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My neighbor 2 doors down has bird feeders in her yard but now this year has gotten deluged with pigeons. Any suggestions as to what she can do other than get rid of her feeders? I did a google search and found some not nice ways.
Thanks

birds are birds...can't think of any way to discourage them.....sorry

So long as there's a food source there, the birds will be there. She may have to just bite the bullet and take her feeders down for the season. Sad, but unless she does drastic things, that's about the only way to manage them. And just hope they don't come back next year.

I feed the birds in the winter and since the pigeon is the ny bird always have a few. Somtimes more than a few.. I find that when I stop feeding the birds for the summer.. sometime in early May, the pigeons go elsewhere and it takes them a month or so to rediscover the feed in the fall. They cannot access the feeder so its just what is on the ground.

We used to have pigeons around here. The guy next door fed them. But what drew them was bread. I have never seen one at a seed feeder. Then they disappeared....

If the bird seed is in an open tray feeder or on the ground they will be attracted. We had a squirrel resistant one that we could adjust for weight on the perch. It was on a pole and if any bird (or rodent) was heavier than a cardinal the door would close over the seed. Kept the larger birds off the feeders including the blue jays and grackles.

We also just fed black striped sunflower seed in the main feeder and finch feed in the finch feeder. Neither of these tended to attract the pigeons to our yard.

Once they find your yard, they will visit forever. Right now I have a large grackle trying to stick its head into a small feeder filled with safflower which is supposed to discourage them. I have at least 3 pairs of mourning doves that swoop by on a regular basis. Last week a flock of grackles stayed until they emptied an extra large feeder filled with sunflower seeds. I also take care of an older relative's yard and her feeders--just filled them with stuff yesterday and the blue jays were immediately back even though the feeders were empty for almost 2 weeks. Once they know that you put out good food, they stop by on a regular basis. The mourning doves do eat the black sunflower seed and I've even seen a couple of robins up on the tray below it eating away!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 16paws,

I only know what I've seen done at some hospitals and some Navy buildings to keep them from messing up the outside window sills all the time.
They put those sand filled plastic owls with realistic eyes on the ledges and the pigeons won't land any place close to them. It might also chase off any other birds too, but it worked on those buildings for the pigeons.

Does your neighbor have those platform bird feeders? I have a platform birdfeeder (for my Cardinals) and I attached some sort of tray thingy I got in the $ Store above it to try and bar the pigeons. It usually works and only the bold pigeons try and eat out of it now. I have a baffle on top as well to try & keep the skwirls away. It's up too high and I can't lower it, so the skwirls still come. I can't stand the pigeons. Your neighbor should try and attach something very close to the top of the feeder so the big pigeons can't comfortably go inside. Like some sort of flat tray you can find in the dollar stores and put it on top of the feeder, very close. Good luck.
Otherwise, nothing will keep them away. The only thing to keep them away is to stop feeding any birds for several weeks.

Don't put feeders if you dont want to, that's it. Birds will always be birds.

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