How to keep pidgeons away nicely

As we are using our balconies and patios more and more, especially since for many peolple that is one of the few ways to be outside during the corona / covid-19 lockdown, we have to deal with the pidgeons more and more. Mostly the pidgeons are looking for a place to nest. If you are familiar with these types of birds, you know how messy and dirty they are. Especially in cities they do carry diseases, too. So how to keep pidgeons away nicely? We don’t want to hurt an animal after all.

I have to admit, we tried out quite a few things including letting them nest. I have to say I cannot recommend the nesting at all. It is horribly dirty and unbelievably loud. Needless to say we never did that again.

We set up fake birds as well, owls and ravens. Unfortunately they got used to them way too quickly, so that was no long term fix either. Then, while visiting the most beautiful city of Florence, we saw what people were doing there. And I’m sure people are using this trick all over. Use old CDs.

In an old CD case I found quite a few old CD-ROMs from magazines. Perfect for using them as a pidgeon deterrent.

You need to use the shiny side of the CD. Best to put 2 together, shiny sides out.

For some reason the pidgeons do not like reflection of the CDs. You can use aluminum foil strips as well, but they rip quite easily so make sure you make the strips thick enough.

Once you strung the CDs together, you can hang it up. If you want and have enough CDs you can make a mobile, similar to a crib mobile. But even only a couple of CDs do the job.

This is a tried and true method. Ever since we started hanging up CDs we never had any problems with pidgeons anymore. Other birds still visit, but none of them bother us or try to nest.

Of course it is possible that not all pidgeons try to avoid the CDs. But we have never seen any around when CDs were hung up, neither here nor in Florence. It really is worth a try. And how else to keep pidgeons away nicely?