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Buildings are their cliffs, a few twigs suffice as a nest and human food scraps do nicely as meals. City pigeons, also called feral pigeons, among other names – some nasty – are notorious for their droppings and are widely seen as pests.
To make matters worse, they breed fast and are not shy.
But perhaps we view them too harshly. After all, the poor birds are descendants of fugitives and outcasts.
“City pigeons are [descended from] domesticated pigeons that escaped,” says Jens Hübel, a veterinarian specialising in ornamental, zoo and wild birds.

Domesticated pigeons were bred – whether for their meat, ability to carry messages or racing – from wild rock pigeons, which inhabit remote cliffs and rock ledges.
Those that were abandoned by their owners or flew the coop – er, dovecote – returned to the wild, many taking up residence in urban areas.
“We don’t know the exact composition of their gene pool, but many homing pigeons are among them,” Hübel says.
These domestic birds were selectively bred for their ability to find their way home over long distances and used to carry messages, a practice referred to as “pigeon post”.
Ringed pigeons – those that have had numbered rings attached to their legs to make them identifiable – can often be seen in flocks. They belong to breeders who lost interest in them.
The role of city pigeons in transmitting disease is overestimated
Jens Hübel, a veterinarian specialising in birds
“The birds that don’t find their way home are unattractive for pigeon racing,” Hübel says. “Some 20,000 to 30,000 homing pigeons go astray every weekend during the racing season.”
Other pigeon breeds have entered the gene pool of city pigeons. The pigeons with shorter beaks and feathered feet look more like their ancestors.
In Germany, at least, city pigeons and wild pigeons are so different they cannot interbreed. Their nesting sites are very different too. For city pigeons, empty spaces on buildings are substitutes for crevices on cliffs. They do not like to nest in trees.

Where there are humans, there is food; city pigeons’ diet consists mainly of people’s leftovers.
They scavenge for whatever they can find and have the image of being major disease carriers – “rats with wings” is one widespread nickname.
But is this description fair?
“The role of city pigeons in transmitting disease is overestimated,” Hübel says. “The risk is no greater than that from other animals, for example sparrows, crows, chickens and cats.”
Common avian parasites such as red mites can, however, become a problem when nests are abandoned and the bloodsuckers seek another source of food – humans, for instance.

Respiratory infections caused by Chlamydia psittaci, a bacteria carried by birds, are also possible. But Hübel says only a few people are affected each year in Germany, mostly parrot owners and pigeon breeders. City pigeons are seldom the transmitters.
Nor are they usually responsible for salmonella infections in humans.
“Only 1.3 per cent of the salmonella bacteria detected in city pigeons are regarded as particularly human pathogenic,” Hübel says. And moulds are transmitted neither by city pigeons nor other animals – “a myth that unfortunately still exists”.
A damaged roof truss is an invitation to pigeons. Repairing it prevents them from settling there
Jens Hübel, a veterinarian specialising in birds
While pigeons are not especially dangerous to humans, Hübel says people who have a lot of contact with them and their excrement should take precautions.
He advises pest controllers, cleaners, pigeon rescuers and the like to wear goggles, a mask and gloves, and change clothing after contact with the birds.
The Hong Kong government cited the negative impact of bird faeces in public places as one of the grounds for introducing a ban, punishable by fines, on the feeding of wild pigeons this year.
Although pigeons are not particularly harmful, they can be quite a nuisance. A large flock can foul surfaces, their acidic excrement able to corrode even metal. So it is nice to know how to keep them at bay.
“A damaged roof truss is an invitation to pigeons,” Hübel says. “Repairing it prevents them from settling there.”

You should seek help if city pigeons are breeding on your roof or balcony.
To prevent their eggs from hatching, they can be safely removed, boiled and then returned to the nest or replaced with plastic eggs for up to three days after they have been laid, Hübel says.
Pigeon protection groups will often take hatchlings and provide tips on nest removal, making a nesting site permanently unattractive to city pigeons and what to do with brooding wild pigeons.
If you encounter an injured or apparently sick pigeon, gently pick it up, report it to the local agency responsible for lost and found animals and, if possible, take it to a veterinarian specialising in birds. In Hong Kong, contact Hong Kong Pigeon and Dove Rescue.

“A pigeon’s suffering often cannot be seen – its plumage conceals even drastic weight loss,” Hübel says. They should not have to suffer this way, he says.
He calls for humane pigeon management. “We need dovecotes” – structures to house pigeons – “where they can do a lot of their defecating, are fed and their eggs are replaced.”
Having a sufficient number of dovecotes near pigeons’ original roosting places works well, he says. “Closing off alternative nesting sites and prohibiting their feeding in the surrounding area are useful auxiliary measures to encourage pigeons to take to the dovecotes.”
More cities are trying to implement pigeon-management plans. One is Berlin, where the pigeon population fell from about 150,000 in 1980 to 19,000 in 2022, according to the city’s wildlife commissioner, Derk Ehlert. The number has slightly risen of late, though.

Berlin authorities attribute the decline to increased deterrents resulting in fewer breeding places. The city now aims to implement a pigeon-friendly management plan to keep the birds off the streets – homeless shelters, as it were.
“The Senate [city government] is working out a municipal pigeon management concept that includes supervised dovecotes to be established by the city’s districts in collaboration with animal welfare associations,” Ehlert says.
Additional reporting by Staff reporter.
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Health & Wellness

Health

A vet reveals why urban pigeons don’t carry as many diseases as we think, their origin and how to stop them breeding in your roof


A vet reveals why urban pigeons don’t carry as many diseases as we think, their origin and how to stop them breeding in your roof.


Animals