considered symbols of peace. The iconic symbol of a dove carrying an olive branch in its mouth had its beginnings in the early chapters of the Book of Genesis in the Bible.

And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the ark. Then the dove came to him in the evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth; and Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. [Genesis 8:10-11, NKJV]After the rain stopped, Noah sent out a dove but it came back. The next time he sent it out it came back carrying an olive branch in its beak, a symbol that God’s wrath – and the waters of the Flood – was abating, and peace was returning to the world.

The New Testament also has a dove that symbolizes peace and love. When Jesus went down to the Jordan river to be baptized by John, He came up out of the water and the Holy Spirit, in the shape of a dove, came down upon Him.

When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” [Matthew 3:16-17, NKJV]That powerful imagery from these two events has stayed with us ever since and has been used in peace movements all over the world even by those who reject the Biblical story of the Flood and Jesus.

There is even a book entitled Doves and Diplomats that is dedicated to the subject.

Pigeons

Despite their many similarities, pigeons occupy a somewhat lower position in the, ahem, pecking order, than doves do. There are Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets that are over 5000 years old showing pigeons being domesticated and raised for food.

They have also been used in commerce, and by the military, to carry important messages back and forth. Early references to pigeons being used to carry messages date back to 2500 B.C.

The Roman Empire used pigeons for this purpose, as did the ancient Greeks. Whereas doves are seen more like symbols, pigeons are more often viewed as work animals or food.

Pigeons have often been housed in structures referred to as dovecotes, essentially a hen house for pigeons. These birdhouses ranged from crude, thatch-covered huts to clay pot-shaped buildings to ornate structures designed to hold thousands of birds.

Pigeons were domesticated not only for food and for its ability to “return home” but also for sport.

Pigeon racing has a long and storied history, as do various forms of falconry and pigeon killing. With the advent of guns, sports shooting of pigeons quickly gained popularity.

Huge numbers of pigeons would be captured, then released all at once in front of a crowd of hunters who shot them at point-blank range.

“Clay pigeons” were derived from this practice when the availability of live pigeons dwindled through over-hunting.

How Can You Control Pigeons?

Doves don’t provide nearly the nuisance level of activity that their larger pigeon cousins do, so this section will focus mainly on pigeons.

As stated earlier, they have a regrettable habit of infesting factories and large buildings then pooping all over them, producing an unsightly mess and a health hazard.

One of the ways PCO’s (Pest Control Operators) defend against pigeons is with the use of anti-bird spikes. Many of them are actually called pigeon control spikes, which tells you how often they’re the culprit in these situations.

These spikes can be laid out on girders and ledges where pigeons like to nest. They can’t land without getting stabbed or hurting their feet so they eventually give up and fly away somewhere else.

A second way PCO’s control pigeon populations is through live trapping. Bird traps are set out with bait corn in them and the doors wired open so they won’t close.

After the pigeons get used the traps and get used to going in and out without harm, then the PCO unwires the doors and lets the traps capture the pigeons. Once the trap is full the PCO collects the birds and transports them away for release back into the wild.

The problem here is obvious; pigeons, with their natural homing ability, quickly return to their “home” in the factory or warehouse and you’re right back to square one.

The only permanent solution is to kill them with poisoned bait. The PCO does essentially the same thing as before with the live trapping, only this time without a trap.

Unpoisoned bait is put out for a week or so to acclimate the birds to being feed at a certain place. Once they’re feeding freely on the safe bait, the poisoned bait is substituted and the pigeons will go on eating it as usual. Very quickly they’ll all be dead.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it safe to ship doves across the country for a wedding release?

Yes. Dove release companies do this all the time without any danger to the birds. Once released, the birds immediately fly back home again.

What should I do if I find an injured dove or pigeon?

As with any wild animal that is injured, be careful not to let them bite or scratch you. They’re in scared and in pain.

They won’t understand that you’re trying to help them and will fight to escape. Contact a local veterinarian for help on capturing the bird.

Is it okay to feed pigeons and doves?

Yes and no. It’s not illegal to feed them, but you’ll definitely be encouraging them to gather for a daily feeding, which increases the amount of bird poop in the area.

They can also get quite noisy when they’re squabbling over food, which might upset your neighbors. It might not be against the law to feed them, but it might be against good manners.

What should I feed pigeons and doves?

Birdseed for doves and pigeons is available in 6-25 pound bags. Rather than putting it in a bird feeder as people do with smaller birds, spread it out across your backyard.

If you feed them at the same time every day it won’t be long before they’ll be out there waiting for you when it’s time.

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History of Pigeons

Pigeon Patrol — Mon, 02 Nov 2020 08:57:27 +0000

History of Pigeons

Where Are They Found?

The history of these pigeons were originally found wild in Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia, pigeons have become established in cities around the world. The species is abundant, with an estimated population of 17 to 28 million feral and wild birds in Europe alone and up to 120 million worldwide. These birds were introduced into North America in the early 1600’s. Window ledges and tall buildings mimic the rocky cliffs originally inhabited by their ancient ancestors in Europe. The pigeon has a long history of association with humans, having been used for food and entertainment for over 5,000 years. Source

How Many Species Are There?

Pigeons live worldwide except in the coldest regions and the most remote islands. About 250 species are known; two-thirds of them occur in tropical Southeast Asia, Australia, and the islands of the western Pacific, but the family also has many members in Africa and South America and a few in temperate Eurasia and North America. All members of the family suck liquids, rather than sip and swallow as do other birds, and all pigeon parents feed their young “pigeon’s milk,” the sloughed-off lining of the crop, the production of which is stimulated by the hormone prolactin. The nestling obtains this “milk” by poking its bill down the parent’s throat.

Pigeons are gentle, plump, small-billed birds with a skin saddle (cere) between the bill and forehead. All pigeons strut about with a characteristic bobbing of the head. Because of their long wings and powerful flight muscles, they are strong, swift fliers. Pigeons are monogamous; i.e., they mate for life, and the survivor accepts a new mate only slowly. The female lays two glossy white eggs in a flimsy nest that barely holds them. The female generally incubates the eggs by night, the male by day. The incubation period is 14 to 19 days, but the young are cared for in the nest for another 12 to 18 days. Source

(604) 585-9279

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What To Do About Annoying Pigeons

Pigeon Patrol — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 06:18:36 +0000

What To Do With Annoying Pigeons

When pigeon flocks grow too large, use these humane methods to control their numbers

From a pigeon’s perspective, city living can’t be beat. Food and water are readily available. Predators are rare. Plus, there’s plenty of free housing. Pigeons find our window ledges, rooftops, bridges, and warehouses to be ideal substitutes for the natural ledges in cliff sides that they have always used as roosting, nesting, and sheltering sites.

Steps to Solve Pigeon Problems

You may just need one or a combination of all techniques, depending on the size of the pigeon population you’re dealing with.

Spikes & Nettings

The bird spike is a simple device used to prevent birds from perching or roosting on flat surfaces. Spike systems consist of thin, mildly flexible rods set in a base in multiple rows at varying angles. Pigeon spikes are not sharp and will not harm birds in any way; pigeon spikes are always dull and are completely safe and humane. Contact with the spikes is uncomfortable but never painful or dangerous. The sole purpose of the spikes is to block the birds’ feet from reaching the flat surface; without a foothold, the birds can’t roost. You can use bird spikes to protect your property with a clear conscience.

Bird control spikes are easy to understand, install, and maintain. No special tools are needed, no complicated assembly is involved, and making certain that the spikes don’t become clogged with leaves or other debris is the only maintenance required. In addition, no other bird control device is as cost-effective when measured in money and time; anti-bird spikes don’t require costly installation upfront and continue to function for a long, long time. Bird spikes are honestly a great way to keep birds away.

Anti-bird spikes offer the following advantages:

They Are Safe

Impaling birds is not the purpose of the spikes. Bird spikes have harmless, dull tips, and the spikes themselves are just a bit bendy. When birds try to land, they get a gentle, uncomfortable prod in their undercarriage, and their feet are unable to reach the surface.

Effective

Many bird control experts agree that bird spikes are 100% effective at deterring roosting birds when installed correctly. Spikes work by preventing birds from roosting, and they work every time. Rain or shine, day or night, today, tomorrow, and next year, spikes keep birds away.

Long Lifetime

Bird control spikes offer low-maintenance protection for years. High-quality strips and spikes are constructed to withstand constant exposure to harsh, changing weather conditions.

Unobstructive

Strips don’t cause any interference with electrical or communication transmissions, and, especially from a distance, they won’t significantly interfere with the look of your property. The only thing you will notice is the absence of birds.

Easy To Use

Spikes come preassembled in 2-foot strips that are notched for a tool-free breakdown. A piped line of adhesive down the bottom of the strip gives you a quick and permanent installation, or, for temporary installation, strips can be nailed, screwed, or even zip-tied down. Plus, anyone can do it; installing bird spikes is well within the skills of any competent DIYer.

Stop Feeding The Pigeons (intentionally or not)

Most conflicts with pigeons can be tied at one point or another to feeding, intentionally or otherwise.

Pigeons get fed plenty of handouts and garbage, but there are also well-intentioned pigeon lovers who regularly feed the birds. This does the pigeons more harm than good as the pigeons begin to gather in large numbers, often leading to inhumane and ineffective attempts to reduce their numbers.

When such troubles arise, the best thing for the birds is to reduce feeding gradually over several weeks. The flock will gradually disperse until the remaining number of birds matches what the area can naturally support.

Unintentional Food Sources

Even when not feeding on purpose, we humans are messy, leaving leftovers and dropped crumbs everywhere. Pigeons hang around town squares, public parks, and other trafficked areas to help themselves to what we leave behind, especially when convenient roosting and nesting sites are nearby. To discourage pigeons from gathering, food attractants need to be cleaned up regularly.

In suburban neighborhoods, too, homeowners may mistakenly feed pigeons or they may be providing food for pigeons inadvertently when feeding their backyard birds by tossing seed on the ground, rather than putting it in birdfeeders. To discourage pigeons visiting your yard, change the type, amount, and timing of feeding. If most of the pigeons fail to move elsewhere, you’ll need to stop feeding all birds for a couple weeks. (Don’t worry; the birds won’t starve.) When you resume feeding, only put out seed in birdfeeders and keep the ground below them cleaned up.

Prevent Roosting and Nesting

Pigeons look for flat surfaces for roosting and nesting. Encourage them to do these things elsewhere by making flat surfaces unavailable to them. With the correct application of the right product, roosting structures can be rendered virtually pigeon-free.

Follow these tips and steps to get rid of the annoying pigeons

source

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Expel Pigeons From Your Balcony

Pigeon Patrol — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 05:50:33 +0000

Time to Expel The Nuisance (Pigeons)

Expel the pigeons : Many bird lovers like to attract beautiful little songbirds onto their balcony using bird feeders, helping to keep the feathered visitors fed during the winter while enjoying the chance to watch them at the same time. Pigeons, however, are rarely such a welcome guest as their invasion has consequences: damaged plants and traces of excrement as far as the eye can see – not how a cosy open-air oasis is meant to look. Their collective cooing can also really get on your nerves. Some of the birds may even carry diseases – so there are plenty of reasons why you are better off banishing pigeons from your balcony if their visits get out of control.

Visual measures to get pigeons off your balcony

Try to drive the birds away using various visual techniques. The birds are generally thought to be quite clever and fearless, so visual measures will only work in the short term. You should therefore regularly move the pigeon scaring device to a new position. This confuses the birds.

Fake birds. Who is afraid of the vicious raven? Pigeons. Place a plastic version of the pigeon’s enemy on the balcony to scare the birds off. This also works with hawks, owls and buzzards. Always remember to reposition the pigeon scaring device from time to time. If you have an outdoor cat or a dog, even better. The birds like to keep a safe distance from pets and will therefore stay well away from your balcony
Hang CDs. A cool retro look, with a purpose. Thread the CDs onto a fishing line. When you hang the mobile on your balcony, if all goes to plan then the reflective surfaces moving in the wind will scare the pigeons and they will fly away
Aluminium foil. Similar principle to the CDs. Cut long strips of aluminium foil and hang them on the balcony. The fluttering strips reflecting the light will confuse the pests
Glitter balls. You can also create light reflections to scare away the birds using shiny balls made from glass or plastic. Attached to a wooden stick, these useful defence systems can simply be stuck in a flower bed or plant pot
Windmills. These contraptions make uncontrolled movements and this scares away the pigeons.

Acoustic and haptic systems to get pigeons off your balcony

Acoustic defence systems are usually only effective for a limited time. Pigeons quickly get used to noises and are then no longer disturbed by them. You should therefore constantly vary the tone to ensure that this method is successful. Dog barks, cries from birds of prey or loud bangs, which sound like they are random, are good examples of effective noises. However, it’s likely that your neighbours will also not particularly enjoy these noises – this measure must not degenerate into a noise nuisance.

Haptic systems offer more promise.

Nets. Although these do ruin the view, the upside is that pigeons will no longer be able to rest on your balcony.
Spikes. These are not just found on sports shoes worn by athletes – they are also an effective pigeon defence system. You can buy spikes in DIY shops and attach them to your balcony, preventing the birds from landing. The disadvantage is that your balcony no longer looks so nice. You can now also get spike borders, which are made from plastic. These can be attached to your balcony railings – if don’t mind the slightly military-like view.

Removing pigeon nests from your balcony

If pigeons start to nest on your balcony, you should remove the nests quickly – and always wear gloves and a face mask when doing so. Otherwise, a whole clan could settle on your balcony and it will become more and more difficult to get rid of them. It’s tricky if the birds are already breeding. In this case, you should seek help from a professional. Contact us today!

Protecting your birdhouses from pigeons

Back to the issue of birdhouses: these shelters intended for members of the tit family and other small birds are also popular with pigeons, who steal the food away from the smaller birds during the winter. You should therefore protect the source of food from unwelcome visitors. All you need to do is to run a piece of string or wire through the middle of the opening to the house. The small birds will still be able to get into the house, but the entrance will be blocked to pigeons. Hanging bird-feeder rings do not generally need extra protection because pigeons are too big to perch on them and feed.

source

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5 Cool Facts About The Pigeon

Pigeon Patrol — Wed, 21 Oct 2020 06:42:24 +0000

Facts About The Pigeon

If you live on earth, chances are you’ve seen a pigeon before, if not on the daily. But do you really know anything about the pigeon other than the fact that they leave their droppings everywhere? (Which could be really annoying. Check out our products here https://www.pigeonpatrol.ca/) Here are 5 cool facts about pigeons you may have not known!

1) AT ONE POINT, MORE THAN ONE-QUARTER OF ALL THE BIRDS LIVING IN THE U.S. MAY HAVE BEEN PASSENGER PIGEONS

The passenger pigeon or wild pigeon is an extinct species of pigeon that was endemic to North America. Its common name is derived from the French word passager, meaning “passing by”, due to the migratory habits of the species. The scientific name also refers to its migratory characteristics

Wild/feral rock pigeons reside in all 50 states, which makes it easy to forget that they’re invasive birds. Originally native to Eurasia and northern Africa, the species was (most likely) introduced to North America by French settlers in 1606. At the time, a different kind of columbiform—this one indigenous—was already thriving there: the passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius). As many as 5 billion of them were living in America when England, Spain, and France first started colonizing, and they may have once represented anywhere from 25 to 40 percent of the total U.S. bird population. But by the early 20th century, they had become a rare sight, thanks to overhunting, habitat loss, and a possible genetic diversity issue. The last known passenger pigeon—a captive female named Marth who died on September 1, 1914.

SOURCE

2) THEY CAN FIND THEIR WAY BACK TO THE NEST FROM OVER 2000KM AWAY

Another cool fact about pigeons is they have extraordinary navigational abilities. Take a pigeon from its loft and let it go somewhere it has never been before and it will, after circling in the sky for while, head home. This remarkable capacity extends to places tens even hundreds of kilometers from its home and is all the more remarkable to humans because we are apparently incapable of it ourselves.

But we have long made use of the pigeon’s homing ability, principally for carrying messages in the past. And for several decades now the pigeon has played center stage in scientists’ attempts to understand the map and compass mechanisms fundamental to bird navigation.

We’ve now learn that pigeons repeatedly released from the same site soon learn a habitual route home which they stick to faithfully even if it is not the quickest. Different individuals learn, and stick to, different routes. Routes often follow linear landscape features, such as roads or field margins, but are learnt most effectively over landscapes of intermediate complexity. This means that urban landscapes may in fact be too complex for optimum route learning.

Pair birds with different ideas about how to get home from the same place and the result is an elegant exposé of each bird’s propensity to lead out or follow others. Birds that are more faithful to their own route when homing alone are more likely to emerge as leaders when homing socially.

So if the pigeon’s brain contains a network of learnt routes, how are these memories acquired and how do they interact? Recently, my colleagues Andrea Flack and Dora Biro showed that having to learn three routes in parallel doesn’t cause pigeons any additional confusion. Route-learning is memorized independently, regardless of whether the sites they are released from are encountered sequentially, randomly intermingled or in strict rotation.

Treating the art of pigeon homing as a natural learning laboratory is a new science into which we are just taking the first steps, and it seems that we have yet to find the boundaries of the bird’s abilities. Clearly, we still have much to learn from the pigeon.

On to the next pigeon facts

3) PIGEONS WERE USED AS MESSENGERS

Pigeons were effective as messengers due to their natural homing abilities. The pigeons were transported to a destination in cages, where they would be attached with messages, then the pigeon would naturally fly back to its home where the recipient could read the message.

The earliest large-scale communication network using pigeons as messengers was established in Syria and Persia around the 5th century BC. Much later, in the 12th century AD, the city of Baghdad and all the main towns and cities in Syria and Egypt were linked by messages carried by pigeons. This was the sole source of communication. In Roman times the pigeon was used to carry results of sporting events, such as the Olympic Games, and this is why white doves are released at the start of the Olympic Games today. In England, prior to the days of telegraphs, pigeons were often taken to football matches and released to carry home the result of the game. Their use as a messenger in wartime resulted in many pigeons being awarded honors by both the British and French Governments. Incredibly, the last ‘pigeon post’ service was abandoned in India in 2004 with the birds being retired to live out the rest of their days in peace.

4) THEY SAVED THOUSANDS OF HUMAN LIVES DURING WORLD WARS I AND II.

Pigeons’ homing talents continued to shape history during the 20th century. In both World Wars, rival nations had huge flocks of pigeon messengers. (America alone had 200,000 at its disposal in WWII.) By delivering critical updates, the avians saved thousands of human lives. One racing bird named Cher Ami completed a mission that led to the rescue of 194 stranded U.S. soldiers on October 4, 1918.

5) THEY MIGHT BE THE FIRST DOMESTICATED BIRD.

The common city pigeon (Columba livia), also known as the rock pigeon, might be the first bird humankind ever domesticated. You can see them in art dating back as far as 4500 BCE in modern Iraq, and they’ve been a valuable source of food for thousands of years. The rock pigeon is the world’s oldest domesticated bird. Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets mention the domestication of pigeons more than 5,000 years ago, as do Egyptian hieroglyphics. Research suggests that domestication of pigeons occurred as early as 10,000 years ago.

And there you have it! 5 Cool facts about pigeons! Which one was new to you?

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3 Budget Friendly Pigeon Deterrents

Pigeon Patrol — Wed, 21 Oct 2020 05:52:22 +0000

Budget Friendly Pigeon Deterrents

Looking to try more pigeon deterrents to see which one works best for you? First off, Pigeons have excellent eyesight & are startled by unexpected visual signals or recognizable predators. Here are 3 budget friendly bird deterrent products that could help you keep these pests and other birds such as sparrows, and crows away from your property

1) Magnetic Bird Defender

Thanks to technological innovations, you can find several kinds of equipment to scare birds away. One is you can use this powerful magnet to repel the birds. This magnet is flashy and interferes with the birds’ sense of direction and confuses them which will cause them to stay away from the radius of the magnet’s field. The number of magnets or their strength will depend on the size of your property. Pigeons and other birds tend not to approach any area where there is a magnetic field stronger than the terrestrial magnetic field. You can hang these on your balcony, porch, front door, wherever these pests may be

Get your magnetic bird defender here https://www.pigeonpatrol.ca/product/magnetic-bird-defender/

Source

2) Reflective Owl Repellent

These owl repellents are budget friendly and effectively scares birds away because of the reflective print. The pigeon’s eye is one-half the weight of its brain, whereas man’s eye is only one-fiftieth of his brain weight. Pigeons have a very wide visual field of around 340° compared to the 180°of humans. So when they come across these reflective owls, there eyes get irritated and they can’t stand it. Another reason why these owls are effective is simple: Owls prey on pigeons and pigeons are not the smartest things on wings. Confronted with something that looks like an owl, a pigeon will assume the worst and fly away. The ruse is hardly new. For years, gardeners and boaters have used fake owls to scare off birds. This owl-shaped surface contains hundreds of three-dimensional light-refraction spots. When the sunshine comes to this surface, it is immediately reflected in various rays of colors. Additionally, each decoy is attached with two hawk bells, and these will unpredictably emit sounds to startle the birds

CALL US TO ORDER THESE REFLECTIVE OWLS (604) 585-9279

3) Reflective Ribbons

One of the classic and primary tools is the bird repellent tape, This is another bird control applying the refractive holographic technique on both sides. This tape is about 5 centimeters width and nearly 100 meters long, which is enough to cover my backyard. It does not consume much of my time and effort to hang up the tapes. I cut them into strips about 40 centimeters long, and stick them to the wall with layers of adhesive tapes, or tight with thin rope, dental floss, any kind of thin string appearing in my kitchen. Or I sometimes cut them into approximately one-meter strips and tight upon the tree branches. Actually, it is not compulsory to hang on the highest spots, but scare tape should be directly contacted with sun rays and wind so that they could flail wildly to create flashing light and flapping sound.

CALL US TO ORDER THESE REFLECTIVE TAPES (604) 585-9279

With visual deterrents, surprise & change are vital. Birds quickly acclimate to static scares, so we don’t sell them. Pigeon Patrol has these visual products that contain some element of change or movement, making them more effective than the stationary units offered in the marketplace. For large areas, use more visuals — either the same type or a variety. Change the location of your visual deterrents from time to time to maintain its effectiveness in keeping away the bird pests.

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Inside the fascinating and sometimes brutal world of pigeon racing in China

Pigeon Patrol — Tue, 17 Sep 2019 20:11:53 +0000

By Karoline Kan, CNN • 6th April 2019

Every day during the racing season, 55-year-old Zhang Yajun wakes at 4 a.m. and carefully loads bamboo cages containing his 76 cherished racing pigeons into a van. Then he drives up to 200 kilometers (124 miles) from his Beijing apartment to release them. They are in training for the October and November racing season, during which time millions of dollars can be won in total prize money across races.

Zhang is just one of some 100,000 pigeon breeders living in Beijing, according to Sun Yan, the deputy general-secretary of the Beijing Changping District Racing Pigeons Association.

“Pigeon racing is a culture, but it’s also a sport,” Sun says.

On a crisp fall morning, Zhang opens the cages in a cornfield at Niutuo in Hebei province, 80 km (50 miles) south of Beijing. Forty minutes later, he uses his phone connection to a rooftop camera to watch the birds arriving home. He’s happy with their speed.

Zhang, who was a state-owned beverage factory manager before retiring in the early 2000s, says he spends about 100,000 yuan ($14,900) a year on his pigeons. That covers food, medicine, race entry fees and transport costs for training sessions — as well as equipment such as his rooftop camera gear.

Each spring, Zhang says, some 100 pigeons are born on his roof but by fall only about 20 are left. The rest have either succumbed to illness or died of injuries suffered from hitting telegraph poles or other obstacles. Or else they just got lost on the way home.

But pigeon racing also has a darker side.

Zhang says “bird-napping” — when pigeons are baited and netted during training sessions before being sold off — is a common problem.

And then there is the cheating.

In April last year, two men hid their birds in milk cartons and caught a bullet train in Henan before releasing them in Shanghai, 750 km (466 miles) away. But the birds’ unusually fast speed aroused suspicion, and the men were fined and given suspended three-year prison sentences for fraudulently obtaining prize money totaling about $147,000.

However; Beijing is becoming less and less friendly to bird fanciers.

In the spring of 2017, under a city beautification campaign targeting two-story buildings in the lanes known as hutongs, many rooftop pigeon lofts were subsequently demolished.

The government classified them as illegal buildings.

Breeder Zhang Jian says four large pigeon cages on his roof were demolished, although he still surreptitiously keeps four other cages housing about 100 pigeons. Most of his neighbors have known Zhang Jian since he was a boy and he says they understand his passion for the birds.

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Pigeons Huddle for Warmth At “L” Stops

Pigeon Patrol — Fri, 30 Aug 2019 21:33:04 +0000

Dozens of birds crowding the station

CHICAGO (CBS) — Commuters are calling it everything from cute to disgusting – dozens of pigeons warming themselves under the heating lamps at Loop ‘L’ stops.

As WBBM Newsradio’s Steve Miller reports, pigeons have crowded into the heat lamp stalls on the platforms to the point where there is no place for humans left to stand.

“It’s like we’re being supplanted by the pigeons,” one woman said.

Most people politely let the pigeons have the space, but that may have something to do with all the pigeon poop on the platform under the heaters.

“It’s kind of funny,” the commuter said. “It’s also so dirty that people don’t even dare, trying to make their own way and get some space for themselves.”

The commuter was giving the pigeons a wide berth, noting the smell.

“I think it’s cute and disgusting at the same time.”

The Chicago Transit Authority says it has only gotten two complaints about pigeons this winter. But one man waiting for an ‘L’ train was quite unhappy.

“It’s disgusting that these birds are and the city is not doing anything about it,” he said. Pigeon droppings are known to carry a host of viruses and cause health problems.

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Scientists have recruited pigeons to help stop climate change

Pigeon Patrol — Sun, 25 Aug 2019 22:26:00 +0000

Pigeons are helping researchers gather data on climate change. (University of Birmingham/Cover Images)

Jeff Parsons – Monday 25 Mar 2019 2:15 pm

Pigeons have become the latest recruits in helping researchers gather data on climate change.

Scientists at the University of Birmingham have developed a tiny set of sensors resembling a small backpack that can be strapped onto the back of homing pigeons. These little sensors help researchers collect data on urban microclimates, including fluctuations in temperature, humidity, and winds that can have major effects on living in major cities.

The pigeons themselves come from local volunteers that raise them and who agree to work with the scientists. Pigeons are helping researchers gather data on climate change.

Known for their abilities to return to their nest, homing pigeons have been used as far back as Ghengis Khan to carry messages across long distances. Using homing pigeons means that the researchers are sure to get their instruments back and can download the information before sending the birds on their way to collect more data.

The design of the backpack conceived to keep the safety and comfort of the birds in mind. Each weighs less than 3% of the pigeon’s body weight, which is the standard for bird tracking devices. Sensors in the backpacks help researchers collect data on urban microclimates (University of Birmingham/Cover Images)

‘If [the pigeon owners] are not happy with any aspect of putting the sensors on their back, then they don’t have to fly their birds,’ explains Rick Thomas, the research fellow who leads the study. The welfare of the birds is utterly paramount and, they’re not likely to cause the same issues as drones, explained Thomas.

The pigeons all come from local volunteer groups.

Drones are not allowed to fly freely in any area, particularly after the trouble a drone caused at Gatwick airport in December. What’s more, drone technology would not be as cost effective as what’s possible with the pigeons.

Thus far, the group’s band of pigeons have logged over 620 miles with their backpacks over the course of 41 flights. Impressive!

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2019/03/25/scientists-recruited-pigeons-help-stop-climate-change-9008203

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Pigeons In Tiny Backpacks Are Measuring Air Pollution In London

Pigeon Patrol — Fri, 23 Aug 2019 21:45:48 +0000

Pigeon backpacks measure air pollution in London.

Air pollution caused by diesel vehicles in London is bad – so bad that it is blamed for 9,500 premature deaths a year and has prompted Britain’s Supreme Court to order the government to make a plan for cleaning up the skies.

Now what is commonly seen as another scourge of the city, the pigeon, is helping in the fight against smog. On Monday, 10 birds outfitted in miniature backpacks carrying pollution sensors and GPS trackers took to the air, and they started tweeting – via beak, perhaps, but definitely via Twitter – their devices’ readings of nitrogen dioxide and ozone. Londoners who tweet at the Pigeon Air Patrol’s Twitter handle, @PigeonAir, are getting responses from the birds about air pollution in their area, and a live map of the pigeons’ location can be viewed online.

The patrol is, by the admission of the technology and marketing companies that created it, a publicity stunt meant to raise awareness about the city’s harmful air. Birds, it should be noted, are also subject to all sorts of nefarious ailments caused by air pollution, including lung damage and low body weight.

“There’s something about taking what is seen as a flying rat and reversing that into something quite positive,” Pierre Duquesnoy, creative director at marketing agency DigitasLBI and the brains behind the pigeon pollution monitors, told the Guardian.

Plume Labs, the tech firm, gave assurance that a veterinarian was involved in the project to ensure the safety of the pigeons, whose names include Coco, Julius and Norbert.

The London pigeons are not the first birds to don backpacks for an environmental cause.

Vultures in Lima, Peru, have been adorned with GPS trackers and GoPro cameras to hunt down illegal garbage dumping sites.

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

Pigeon Patrol — Thu, 22 Aug 2019 21:24:12 +0000

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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Booms for the birds are nuisance for some, necessity for others in Wine Country

Ryan Ponto — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 16:00:14 +0000

At first, Sebastopol area resident Nancy Martin and her husband did not know what to make of the frequent booming bird noises they suddenly started hearing in mid-August.

Neither did their neighbors.

“We were walking around the neighborhood and we’d run into people, and they’d say, ‘What’s that noise we’re hearing?’ ” Martin said. “And we would say, ‘I don’t know, maybe hunting.’ ”

But the sounds were going off at very frequent intervals — sometimes as much as 20 per minute — and could last for 13 hours a day, Martin estimated. So hunting-related gunshots didn’t sound quite right.

Then a neighbor emailed with the most likely answer: bird cannons. Vineyards employ the noise-making devices powered by propane to scare away birds that may seek to prey on their valuable crop as harvest approaches.

The use of bird cannons is nothing new, particularly in agriculture-heavy Sonoma County, but Martin, who said she has lived in her neighborhood for 30 years, could not recall ever hearing them before.

“Sometimes, it would be back to back: you’d hear ‘boom’ and then another ‘boom’ right away,” Martin said. “My dog seriously was just shaking.”

Concerns expressed by Martin and several other residents in west Sonoma County highlight a familiar tension in agricultural areas: Growers, empowered by the county’s right-to-farm ordinance, are entitled to protect their crops, but local residents sometimes feel farming disruptions interfere with their quality of life.

John Balletto, owner of Balletto Vineyards and Winery in the Russian River Valley, said his vineyard has not used bird cannons this year because it has not felt very dramatic “bird pressure.” But he knows how bad it can get in other years: Balletto recalled one instance some 15 years ago when he had a 2-acre block of pinot grigio “picked clean” by waxwings.

The damage can add up quickly. A typical vineyard in Sonoma County yields about 3 tons of grapes per acre, or a crop valued at about $7,650 per acre at last year’s average price, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Balletto acknowledged that complaints from neighbors can arise, and he recommended taking an equally neighborly approach to resolving those conflicts.

“If you have a neighbor that has some concerns, just go have a conversation with that person,” Balletto said. “We’re still able to farm and do stuff, but it’s also important to try to have good neighbor relations.”

Cannons are not the only tool vineyards have at their disposal to defend against birds like starlings and waxwings. One popular option is bird netting, which growers can place over their crops to shield them from winged pests, but that can be a costly and labor-intensive route to take. Balletto said his vineyard is using bird alarms, which emit noises of predatory birds, and has found them to be more effective than cannons so far.

Still others employ actual birds of prey — falcons — to scare off hungry flocks.

With Wine Country’s harvest season gearing up, Lisa Correia, Sonoma County’s assistant agricultural commissioner, said last week that her office had yet to receive any complaints about bird cannons. But she said the commissioner’s office generally works closely with residents and businesses to resolve such issues.

“If somebody isn’t using (bird cannons) properly, then we can usually talk to the grower and get them maybe better educated or informed,” Correia said. “That usually helps create less of a chance of a nuisance being created.”

Solano County officials last year passed an ordinance regulating use of noise-making devices such as bird cannons for agricultural purposes. The ordinance spells out a number of requirements for the devices, including that they cannot be used more than 11 times per hour from 30 minutes after sunrise until 30 minutes after sunset.

Additionally, the ordinance allows for no more than one noise-making device for every 5 acres of land with crops needing protection from damage by birds or other wildlife. Devices within 50 feet of the property line need to be relocated at least 200 feet every four days, and they can’t be directed at residences closer than 400 yards away without rotating automatically and erecting a “sound baffle” between the residence and the device.

While Sonoma County does not have such an ordinance for noise-making devices, it does have recommended guidelines for propane cannons. A copy of the guidelines provided by Correia warns cannons “can and will annoy nearby residents and domestic animals,” and that if a field is surrounded by houses or has a “sensitive neighbor,” cannons may not be a wise choice, pointing to netting, falconry and “general harassment” as other options.

The guidelines further note that birds can rapidly adjust to the noise of cannons and recommend ways that growers should position cannons to maximize their effectiveness. The guidelines also say growers can mitigate noise by putting a plywood backstop behind cannons; warn growers not to use them before sunrise or after sunset; and suggest that the location of cannons be changed frequently and the interval between discharges vary.

Correia said the guidelines have been around for many years, in which time complaints about noise devices at harvest time have declined.

“Frankly, they’ve become a little less relevant because we don’t get as many calls these days,” Correia said. “It’s become less of an issue.”

The same may not be true for Napa County this year. Greg Clark, Napa County’s agricultural commissioner, said his office had heard more complaints about bird cannons than in the past few years, but he was not sure why. Clark said his county does not have a specific ordinance or written guidelines about bird cannons.

Clark said Napa, like Sonoma County, generally takes an educational approach to resolving disputes. That may mean, for instance, informing growers their cannons are firing too often.

Clark said he did not want to minimize the impact birds can have on crops, recalling one instance when a grower’s cannon was firing about every 20 seconds.

“While we stood there and talked, he would see the starlings flying around, and this person would say, ‘See the birds?’ ” Clark said. “You could have that thing firing off every second and the birds would still be there. They’ve gotten used to it.”

Still, Clark said some neighbors also may not fully appreciate what it means to move into an agricultural area, where disruptions, to a certain extent, come with the territory.

Balletto made a similar point.

“At the end of the day, there might be times when we disagree on things,” he said. “But if we don’t bring a crop in, nothing’s sustainable.”

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The Bird Flu

Pigeons In Religions

Did you know Pigeons had a part in many religions? Keep on reading to find out more!

Pigeons In Religions

Pigeons in Judaism and Christianity

Pigeons and the Romans

Pigeons and Islam

Pigeons and Hinduism

Pigeons and Sikhism

Why Are There So Many Pigeons In The Cities?

When Birds Get Inside Your Home

Should You Care About Pigeons Roosting?

Do you have pigeons roosting at your property? Not sure if they cause any harm or if you should get rid of them? Keep on reading to find out what pigeons may do to your property!

Reducing Number In Pigeons

Difference Between Pigeons & Doves

​What Are Their Differences In Size And Appearance?

Doves

Pigeons

​Are Doves and Pigeons Considered Pests?

​What Is The Cultural Significance of Doves and Pigeons?

Doves

Pigeons

​How Can You Control Pigeons?

​Frequently Asked Questions

Is it safe to ship doves across the country for a wedding release?

What should I do if I find an injured dove or pigeon?

Is it okay to feed pigeons and doves?

What should I feed pigeons and doves?

History of Pigeons

History of Pigeons

What To Do About Annoying Pigeons

What To Do With Annoying Pigeons

Steps to Solve Pigeon Problems

Spikes & Nettings

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Long Lifetime

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Stop Feeding The Pigeons (intentionally or not)

Unintentional Food Sources

Prevent Roosting and Nesting

Expel Pigeons From Your Balcony

Time to Expel The Nuisance (Pigeons)

Visual measures to get pigeons off your balcony

Acoustic and haptic systems to get pigeons off your balcony

Removing pigeon nests from your balcony

Protecting your birdhouses from pigeons

5 Cool Facts About The Pigeon

Facts About The Pigeon

3 Budget Friendly Pigeon Deterrents

Budget Friendly Pigeon Deterrents

1) Magnetic Bird Defender

2) Reflective Owl Repellent

Inside the fascinating and sometimes brutal world of pigeon racing in China

Pigeons Huddle for Warmth At “L” Stops

Scientists have recruited pigeons to help stop climate change

Pigeons In Tiny Backpacks Are Measuring Air Pollution In London

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

Booms for the birds are nuisance for some, necessity for others in Wine Country

What Are Their Differences In Size And Appearance?

Are Doves and Pigeons Considered Pests?

What Is The Cultural Significance of Doves and Pigeons?

How Can You Control Pigeons?

Frequently Asked Questions