dirty pigeons, can i help them?

[rena paloma]

some of the feral birds in the neighbourhood are filthy, looks like they have been "tarred" and feathered. can i lure them with food and clean them up, i have cleaned willing birds before, but these are shy and look like they have a history of abuse. there is a big white king pigeon in the neighbourhood, who eats sometimes, (they come to my front yard) and i named him paloma, but he has such a dirty crop and beard that i feel terribly sorry for him, and looks brown on the white feathers. like dirty brown, on a white utility king that has obviously flown away from his loft and never returned.he is banded.
it is a cheep wire with out numbers, but it is on his leg nonetheless.
i have removed forigen objects from many pigeons, but to capture and clean them, is this a good idea, or will they clean themselfs?
rena

[minimonkey]

Wow-- poor guys! I'm hoping that someone more experienced can answer your question. It seems that capturing and cleaning would be fairly traumatic for them -- but if it actually is tar on them, that's very poisonous to pigeons.

Sorry I have no answers -- my heart breaks thinking about your poor fellows.

[pdpbison]

Hi Rena,


I have sometimes grabbed young 'dumpster Pigeons' who could not fly from being so saturated with discarded cooking oils or whatever it is in the dumpsters they sadly adapted to feeding in, under and around.

So, sometimes when I have been somewhere and see one, I grab them and bring them home. Usually their self esteem is in poor shape but they never knew anything else.

I cage them and put them on good food and grit and after a month or six-week, and letting them bathe now and then, they tend to come out just fine. Usually, since these are young Birds anyway, and since they had never flown really to any extent, they then, once all clean and bright, are willing to join my wild Flock, and they do not seem to return to the dumpster way-of-life they accidently got into from being born too near one or something.

One could wash them in 'Downy' was it? Oh heck, now I do not feel confident what product it is! - my memory this morning is nor sure. Anyway, what the rehabbers and rescue folks decided on from long experiment for tar or Oil-Spill Birds...shoot, I will look it up later. I need to get some anyway in case I ever need it.

One could do that, and keep them a while on good chow and so on...then release them...

Older Birds will maybe return to their previous habits, I dunno...but younger ones anyway, I am sure will be more open to a new way of life.

Phil
Las Vegas

[John_D]

Unless there is something very specific - like tar, oil, etc. - they do come up clean eventually with good care and baths when they like 'em, I reckon.

This pic is the same pigeon! Cynthia has known 'Glory' for quite a while, but one day picked her up in the city center, starved and weak. We believe it was the overgrowth of her beak (trimmed back in the pics) preventing her picking up small food items. But I could not believe it was the 'Glory' I had seen, for surely she was white (OK, dirty white) and this one was interesting shades of gray. But lo and behold, after a while in the aviary ...... it was indeed our white 'Glory'. We figure she must've been nesting or roosting around smokey chimneys or some industrial output.

John

[Reti]

Unbelievable, what a difference. I wouldn't recognize her.


Reti

[Lin Hansen]

John,

Hard to believe these are pictures of the same bird!

Phil, I think it is Dawn dishwashing liquid that is usually recommended because it is supposed to cut grease very well.

Linda

[pdpbison]

Hi Linda,


"Dawn"...yes...thank you!

As for the above, I think maybe these are two seperate Birds who have been confused with one another somehow...Lol...

Soor stained, dirty, soiled or oily Feathers do not 'lay' so nicely as those on the 'grey' Bird, so I think those are in fact, the normal 'grey' Feathers OF a 'Grey Bird', and, as a seperate Bird entirely, we see a 'White' bird...

I thinkk there has been some continuity confusion in the loft as far as who-was-who...


Best wishes,

Phil

[John_D]

No Phil, I can assure you, this is the selfsame pigeon! In fact, her beak still has to be trimmed regularly.

there aren't so many that we don't know each one individually

I see no other explanation for such a complete color change except a combination of getting cleaned up and replacing the gray feathers during the molt

John