Feeding pigeons - good or bad?
 

I've been feeding the birds in my garden lately, which mainly consist of pigeons. It makes me feel really good, like I'm giving something back to the natural world, and the birds recognise when their food is coming so I've developed a bond with them. However, a friend of mine told me today that I shouldn't feed pigeons because they carry disease etc and they can cause nuisance. I did a brief google search on this subject and it seems that the general advice is not to feed them. Call me childish but I feel quite upset that what I thought was a kind deed is seen as wrong. I don't know whether to stop putting food out now or not.

What are people's thoughts on this subject please?

They only advise you not to feed them cause "they are pests". And that is the unfortunate bottom line.

IF you do feed them, dont feed them rice, this causes an alka selxer-like effect in their gullet, and BOOM goes birdy...

The only thing I cna see bad about feeding birds, is feeding them to the point where they dont hunt for food, liek insects, nuts and seeds. I just feed them when ever, at random, as long as it isnt very single day. I would feed them ever 3-5 days, more int he winter, less in summer.

I see. Thanks for that Time. I might just reduce the amount I'm giving them at the moment so they hopefully don't get dependent on it. I'm currently feeding every other day...but that's probably too much in that case, I'll up it some more if it gets really cold this winter. I don't like to stop completely as I enjoy feeding them. I'm hoping different types of birds appear as well but so far it's only been pigeons :)

I'd be interested in other views on this subject. Anyone else feed them (or not)?

I think that's good advice, Time. I am the same way with the seagulls when I go to the beach, but I don't feed them every time I go, I did yesterday. There was only 1 loaf of bread which is what I usually take, and it goes very quickly and as more come, they're left standing there waiting for more and it doesn't come and I drive away feeling bad I couldn't feed more of them. They do become a nuisance, too, though...last week when I was there, I saw them getting into people's stuff who were planning cookouts later. People can't leave their food unattended.

The Pigeon loves it.
 

Good for the pigeon!

Birds might not seem scary ~ what can 1 bird do? I think it's a thing with all wildlife ~ in flocks, they can do a lot of damage. They say not to feed the bears for the reason that they become aggressive and only takes 1 bear to do great damage.

I also agree with Time's advice. I am a bird feeder too but for many reasons i have pretty much stopped except for from November to March or so.
If the land we humans inhabit was more friendly to birds in the winter in regards to natural winter foods, i would stop then as well. Currently I am working on making my land more adaptible for them.
In addition, the thing with feeding them everyday is that you will attract hawks and such.
I certainly understand the bond that is made and I love it as well but all in all the experience of bird feeding has shown me how unfriendly our yards are and I am thankful for that because it has been my very motivation to persue helping reverse that in my yard and subsequently, others as well.
Good luck and bless you for caring for them..............James

Oh yeh, in regards to people scaring you about diseases and such................I listen sbut then I use my own head and research simply because it usually comes from fear.
I refuse to live my life in fear especially if it means not following my heart. When they are hungry, I can sense it.

pigeons
 

Feed the poor little devils....they are God's children as much as we are.

And as for them spreading disease ?....I think this is rubbish.

The wicked Mike Tyson is now doing all that he ever really loved doing....looking after his pigeons !

Blessings ......Mike

I tend to feed the birds in spurts...oh geez I'm still rhyming. :smile:

If my nyger seed feeders are constantly full, I'll have dozens of goldfinches relying on the seed and killing each other to get to the feeders first.

One of my favourite sounds is the cooing of wood pigeons and I love it when they waddle across the patio looking for scraps. I affectionately call them 'fat vicars'. :tongue:

And as others have said, make sure they have more food in winter when their natural supplies are scarce.

As for disease, I have this habit of turning things on their head. What about the diseases WE carry? If the birds are willing to live within our near vicinity, then I'm not going to drive them away.

pigeons
 

Good point.Squatch,


If wild life
is willing to live near us,why should we be scared of them being near us?

I have a pair of doves come regularly into my garden...they are beautiful...I suppose the "experts" would say they spread disease too.

Expert....."Ex" meaning "has been"....Spert meaning "Under pressure"....Lol !

Feed the birds...poor little things are going to suffer this Winter (Once again according to the "experts")

Blessings Mike.

Thanks so much for the replies guys.

I thought I'd post this beautiful and very apt song on this very subject:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHrRxQVUFN4

I love all the replies and feel quite tearful over this issue. I will continue to feed them especially in the winter, I'll just be a bit more careful about how often etc.

Good point too. If we let them have their space we wouldnt need to feed as much.

Been feeding birds for years. Like some others here, the sense of it is to support them thru the harsh times of winter and early spring, not make them dependant on me, which may make me feel good, but not so good for the birds. In winter water is also a need, and small size birdbath heaters are available.

Re disease....wildlife can carry some diseases harmful to humans and also to them selves in places where they congregate. About 6 years ago an eye disease of the house finch was making it's rounds among feeding apperatus. It happens occassionaly. Pigeons ARE disease carriers, most often of livestock diseases, via thier feet and because they are a flocking bird they can become a prime vector if a disease is present near thier habitat.

Here's the responsability about feeding wild life....if fed during the warm long days of breeding season, the abundance of food will produce an abundance of offspring. Not a bad thing except for this...if that artificialy produced abundance of food diminishes or ceases, there will be die off from starvation, plain and simple.

Long term, if you have the means, do what whiteshaman plans, landscape and plant to support the wildlife you love, suppling food, water, and shelter.

Well I bought a proper bird feeding station and put some food out - within seconds a pigeon appeared and has been sitting there feeding for half an hour now - seriously!

People are right. Pigeons are pests and carry disease. Once you start feeding them, its difficult to get rid of them. We also have minor birds here (introduced) who are also pests and riddled with lice. Minors also spread parvo virus (puppy disease).

You've got the right idea with the feeding station...it needs to have small holes for tiny birds...like sunbirds etc

Wait 'til the squirrels spot your feeding station.........hahahahahah. :tongue:

Sounds just like human beings :smile:

Lol :D I won't mind that - my mum feeds the squirrels as well as the birds, it just gets a bit expensive!

Hi Starbuck :smile:
Good for you dear keep feeding them...I love feeding the birds and anything else in nature that comes my way...even the slugs and snails get a nice juicy cabbage from time to time... which in turn then feed something else. We tend to forget when putting all these pesticides down we are actually killing off the food of other birds and animals. I had a chaffinch keep flying at every window in my flat in the spring...I thought he wanted to come in the way he kept on coming to the windows every day...I don't have windowsills out side so I opened the window and put food inside on the windowsill. He came in several times eat some food while I was only about four foot away then flew out... then the penny dropped they had fledglings feeding and he was asking me to put food out...once I put food out he stopped coming to the windows. Chaffinches are beautiful colours.
All the birds and animals were on this planet long before us...it's us that are the biggest pests on this earth in my opinion. Love nature and nature will love you thats my experience and I have had some wonderful experiences with wild life.
Love and light
Spiritmessenger

The other day in my garden,my cats were sitting on the fence and a squirrel came running along and jumped over their heads . Talk about fence rage lol :)

As for pidgeons we stopped feeding them because they started to nest on our roof :( I love our garden we have Blue **** , Chaffinches , gold finches , green finches , sparrows , magpies , crows and parakeets :) x

I have a bunch of bird-feeders hanging off of my deck. I figure it this way.

We humans have destroyed much of the environment on which the birds rely to survive. If I put out bird feeders, I'm replacing some of what we humans have destroyed. That is, a source of food for the birds. From what I've observed, it's aiding the entire cycle of bird life. I have small birds, t!tmice, creepers, finches, sparrows, and some larger-ish birds, woodpeckers, mourning doves, and, some a few hawks that feed on the smaller birds.

It's like a bird theater off of my deck. :tongue:

I do recognize though, that once I've started feeding them, I should suddenly stop because it could lead to a decline in the bird population through starvation.

We don't feed the birds, but I have spent the last 2 years building a bird friendly garden - mostly in the front, because the cats scare them off fromt he back. I have a bird bath too, because it can't be easy to find water here during summer.

We attract a wide range of different birds, but we do have a problem with minors, their really mean and attack other birds - I've seen them take on ravens and magpies! Luckily, we have some nice dense bushes and a big date palm that the little ones can hide in!

We have feeders out all year in the garden ....... me and the missus are both members of the RSPB (Royal Society For The Protection Of Birds) and we feed any birds that come irrespective of species.

Our Bird populations in general are in decline ...... some seriously so ...... a lot of the main causes of this are modern farming practices.

Loss of hedgerows, over intensive crop planting ..... i.e. as soon as a crop is harvested another is planted, so the birds that would feed on the harvested field into winter have no food supply, particularly seed feeders such as finches.

We don't mind pigeons feeding in our garden ...... calling them pests or vermin is a bit harsh ....... they are just wild animals trying to survive, like any other. Why should we feed other species but not pigeons ?

We never get too many, as we also get Sparrowhawks from time to time "taking" them for food (they nest in the woods near us)

If we get rid of pigeons, then this has a knock on effect elsewhere ....... the Hawks will find food scarcer and their chicks may not survive (if they decide to try rearing any at all)

I reckon we will just keep the feeders full .........

Simon. :smile:

Good on you Simon :smile: My mum does just the same and now I do as well. Pigeons are creatures of the Divine just as we all are and I don't want to catagorise them as vermin or anything else. I think they are lovely actually - really tame compared to the other birds that come. It's a joy to see them feed and drink from the little dish :smile:

i heard in canada, they spike they pidgeon food with birth control hormones

Starbuck, what you are doing is a good thing. If your heart tells you to do it , then don't listen to outside voices. I would continue to feed them a modest amount of seed on a periodic basis. Pigeons as well as Mourning Doves love white millet seed! I would especially feed them during weather extremes where it may be hard for them to find food. --especially if your area experiences cold and snow.

There are plenty of predators out there to keep pigeons under control these days and also many humans will go out of thier way to kill these birds, so don't worry about encouraging overpopulation. A modest amount of daily seed is sufficient so please don't stop!.

I think that pigeons get too much flack! They are actually tropical birds that originated from rainforests and people brought them to...Wherever, and they just so happened to be very resilient little birds and were able to adapt pretty much anywhere. So whose fault is it?

Feed them, but not too much, I suppose. People can learn a thing or two from these guys that are considered "pests". This is their planet too, that is what I say!

I deleted because I was talking about seaguls...oops!

Humans can be pest also, so should we feed them when hungry ?.

Damn humans...

I feel everything...even spiders. :-)

I deleted my post about seagulls because I realized it was about pigeons, but I would carry stale bread in my car just to feel the seagulls. :-) My pics in my photo section of the gulls I was tossing them bread.

Don't we already kind of do that?

Yes of course, but I was referring to not feeding pigeons because their looked at as pest, from the front of the thread.

Any kindness is good...

food
 

ahh bless ,,,we all need food even these flying rats as they r usually called lol ,, cus its not a beautiful garden bird like robin,thrush tit ,black bird etc does not mean that they should starve ... but on the other hand we would not put food out for rats would we ,,,so its a hard one really ,,,,if ur happy to feed them and there happy with u then dont let them down especially as they r getting to know u ,,,love lite and rainbows jazz

I have started to feed the birds in my garden again since the weather has turned colder,and view the feeding of wild birds as necessary at this time of year.Loss of the bird's natural habitat in the form of hedgerow removal,development of mature meadowland and deforestation are all causes of decline in certain species.

The Corn Bunting for instance has declined in the UK hugely in recent years due to 'over-efficient' farming methods,where very little harvested wheat is spilt or left behind on the harvested land.It isn't called the Corn Bunting for nothing.

But I digress.Studies have shown that feeding birds can help by enabling more birds to survive the winter months than would have done without the feeding,so feeding in gardens can make a huge difference.Goldfinches have become far more common with the availability of niger seed in feeders,and to see these charming little birds doing so well is brilliant.

So in answer to your original question Star,keep on feeding those pigeons.I get them too amongst the sparrows and starlings,they are all part of mother nature's plans :smile:

Oh and if anyone puts bread out,try to make sure it's wholemeal and moisten it first,otherwise it can swell up in their stomachs.

Oh and before I forget,if you can,leave a corner of the garden to go wild so that seeds are left in flower heads,birds love untidy gardeners.

Bad if they poo on u... D:

Pigeons are minions of the Devil.

You have never had to sleep under a bridge shared with pigeons. I have.

We aren't going to have a winter here (southeast Idaho) this year. Usually the world is all white this time of the year, but this year only the highets peaks have snow, and not much at that. Which is good for the elk, because they can stay up in the mountains and away from the hunters.

A bald eagle flew down and sat in the field not 50 yards from my daughter's house yesterday. What a treat to be able to see such a magnificent bird up close on Christmas day. I didn't have a fish in my pocket, so I didn't feed the eagle, and I'm not about to feed those &%**#! pigeons.

I don't feed the birds with shop bought seed etc. What I do is try to plant my garden to give natural food to whoever cares to call. Don't forget the importance of a drink too. aA water feature of some type can be a blessing to wildlife. I've a pond with a cascade the birds use for drinking and bathing. I've apple trees too and I leave some fruit on the trees for the birds. By the way I havent a large garden I just have to pick what I plant carefully.