Pigeon Hell
I’m a new owner of a row house in Brooklyn and I’ve discovered my next door neighbor loves to feed the birds. I’m talking about three huge “lasagna style” trays full each day. Needless to say the pigeons come by the dozens to eat. (I counted about 60 of ’em back there the other day…
I’m a new owner of a row house in Brooklyn and I’ve discovered my next door neighbor loves to feed the birds. I’m talking about three huge “lasagna style” trays full each day. Needless to say the pigeons come by the dozens to eat. (I counted about 60 of ’em back there the other day at one time) Since our yards border one another there are pigeons everywhere. Although I have no problem with a regular bird feeder, and some wildlife in the yard is great, the pigeon thing is not something I’m gonna enjoy. I’ve already noticed a problem with droppings on my windows, walkways, building etc..
I can handle a few pigeons but this is out of order.
Before I was aware of the problem I actually had a brief conversation with the neighbor in question. She started to tell me how she had created a ‘santuary’ in her yard and was going on about all the birds that visit. A warning bell should have gone off when she mentioned how beautiful pigeons are.
I plan on asking my neighbor, in a neighborly way, if we can work something out. Hopefully there’s an answer, maybe cutting down on the volume of food therefore reducing the # of pigeons that flock to our yard.
If it does get ulgy I’m wondering what my legal options my be. If Anyone out there ever had a similar situation??
Thanks in advance.
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A friend of mine had the same issue a few years ago. Same deal, 100’s of pigeons all over the place.The diplomatic approach failed and he had to get a lawyer involved.
Does the person rent or own?
My freinds neighbor that was feeding the birds was a renter and when the LL received the first letter from the lawyer the feeding stopped.
That stinks. When I buy a brownstone, I’m gonna look around for signs of birds crap before buying.
I’d talk to her yourself first. If that doesn’t work, I’d try to get a policeman to knock on her door and let her know in person that it is illegal to feed pidgeons. If that doesn’t work, I’d have your lawyer send her a clear letter explaining what will happen if she insists on feeding the pidgeons. If she still doesn’t stop, I’d take her to court and sue her for a million bucks.
Your house was obvisouly a major investment. You can’t let some nutty lady stop you from enjoying your backyard.
What else can you do except become a pidgeon loving freak yourself?
It takes a lot to be poisoned by pigeon poop though – we were worried about it (due to pigeons on our window sills) before until we learned the cases are rare and you practically have to eat the stuff to get poisoned by it.
Also, there was a lawsuit in Manhattan several years ago because a neighbor in a highrise co-op poisoned the birds some woman was feeding. So don’t shoot them or poison them. Call 311 and find out what the ordinances are, for regularly feeding wild animals in the backyard. I doubt they let people feed skunks and rats in the backyard – it should apply to pigeons too.
You can set up rat traps in your back yard and invest in a cat. The spikes will stop the birds from parking on your property I did mine and it works well.
The electric thing sounds like fun in the short term but will gross you out in the long run. Are you ready to pick up dead pigeons from your front door every morning and can you take the smell of fried piegons?
Spikes won’t keep them from pooping on you as they fly overhead and it won’t keep the rats from eating the mix of seed-shells and bird poop that surely is in her yard.
Maybe a good approach would be to go through all neighborly channels before calling 311. It is a health concern and a vermin concern (terrestrial rats and the sky rats).
Try educating her on the subject of poop toxicity: “hey, did you know what you’re doing is dangerous?” or some other introductory line. Arm yourself with all kinds of pigeon-poop-literature. It’s available online, or I would think the CACC should be able to provide it.
If she doesn’t respond, you could try establishing a termite colony or a rat’s nest in your backyard (mention to her how beautiful they are).
Or just install the bird spikes and hook them into an electrical line to zap the little buggers when they land (they do this all over London to prevent the skyrats from defiling public buildings and statues and such). Up the voltage as you see fit.
Yes move on it fast. Less food wont help that will only cause more pigeon fights. Don’t call 311 on her that’s bad karma. Let her feed the birds she’s probably very lonely. Your focus should be on protecting your home from the
the acid that’s in their crap. It can destroy your stoop or wooden cornice. Try bird spikes I believe Pinchik on Flatbush and Bergen stocks them. In order to cover your entire building you may need to hire a guy with a scaffle (spell check) for a day to install them on all your window ledges.
If your neighbor thinks pigeons are “beautiful” then she probably won’t change her behavior. Reducing the volume of food will only leave you with slightly less bird crap all over the place.
Forgive my cynicism when I say this (most nutcases don’t change their behavior because of some little detail like reason, logic or common sense), but go through the motions with the neighborliness and when it fails, call 311 and report it to the Department of Health.
Their poop is a disease vector, so it is a health issue, not only an aesthetic one:
http://home2.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/epi/epi-pigeon.shtml
If you have to do any poop clean up, document the bird feeding and take her to small claims court.
Another option for shooting at them is a little slingshot and some BB shot. It provides hours of happy hunting. Also, you could put out your own pan of pigeon poison or at least pigeon contraceptives (yes they do exist – a sterile pigeon is a good pigeon).
If you have a humane streak in you, call the CACC for suggestions.
However, remember she is not only providing food for pigeons, but rats will eat that stuff too. They will eat anything. Trust me. I have seen it. Ew.
Take an aggressive stance on this, or you will be very, very sorry.
Pigeons are not the smartest of beasts. Once they start coming to some place with food, they will keep coming back even if the food chain is broken. You need to do something affirmative to break them of the habit – as some others have been suggesting, above. Be aware that some of the things that might feel most satisfying in a primal way — shooting, poisoning, etc. — are illegal too. Cats, however, will do what cats do.
For your building, there is a product called BirdWire that is good at preventing the pigeons from finding a good place to sit on your ledges and is much more attactive than Nixolite. But it sounds like just protecting your ledges is only part of the problem.
Try to use their “panic flight” behavior to make their stay as uncomfortable as possible. The plastic owl won’t work but cats work great. My tenant”s cat would kill just for sport. Pretty cool to watch. Sometimes she would just cripple the birds and then play with them. After finding several dead birds in her yard the lady who fed the pigeons became torn between her love for birds and her love for cats. So she stopped feeding them and the flock left after a few weeks. Try NixoLite for your roof and window sills.