Most people will come across a pigeon every day. They are a very prominent species across the UK and can thrive in a multitude of environments. Despite this many people don’t know much about the way they live – which is vital to know when it comes to dealing with pests.
Pigeons will start their life in an egg. The mother pigeon will sit on these eggs incubating them for around 18 days. Usually only 2 eggs are laid at a time due to the size the babies can reach before it’s time for them to leave the nest. Newborn pigeon’s, or young pigeons that still depend on their mother, are known as “squabs”.
Newborn pigeons come out of the egg with little to no feathers and their eyes closed. Their eyes open very quickly, between a couple hours and a day, but after a couple of days fluffy feathers will grow and cover the baby pigeon. However, these feathers aren’t strong enough to help the pigeon fly yet, they grow their stronger feathers later on.
Once hatched the squabs will spend around 2 weeks being cared for by their mother until they grow big enough to leave the nest. At this point they are completely defenceless. The pigeons cannot move, hunt, fly, or do anything for themselves during this 2 week period. Mother pigeons also get very aggressive during this point of their baby’s life, as they have a natural instinct to protect and defend the offspring.
In the UK when any bird is nesting with eggs or active chicks it is illegal to remove or disturb the nest under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 . Moving the nest can cause the parent pigeons to abandon the nest which would cause any babies they were caring for to die of starvation or thirst as they completely rely on their mum and dad for everything. You must wait until the chicks have left the nest to remove them, but you have to be quick as pigeons can produce more eggs almost instantly.
When the squabs are ready to leave the nest they will have developed all their flight feathers, it may take them several attempts before they learn to fly, but some get the hang of it almost instantly. Sadly survival rates at this point can be fairly low depending on where the nest is. If the nest is up high and the bird isn’t too sure of how to fly yet then this could result in them falling to their death.
Once the pigeon has learnt to fly they will spend a short amount of time returning to the site of their original nest, and they will stay in the general area, but eventually after 7 or so months they will move on, find a mate, and create their own nests to lay more eggs.
Pigeons seek areas with food sources, water sources, shelter, and protection from predators. They make nests out of twigs, sticks, and anything else they can find (unfortunately this can also mean rubbish, waste and food wrappers). The nest looks pretty delicate and poorly made at the start but they continue to build and improve the nest over time.
If you want to deter pigeons from nesting nearby you could try taking any food sources away or putting up fake predators, but the best way to ensure they don’t nest in a location would be to put bird spikes, or bird wire in the location. This would stop them from being able to build the nest at all and they will just move on and find a different location.
We at APC Management provide plenty of bird-proofing solutions, so no matter what your problem or preference is, we can help. Contact us for same or next day service.
