Birds living in shopping mall atrium...

Factual Questions
1

Some shopping malls have a small population of resident birds, usually to be found in the food court atrium area. I’ve never observed exotic species (i.e., parrots) in such spaces; the birds are usually chickadees, sparrows, or some other species common to the area. Some questions for Dopers – esp. those who have worked in malls or have been in animal-rights organizations:

  1. Are birds ever introduced intentionally in these spaces? If so, is the flock (believed to be) unisex so they don’t breed out of control?

  2. Are capture or eradication efforts made, and if so, what were they exactly, and were they aimed at eliminating the flocks entirely, or just to limit their numbers to a picturesque and manageable few?

  3. Do customers at the food court ever complain that bird poop (or even just a feather) landed on their food? If they demand a replacement meal, do they get it?

  4. If a bird dies and remains high up in the atrium (say, on a shelf, light fixture, etc. near the ceiling), is it eventually smelled down in the food court? Is a worker sent to remove the body?

2

I don’t know about birds in the mall, but if birds in Walmart are at all comparable (I had a friend who worked there during a spring when a flock of about ten sparrows decided to move in), then no, they are NOT introduced voluntarily. Sparrows are enterprising little birds, and quite willing to dart inside through air ducts, windows, even doors left propped open. They’ll nest in the rafters and go outside to feed. If the opportunity to catch one presents itself, they’ll grab a net and release the bird back outside (hoping, of course, that it stays out there - which I doubt they do, since they’re nesting inside) - but other than that, they remain unmolested as long as they’re up in the rafters where they’re not really bothering anything and they’re too high up to get at conveniently. If it gets to be so many birds that they’re causing health problems - poop on the merchandise, etc - an exterminator would probably be called in, but that didn’t happen at the specific store I’m thinking off.