Have you got a crazy pigeon feeder in your town?

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OkayTimeForTheTruth@reddit

Yeah this used to be me haha. I was a girl in my early 20s at the time

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FinalBv@reddit (OP)

I'm guessing you're still a girl? lol.

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OkayTimeForTheTruth@reddit

Hahaha yes but sadly not in my 20s anymore 😩 Only clarified my gender and age because I feel like the crazy pigeon feeders I've seen have been predominantly old men...

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TheGodisNotWilling@reddit

Me and my gf do it all the time lol. And the rats. And any animal really. I keep several bags of bird food in the back of my car, to feed random birds 😅.

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People do it for two reasons, they are mentally ill or they race pigeons. Actually the third reason is islam. There is something about feeding pigeons and taking picture with them on hands I've seen for Muslims.

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theeternal_420@reddit

Sounds like a good dude, let him chill

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LagerBoi@reddit

There's so much rubbish on the streets in this town that it's not necessary.

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desertterminator@reddit

What I don't get is like, there's food everywhere for pigeons in a town, taking some old guy off the street whose only form of enjoyment is probably hanging out with his feathered friends isn't going to stop anything.

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Dizzy_Context8826@reddit

Precisely. I give monkey nuts to local birds to encourage their natural foraging habits and make sure they're getting something more nutritious than crisps/bread. Recently a resident has started complaining about me "attracting rodents" despite the birds always finishing their nuts. I'm not leaving unattended food. Regardless, building managers are now warning me to stop. We live in an area with rampant littering, fly tipping, lots of takeaways, and open bins. Near a large city park and river. I think a lot of the irrational objections to people like me are rooted in ableism tbh and I think that's quite well evidenced in this thread. >The animals went out four by four/It meant profit for the rich and jobs for the poor/The animals went out four by four/There's no birdsong in the city anymore

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ErectioniSelectioni@reddit

My favourite thing that happened recently was my neighbour complained that a couple of my plant pots out front were a little bit overgrown (they were tomato plants climbing a vine. You NEED vibes to grow them) while simultaneously dumping a bunch of leftover rice and breads outside every fucking day. It sits there for days til the rats eat it all because the birds won’t touch it

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Morganx27@reddit

Pigeons are bred to be comfortable around humans, because they used to be domesticated. Now the incredibly thick masses of the UK public think they're horrible animals when in reality, they're probably more intelligent than the people who hate them. Maybe it's jealousy.

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r2d2rigo@reddit

That's a factoid propagated by TikTok videos. Pigeons always have been close to human settlements due to easy access to food and less predators, just like sparrows. It has nothing to do with them being "domesticated and discarded".

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Morganx27@reddit

[Source](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4854524/) [Another source](https://www.britannica.com/animal/domestic-pigeon) [Yet another source](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/pigeons-domesticated-instincts/) [Well blow me down, it's another source](https://shapiro.biology.utah.edu/Shapiro_Lab/pdf_pubs/Encyclopedia%20of%20Global%20Archaeology%202013%20Gilbert.pdf)

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BrieflyVerbose@reddit

That's not entirely true. They're descendants from Rock Doves that were domesticated a long time ago. So while they're still "feral" or "wild" they're quite comfortable around us. Sparrows are far more weary and will fly off much easier, pigeons are quite happy to walk in and around us.

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Huge-Promotion-7998@reddit

Incredible how they've fallen out of favour given how loved and well regarded they were before, pigeon fancying was a very popular hobby and they played an important role in intelligence gathering back in World War 2. Now we dismiss them as vermin, very sad.

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WorhummerWoy@reddit

There's a crazy squirrel lady in Golders Hill Park (an offshoot of Hampstead Heath), which is about 15 minutes from me on the Tube, so I used to spend quite a lot of time there when my daughter was younger. She used to tell people off for feeding the squirrels, and then feed them herself. I once got chatting to her and she wouldn't stop banging on about how her ex-husband managed Duran Duran (I think it was Duran Duran). Honestly, I think she was just lonely and would get annoyed at people taking her "friends" away from her.

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glitterary@reddit

I am the crazy pigeon feeder 😬 to be fair, not in the middle of town. But I put seed out for the pigeons in my garden every day; I have such a soft spot for the little guys.

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SnooStrawberries2342@reddit

Yep, he's a minor local celebrity who splits opinion... [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2lznw1pngdo](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2lznw1pngdo)

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DoubleA-Side@reddit

Came here looking for him!

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New-Astronaut-5488@reddit

he neds to be locked up

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lemon-and-lies@reddit

Feeding domesticated animals nutritionally dense food as opposed to letting them starve to death or scavenge for the scraps other people litter like crisps, chips, and bread, should be a crime? Realistically, people being kind to pigeons is having no impact on their existence. They'll be in town regardless. It makes me sad that humans decided to domesticate pigeons, proceeded to release them, and then called them pests. Their natural habitats are cliffs ffs, not the rooves of buildings.

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New-Astronaut-5488@reddit

they're in town because its easier to find food when people throw it on the ground. sea gulls for example, kinda in the name. theyre sea birds. not town birds.

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darklinkuk@reddit

He's a hero

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whiskyicedlatte@reddit

York Museum Gardens has an absolutely lovely lady who feeds nuts to the squirrels pretty much every day. She will give a handful to kids to have a go, and happily chat the day away.

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moon-bouquet@reddit

Yep, elderly guy who just dumps an entire wonderbread in the shopping street and buggers off.

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RandomHigh@reddit

There was a guy in my town who would spread a bit of bird seed on a corner at the entrance of the bus station, and watch as the pigeons would get hit by the bus.

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No_Potato_4341@reddit

I'm from Sheffield. Go to Castle Square on your average day and you'll see loads of pigeons and pigeon shit.

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barrybreslau@reddit

I've seen people do it in various locations in the West Midlands. They obviously think they are doing a good deed, but aren't.

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IndividualCurious322@reddit

Why aren't they?

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barrybreslau@reddit

Because feral pigeons are basically vermin. They shit everywhere and carry diseases. Feeding them causes them to group in areas, making the problem worse.

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IndividualCurious322@reddit

Disease transmission to humans is incredibly low from feral pidgeons (even if your directly touching nest sites and droppings) and they cannot even transmit avian flu to other birds due to being considered a dead end host (they don't efficiently transmit the virus to new hosts). The "rats with wings" claim was propagated by pest control companies (but said by a park commissioner in New York who falsely claimed the birds caused meningitis). They do group in areas where food is supplied, but that's true of pretty much every animal.

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barrybreslau@reddit

The whole of Birmingham city centre is covered in pigeon shit. The area where Mr Friendly tips bread everywhere x 2.

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lemon-and-lies@reddit

The whole of Birmingham city centre is just.. shit. Pigeon or not.

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barrybreslau@reddit

Nah it's amazing.

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fernofry@reddit

Ever since I found out that the majority of street pigeons are feral descendants of pets, I have a lot more empathy for them. I also briefly looked after a lost racing pigeon recently and they are actually quite nice birds.

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Ihavecakewantsome@reddit

My neighbour! She is very kind but our local pigeons are butter balls due to her care 🤣

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AdAffectionate2418@reddit

Worse - we have fox feeders in our neighbourhood...

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Car-Nivore@reddit

My brother did in Taunton, his and cars next to his where just street floats of bird shit.

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JCOl68@reddit

Yes, the bugger chucks bread all over the path alongside the unit where I work. The car park is adjacent and we get pigeons crows and seagulls fighting over the food and inevitably crap all over the cars. Damn them all!

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SlightlyMithed123@reddit

Used to have one back in the good old days but now it’s all Crackheads and Alcoholics

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icemonsoon@reddit

In my old road, bird seed all over the place and cars within 100yards plastered in shit, would have started shooting them if i lived closer

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IndividualCurious322@reddit

Most town pidgeons are the descendants of domesticated ones that we just abandoned. They don't know how to find thier own food and will scavange from bins or eat scraps people drop. They've been demonized by pest control companies. Ironically, they're very resilient against avian flu.

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V65Pilot@reddit

He's unloading their new mission parameters. r/birdsarentreal

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Active-Strawberry-37@reddit

We’ve a seagull feeder. Little old lady with a big bag of bread who goes along the part of town where all the car dealerships are. They aren’t big fans of her or the mess left on the cars.

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Careful-Swimmer-2658@reddit

We had a crow feeder. It was actually pretty cool to watch the crowd gather every day in anticipation of her arrival. However, she would leave chunks of luncheon meat all over the park that not only fed the crows but led to a massive explosion in rat numbers. There were literally hundreds of them. If you clapped your hands loudly, the long grass would erupt with rats.

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Ahleanna-D@reddit

I’m a crow feeder, but it’s suet pellets and peanuts. There are anywhere from 25 to 80 crows in the field, and 10-30 in the park. I feed the park ones less because of swarming pigeons - I don’t want a £500 fine, plus I’m not there to feed pigeons…

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caniuserealname@reddit

Birdman Bob actually died a couple of years ago now.

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Dru2021@reddit

We have a huge flock of pigeons that hang out around a small retail park & nice set of flats - I’ve always wondered why they chose that spot until I saw a taxi driver pull up and dump half a sack of seed on a grass verge for them - either he loves pigeons or has a vendetta against someone!

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NortonBurns@reddit

I've never seen the person, but I've seen the results; pounds of bread every day at both ends of our local green \[north London\]. Though now I think about it I've not see it for a while, and even the visible rat population seems to have gone quiet - maybe \[s\]he at last got prosecuted for it.

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Kent_Tog@reddit

Every town has a Pigeon Feeder until they get given a fine for attracting vermin, pigeon shit and mess.

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Raining_Lobsters@reddit

Yes. They also feed rats. They're a menace.

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ashyjay@reddit

yes, the lord of the town, they even dye the pigeons.

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New-Astronaut-5488@reddit

Yes. My street has one, and the square in my town has regulars who do it. People who feed birds like this should be prosecuted for littering

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