Pigeon repellent

Hoot!

When I was a kid in Indiana my dad raised homing pigeons. Really, this was a mostly positive experience. All the same, the first night we had them, my father told me over dinner that we'd have to go in and wipe their bottoms with toilet paper. "They're just pigeons! They don't have hands; they can't do it themselves."

So I dutifully climbed into the coop in the garage with a wad in my hand. The pigeons themselves weren't too pleased with the proposition. After a few minutes of me chasing them around the cage, my parents let me in on the joke.

OK, I'm still bitter.

So, now, I'm here in New York, with a new balcony that's covered in pigeon poop. It's gross. Soon I'm going to go out there with a rag, hot soapy water, and thick rubber gloves. But why bother if the birds are going to return and re-foul it?

So, I've heard, no worthwhile source, that an owl statue will deter these sky-rats. I'm not going to run out and buy one, but a quick search on Google Images led me to some pictures. I grabbed one, cropped it, made it black and white, and printed it up full page.

I stuck it on a piece of cardboard (plenty of that) and propped it up in the window. In the fifteen minutes since, no pigeons have landed on rail.

We'll see how long this lasts. Do pigeons see in color?