Height/Weight
12"-15"
10oz-16oz
Life Span
3-4 yrs. wild
12-16 yrs. captive
Flight speed
28-82 mph
Range
All 50 states
Food
Varied, grains, seed, corn, human food
Habitat
Protected ledges,
roof tops, palms, AC's

Pigeons also get use to people, who tend to feed them, contributing to their increased populations.  Pigeons can live on just about any kind of diet, and will crowd out songbirds that feed near them.  Pigeons are strictly diurnal, daytime animals, and they seek out a safe place to roost every night, and will only fly at night when disturbed or threatened.

In any flock population of pigeons, there will be a few dominant male birds, usually the breeding males, followed by the local population of fertile females, juveniles and mated pairs. The dominant birds are alphas, all the rest are omegas, and each breeding male can control many omegas, depending on the other resident populations.  The dominant males come and go, sometimes staying in the area.  The juveniles, if they survive a winter or two, become breeding males, or females, in their own territory, which can be yards or miles away from where they were born.  

Pigeons will inhabit any area that will offer them shelter from the climate, for example: ornate architectural features of buildings, lofts, church steeples, attics, and any place with openings that allow for roosting, loafing, and nesting. Pigeon nests consist of twigs, sticks, and grass clumped together to form a platform. Pigeons are monogamous birds. "Eight to twelve days after mating, the female will lay 1 or 2 eggs which hatch after approximately 18 days. The male, during this time, is providing nesting material and guards the female and the nest." When pigeons are born, they feed on pigeon milk which is "a liquid/solid substance secreted in the crop of both adults that is regurgitated" into the mouths of the young pigeons. Most young leave the nest at approximately 4 to 6 weeks of age. During this time another batch of eggs have already been laid. Breeding most commonly occurs during the spring and fall, but reproduction can occur during any season. A flock of pigeons will normally have an equal amount of males and females. A pigeon's normal lifespan in nature is about 3 to 4 years.

A pigeon can go, if necessary, a long time without food or even water.  Most birds need a constant water source and that they will visit every day.  Pigeons are skilled in finding water and food sources, and rarely have trouble finding a source in the city.  Individual pigeons can have a home range of 150 miles, although most will stay close to home, which is generally considerably less than 25 miles or so.  If their food and water sources change drastically, however, they will migrate, to another spot, near or far, with better provisions.  Unfortunate a few will usually always remain to keep a viable population at the old location.

Pigeons are creatures of habit.  They are not disturbed by replicas of owls, snakes or hawks, for very long and have even been known to move the snakes out of the way or sit and nest up against the plastic owl.  As an example: Pigeons will wait, very patiently, for the warehouse building door to open, when  people or equipment  is being brought in or removed.  They swoop in or out quickly as the doors open.  They have human routines down to a "T" and know they can get in by just waiting long enough.

FLYING RATS
In today's world, the common structure-dwelling pigeons have become the avian equivalents of city rodents. "Flying rats," as they have been described. Unfortunately, they have been forced into this role by man, as much as by their own natural instincts and habits. First and foremost to the problem of overpopulation, are the numbers of nooks and crannies that modern man builds into the exterior of all of his structures, forming the basic nesting home sites for pigeons and other birds. This means that almost every house, commercial building, bridge, billboard, gas canopy, or other large structure harbors a number of these potential nest or roosting sites. Bad for us, good for the pigeon.

A pigeons will exploit every crack or crevice, and will certainly try to find every flaw of any well planned exclusion effort.  Although pigeons are not very smart, they are creatures of habit and will try to return to the same places as before looking for a way back into it's old nest site of favorite roosting spot.

DON'T FEED THE BIRDS
Pigeons also become habituated to humans, by being extensively fed by humans, as in outdoor eating restaurants, parks and schools which only aggravates the problem. Pigeons, domesticated for thousands of years, are easily tamed and handled by humans.  It is important to note that NO wild animals, including wild pigeons, should be fed, at any time, for any reason, by anyone.  

A SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT RACING PIGEONS
Feral pigeons often carry a wide variety of very infectious and hard to diagnose diseases.  For this reason, you can consider these pigeons as completely different from the pigeons that pigeon fanciers race and show.  Rescued pigeons, or birds of any kind, should not be handled, taken home or to animal shelters.  Actual domestic pigeons that have escaped from individual owners, are usually tagged or banded and can be identified by the National Pigeon Association.  This website contains information and even a link on how to report lost pigeons.  The pigeon's owner will certainly appreciate any information you can supply, as a lost pigeons is an investment of time and money for the pigeon owner.

Many times several different method will be needed to remove or exclude pigeons from a home or commercial structure and the cost can varied from a few hundred dollar's to many thousands of dollar's depending on the amount of pigeons, structure type, access and many other factors.

Sometime on very large projects cost factors are a draw back to effective pigeon control methods. The owner must decide what the cost of pigeons on the building will do for the image of the business or to continually clean up pigeon feces every day from walkways, sides of building or worst yet, what happens if someone slips and falls on a slick pigeon mess of twigs and feces - what is your cost to defend against a lawsuit?

How about pigeons roosting around your roof parapet walls and nesting under the A/C or swamp coolers on your roof, respatory problems from pigeon feces getting into the duct work of buildings is not uncommon and many symptoms resembles the flu or colds.

Pest birds have been known to carry 50 types of infectious diseases and can harbor over 38 types of parasites that can be spread by the dried feces, nest sites or other ways.

Go to products Page

Both are used exactly the same way, by pre-baiting with ordinary feed corn for 5 - 7 days and then when the pigeons are accepting the bait readily, the corn is laced with the toxicant and doled out to the pigeons.  Then the process can be started again with pre-baiting for 5 - 7 days etc.. This process is very labor intensive if it is done correctly and according to label directions.

Unfortunately most of the time we see a Pest Technician putting a pie tin or something on a roof top, put in the bait and leaving the bait there all month long which will only make the birds that survive shy away from the corn.  In most cases when done right the affected pigeons die. No matter what kind of  story some pest control technician will give you, these products do not make the pigeons forget where they live, act like BIRDIE LSD, or make the pigeons act crazy and fly away.

These products all act as a poison to birds since they are flock reduction products and you carry the added liability of having a poisoned bird dropping into someone's yard where the dog or cat can eat the bird and possibly get sick or worse yet die - Then who do you think your neighbors will be looking for to sue?

AVITROL
 Avitrol, manufactured by the Avitrol Corporation.  This is the label and the MSDS.

WE DO NOT USE BAITS LIKE THIS, WE WOULD RATHER TRAP THE BIRDS AND REMOVE THEM.

OTHER LOCAL FOOD SUPPLIES?
Do they get any food from natural sources?  Are there trees or shrubs around that have fruit or nuts that are eaten by the birds?  It is important to identify these places so they can be taken into consideration. Local water sources, especially those close to a food supply can be considered a place a pigeon will visit during the day.

ARE THEY THERE ALL THE TIME?
That is, do you see them all day, most of the time, or do they just return in the afternoon and evening?  You should take a survey, on paper, of exactly what is going on.  The number of birds you see, at what times of the day, what they do, how many dominant birds there are, and how many are "in season" - there are many factors to consider.  The more information you collect, for at least a two to four week period, should yield some of the answers as to how successful your control campaign will be and how you are going to proceed for the optimum results.

      For this reason, bird control work is best done by a professional bird control company like us here at Arizona Wings N' Stings who is thoroughly familiar with the methods that will work best and most effective.  If you choose an exterminator to do your bird control work it could end up costing you in the long run, they may know bugs, but bird control takes different tools, ladders, knowledge, skills  and materials to do the job correctly and be cost effective for you.