Feral pigeons foul buildings, creating unwanted “stained glass” windows and “decorated” architecture. All sorts of pests may migrate from their nests into buildings.
Originally descended from the wild Rock Dove, a cliff-face dweller, these birds find the next best thing is a block of flats, a bit of Victorian Gothic architecture or a railway arch. In the absence of natural predators, birds which fall sick survive to infect healthy ones with ornithosis and other diseases, some of which can be transmissible to man. Their accumulated droppings are also sources of disease.
REMEDY: Local authorities are empowered to deal with them under the Public Health Act, or a pest control contractor may be called in.
Large nets, taut wires or blunt spikes can be put on buildings to keep them off. Alternatively, stupefying materials may be used by contractors, under licence; or cage traps be set to catch pest birds, which are then humanely destroyed.
