Pigeon nest on the porch.

Factual Questions
1

There’s a pigeon nest on my porch. Whoopee. While I don’t necessarily want to encourage this, I don’t have the heart to evict my feathered tenants, either. There is a single egg in the nest, which seems odd (don’t they usually lay two?) and one bird sitting on it most of the time (although it was unattended for some yesterday.)

So what am I in for? Will they get aggressive when (if) the egg hatches? Will they or their babies keep nesting here every year, or will they move on? Any diseases they can pass on to my kids? I’ve been cleaning the bird shit off the main walkway, but I’m not going near the nest itself (which is under a table). I’ll move or destroy the nest if there’s a real risk, but will they just build another in its spot?

Everything I can find online is about how to get rid of the nests or how to raise them as pets. Nothing about simply co-existing in close proximity to wild birds.

2

I had a couple of mourning doves (closely related species) make a nest in a hanging basket on my porch this year. I gave them their space. When it was all over, I had a lot of dove shit to clean up, but other than that, no big problems.

3

I believe pigeons are in the habit of returning to the niche where they were raised and fledged, and nesting there again. They are so micro-brained that they will try to do this even if you’ve put pigeon-repelling spikes and other preventatives there. I know, because we have a recurring pigeon problem even though we’ve done everything we could to keep them out of a roof niche where their forebears liked to nest. The damn’ things are now trying to nest on the naked roof a few feet away from the original niche.

4

From personal experience, I would recommend running them off. You don’t want pigeons. Soon there will be more, and more, and more…and more and more mess.

I’ll back up what Teela Brown said - once you’ve got 'em, they’re hell to get rid of. My mom ended up rebuilding her porches to eliminate the beautiful decorative supports they were nesting in; they eventually gave up when there was no where to put a nest.

Don’t think of them as wild birds - think of them as misplaced flying urban rats. :stuck_out_tongue:

5

If I were you, I would evict your unwanted tenants at this point if you would consider their presence a nuisance through the nestling stage. They will simply go re-nest somewhere more appropriate (as long as you block off that nesting site and others nearby). Although they will not be happy to lose an egg, this happens regularly in nature and is not a huge disaster.

I don’t think the parents will attack you. You will, however, have to contend with a lot of bird shit. Also if they are successful they will come back in successive years. Pigeons are a feral species (descended from domestic stock) and not really wild birds.

I have pigeons nesting on my apartment building. I have few qualms about evicting nesters from my balconies at the egg stage. I would, however, not do it once the young have hatched.

6

:eek: Good lord.

I can’t believe you’re even considering letting them stay. I’m not a particular pigeon-hater, but we have endemic pigeons in our neighborhood, and it’s an ongoing battle for everyone here to deal with them.

Pigeons aren’t remotely like mourning doves, in terms of behavior OR mess.

If you allow them to stay, you will basically have opened up a non-stop pigeon production facility. You did know that pigeons will breed year-round, if there’s enough food, and the winter isn’t too harsh? Pigeons, unlike other birds like robins or house finches or mourning doves, won’t simply raise a brood and then scram: they set up permanent residence and raise brood after brood. This is why people historically kept them in dovecotes: to have a constant supply of meat, because they’re jes’ breedin’ fools. And there’s a non-stop supply of squab if you keep feeding the parent birds.

Now, you’re probably not planning on climbing up there and retrieving the resultant young for BBQ, so they’re going to grow up, and when they do, they’re going to come back to the Home Place, and they’re going to bring their mates. And they’re going to set up their own second-generation pigeon-production facility, right next to where Mom and Pop’s nest was. This, again, is why dovecotes work so well; they tap into pigeons’ hardwiring to nest right next to Mom and Pop.

And next thing you know, there will be pigeon shit all over your porch like nobody’s business. And the only way to get rid of them after that will be to kill them. Seriously. They don’t understand “go away”. Tearing down the nests, after they’ve successfully raised young in them, won’t give them a hint. They’ll be permanent residents.

You don’t want that. Trust me.

Go out there right this minute, [channeling Your Mom here :smiley: ] and disappear that egg, and devote yourself for the rest of your occupancy of the house to refusing nesting permission for any and all pigeons on your porch.

7

In what way are their nesting behaviors different? They are a closely related species. They both breed prolifically. Their nests are similar. They are both ground feeders, and in a city setting, you often see both speces scrounging for human scraps in just the same way and in the same places. They both can be noisy.

And believe me, they both make a mess.

8

:smiley: Jeesh! Okay, okay, okay Mom!

Actually I have a call in to a pigeon fancier in town who happens to be a friend, and he’s going to come evict my guests.

But they’re so cuuuuuuute! There’s another egg now, and Daddy (I read it’s mostly the male who sits the nest during the day, and the female at night) went, “wooo-who?” at us before flying away and abandoning his eggs like a deadbeat. Harrumph. True, he didn’t fly far. STILL, he left them unattended and…well, if they’re THAT unimportant to him, then he deserved to have DCFS (Department for Children of Feathered Seedeaters) come in and take his babies away to an incubator! :mad:

:frowning:

Hey, I need to psych myself up for this, okay? :smiley:

9

Got a friend with a hawk? :smiley:

10

Unhhh…stop right there, with “they both breed prolifically”. :wink: As I pointed out, pigeons will breed year-round if there’s food and it isn’t too cold. Mourning doves have a specific breeding season (“spring and summer”) and then they stop.

Pigeons don’t.

This is from Kansas:

You can’t say that about mourning doves. They may raise multiple broods, but come October, they’re done. Pigeons aren’t. Not by a long shot.

“Stopping breeding” and “Not stopping breeding” are different nesting behaviors, wouldn’t you say? :wink:

Whynot, you realize that your pigeons, being pigeons, aren’t going to take the hint and bow out gracefully when (notice that I said “when”, not “if”… :smiley: ) you muster up the gumption to get rid of their nest. You’re going to need to be very proactive and keep destroying it, over and over and over again. “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty”. [exits to somber trumpet music]