Why arent pigeons in cities scared of people?
Nets in the cities and hawks in airports…keep reading it a good idea. San Clemente will try nets under pier to keep pigeons out By FRED SWEGLES The Orange County Register Comments | Recommend Next spring, after San Clemente rips out nearly half the decking of its 1,200-foot-long fishing pier to install fresh planks, the exposed underbelly of the pier may find itself wearing a glorified hair net. OK, maybe it won’t actually be a hair net, but if you can picture it, the netting will be designed to prevent legions of pigeons from flying under the pier and making themselves at home. Complaints about pigeon overpopulation and fecal droppings on the pier have prompted public officials to research ways to get rid of as many birds as possible. The city has banned feeding the critters and has installed devices to try to impede pigeons from landing atop light poles, flagpoles and roofs of restrooms and a bait/tackle shop. Results have varied. Recent conversion of fish-cleaning faucets to saltw
I imagine it is because they have lived in very close proximity to people all their lives and don’t see us as a threat. I calmly went over to an injured homing pigeon one once (attacked by peregrine falcon) and picked it up and put it in a box – It did not react at all. It didn’t even fuss when the veterinarian stitched it up. Interesting project you are doing – I have read about different ideas to keep pigeons out of cities. One was to introduce more falcons into the city to cull numbers. Another method I have actually seen in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia was a large pigeon roost away from the main centre of town near the Yarra River (east from Melbourne Aquarium). Apparently the pigeons are encouraged (food scraps) to nest there and the eggs laid there are taken away and replaced with fake eggs at regular intervals. I do not know how successful the project is (seems plenty of pigeons in town) but I thought it was a clever idea.
