Humane ways to minimise pigeons in my garden?

[SpainToday]

Next door have a bird feeder in their garden, their choice, but obviously we get more birds (particularly pigeons) in our garden as a result, and I hate them. They leave such a mess and spoil my enjoyment of the garden. We have a cat who is too elderly to provide much help!

Any suggestions? Short of hiring a sniper I’m not sure what we can do?

Posting here for traffic

Thread title edited by MNHQ on OP's request, to make it clear she was referring to pigeons specifically

Nothing … much like cats (that most owners allow to roam around unchecked), birds have every right to go where they like.

We should be encouraging our garden birds.

I would say the best thing you could do would be to stay inside with a sun lamp and leave the garden to the birds.

I honestly despair of the human race sometimes.

Chat to next door? Although if they go to the effort of having and refilling a bird feeder, they probably quite enjoy it...

You're going to find it difficult to stop birds if there's food next door.

Our next door neighbour on one side has 8 cats that spend a lot of time across both of our gardens, and we still get loads of birds. I quite like them, though, they're nice to look at and they entertain the toddler, so I'm not too bothered. A cat (or 8) might not actually help deter them, though, unless it's a hunter, and then you'll have dead bird bodies everywhere to deal with instead...

Get a second, younger cat.

We are one of the most nature deprived countries in the planet! You should be encouraging birds as they have been in massive decline since the 1970s 😞.

Scarecrows, windchimes, reflective spinny things, big plastic models of birds of prey.

Your garden is situated in their 'house'.

Anything you do to deter them whether humane or not, will be spoiling their enjoyment too.

I’d be more worried about the rats that a bird feeder can attract! My next door neighbour had a couple of bird feeders and was very generous with the food, quite a lot got spilt on the ground. After she noticed a couple of rats in her garden, she called in pest control who told her to stop feeding the birds as the rats love bird food and as well as hoovering up stuff on the ground, they will climb up the feeder to get to the food on the top.

Luckily for her neighbours, she did stop feeding the birds!

This!
Do you realise bird populations are falling dramatically? We should be feeding them (especially through the winter)
Same story with bees and other insects.

I can't ever imagine living such a sanitised life where garden birds are seen as a problem. It's so sad.

Garden birds would be different, but OP is getting pigeons. No shortage of those, unfortunately.

OP, I love birds but I count pigeons as vermin.
You could get a fake raptor bird on a string, a bit like a ballon. Someone in our street does this just after they have planted seed.

How sad.

Stay inside.

Get a house with no garden, the sound of chirping birds is so lovely to hear

Pidgeons are lovely too. I have an upstairs balcony and a row of trees near it, it's lovely to watch them nesting and feeding their young, then the young learning to fly.

Agreed! A meagre 13% of the UK is woodland. That is a tiny, tiny habitat for all those birds.

I was thinking OP was reasonable on reading the title. However, then I read they were pigeons. Seriously, they are the rats of the sky. We get lots of birds here, including some outrageously noisy ones, but I don’t mind at all. However, if I was inundated with pigeons I might not have the same thoughts.

Small garden birds would not be a problem, but pigeons are horrible.

I did state this in my original post.

You don't do anything. It's their environment.
We have a couple of pigeons, but also two blackbirds, coal tits and the odd starling.

Next doors tried that and the pigeons couldn't give a shit. One of the was perched on the pole the kite was attached to yesterday 😂. My garden is full of birds, including pigeons, and also we have birds of prey circling constantly -they even kill pigeons in our garden occasionally as I have to dispose of the carcass. Hasn't decreased the pigeon population at all. They are at an all time high this year, farmers around here are constantly shooting them in the fields.

Are pigeons classed as garden birds? Could you get one of those plastic big bird things to scare pigeons off

But anything that deters pigeons is likely to deter all birds.

Wood Pigeons are vermin ??? Very much mistaken?

or, are you talking about Feral Pigeons? They aren’t the that common in gardens.

There are several different types of Pigeon / Dove around.

Run around flapping your arms and scream?

We need birds. How can you not know this?!

Pigeons are a pest, we try to discourage them by using feeders rather than bird tables, they can't use the hanging feeders although they patrol underneath for 'left overs'. If the neighbour is using feeders that the pigeons can get to perhaps you could suggest less accessible feeders, leaving bird food within easy access attracts rats too. You can chase the pigeons, but they don't stay gone long, a younger cat friend for your aged one might be the best solution.

Edit: We've had to net over our veg garden or the pigeons eat everything.