As the possession of three birds (two cockatiels and a conure) I have found that ammonia-based window-cleaner is pretty effective at cleaning up bird shit. Use old toothbrush for any stubborn spot.
Well, we broke down and put some bread crumbs out. Both pigeons ignored them, but a swarm of ants eventually appeared out of nowhere and started carting them off. I HATE ants! Cleaned up the crumbs and killed as many ants as I could. (Don’t want to spray around the pigeons.) This morning we put some water out, but that’s being ignored, too.
The changeovers have consistently been about 10:30am and 5pm, but it’s almost 11:30am now, and the larger one has yet to show up. It may be our imagination, but the little one is looking a little nervous. This has prompted the wife to ask what would happen if the mate died and never returned. Pigeons mate for life, but do widows find another mate?
For some reason I got the impression you live in a high-rise, so ants would really piss me off.
Anyway, I feed them bread that’s been soaked in some water. I also feed them leftover rice with some water added. I cook lots of rice and always have some left over.
For water, I put out a wide, shallow tray that doubles as water dish-bird bath. About once a week they’d decide it was bath day. Beats me why. After they thoroughly bath and get all wet they poke out all their feathers and sit around looking like little round porcupines. If they do that you know you’ve got contented pigeons.
If you want to really spoil them look in your local pet store for pigeon feed. They probably won’t have it but they may have dove food which is pretty much the same thing. Pigeon/dove food seems to have a higher proportion of cracked corn and dried peas, from what I can tell. They’re happy with regular cheap wild bird food too.
Just my $.02.
Birdseed is a better bet, if you really want to feed them. Over here you’d go down to Garver Feeds (for the 50 lb. Serious Birdfeeder’s Bag) or PetSmart (for the 2 lb. Twee Backyard Feeder), and get a mix of millet, miscellaneous seeds like rape, milo, thistle, wheat, oats, and lots of corn (maize), generally simply known as “wild birdseed”. In my experience, the pigeons will totally ignore everything except the corn and the millet.
We’re on the 6th floor of a 36-story building. But ants are a fact of life in Thailand; I’ll bet they really are up on the 36th floor, too! We spray everywhere inside once a week or so, but I don’t want to spray outside with the pigeons there right now.
May try the birdseed, although they do seem to get enough food from the neighborhood. Our building is right next to a large mansion with beautiful grounds. One side of our unit overlooks the grounds. Lots of birds hang out there, and the eating looks to be good.
One of them anyway has been drinking the water. We’ll look for something a bit larger.
Oh, and the mate finally did show up. They seem to have pushed the clock up a little to around 11:30am.
They like water at ground level. No cutesy pedestal bird baths. What I did is go to the garden store and find the biggest clay plant tray I could find, then went to the craft store and got some water proof paint (non-toxic), painted it up and the pigeons were way happy. Just hose it out and refill it with fresh water. You do have a garden hose with a spray attachment, right? I mean, if you’re going to hang out with pigeons you pretty much have to have a hose with a jet spray to clean things off.
Men. :rolleyes: 
No, no hose, and no faucet to attach one to. We just pour out water and scrub with a long-handled brush.
That’ll work. You’ve only got the pair, not a kit.
Just an update. Tomorrow night (Monday night) will make two weeks since we came home and found the pigeon nest and eggs out on our balcony. They’re still out there. The pigeons are still taking shifts, changing at roughly 11am and 5pm every day. The larger one takes the daytime 11-5-ish shift, while the smaller one pulls the 18-hour 5pm-11am shift. The little one’s out there now. We keep water out there by them, changing it twice a day. They usually don’t freak out anymore when we go out to change it. Only the one time have I seen either one actually touch the water – the first time I put some out, when the little one returned from being freaked out by my going out there. It took a long drink before hopping back into the flower pot. Since then, they’ve ignored it, but it’s there if they want it.
The Wikipedia entry says the eggs hatch after 17-19 days, so we expect squabs this week. While we were away, the wife’s sister stopped by a couple of times to water the plants on the balcony. The last time she did that was Friday the 2nd, and she believes she would have noticed eggs in the flower pot if they had been there. So we’re assuming the eggs were laid maybe just about 14 days ago.
EDIT: Oh, and they’ve stopped crapping all over the balcony. After our first round of scrubbing it all up, they’ve not used the balcony for that purpose again. I guess that’s because they spend ALL of their time in the flower pot. The mate is never around until shift change, then the other one flies away immediately. I have noticed a little crap inside the flower pot itself now.
I was just sitting outside this morning and thought of this thread. I hope we can expect baby pics!
Baby pigeons are kinda cute. They’ve got punk rocker feathers and when they first start to fly they frequently fuck up and make clumsy tumble landings. Then they jump up with a look like, “I meant to do that!”
Will post pics for sure. This morning (Monday morning here now) I opened the curtains, and the smaller pigeon was roosting on the edge of the flower pot. Then later I glanced it drinking water, so they do take advantage of that. Now it’s back in the flower pot waiting for the shift change coming up soon.
In spite of levdrakon’s description of baby pigeons, I have heard an urban legend for years that “there are no baby pigeons. No one has ever seen one!” Please post the pix.
I’m sorry, did I say there was such a thing as baby pigeons? Pardon me, I misspoke. No doubt, Siam Sam will respect the code and photoshop pictures of adult pigeons over his baby pics.
What I want to know is where are all the dead pigeons? Think about it. If you live in a urban area with millions of pigeons, where are the dead ones? When’s the last time you saw a pigeon skeleton?
As for that Urban Legend, see post #22, which features this. 
And the Master speaks.
They’re also ug-befucking-ly as home made sin.
I’m rather fond of home-made sin. 
It’s Wednesday here, and that makes 17 days since we returned home and discovered the nest and eggs. Squabs anytime now.
We have a squab!
Thursday morning here. The Switch just occurred. I did not see the smaller pigeon leave, but the larger one had arrived and was perched on the edge of the flower pot. I walked over to the window to look in, and it jumped in at that moment. I caught a clear glimpse, though, of one egg and one baby pigeon. The parent is still covering it, and I don’t feel right about going out and scaring the parent off just to take a peek. Will await further developments.
Called the wife and told her. I won’t be back home until very late tonight, as my friend from upcountry is in town, and I’ll be out in the bars with him. Will take a look when I get home. But I’ve asked the wife to take a photo if she can get a good one, making sure to turn the flash off.
So have you named them?
As a matter of fact.
Not the squabs, but rather the parents. Big Pidgee and Little Pidgee. And darn it! I opened the curtains at 10:00am (Friday here now), and the Switch had already occurred! 10 is the earliest you can open the balcony curtains right now in our unit and not have the blazing sun fry you directly. And the wife came home too late yesterday to witness yesterday evening’s Switch. So still just the one glimpse of one squab. But the other egg must have hatched by now. Big Pidgee is now sitting more puffed out than before and slightly raised off the floor of the flower pot, as if making sure it’s not crushing the little ones underneath. Little Pidgee was doing that, too, last night. And the empty remains of one egg is clearly visible now.
So nothing to take a photo of yet. I must be away this afternoon, but the wife is going to try to get home before the next Switch, which is around 5pm.