Feral Pigeon Nests;What are they made of?

[feralpigeon]

Hi folks,
I've had the opportunity to see two feral pij nests here in the SF area, and I'll be darned if I can figure what that stuff is. Like molded brown goopy stuff. What is that????
fp

[Pigeonpal2002]

Hi again Feral Pigeon,

Feral pigeons are not known for their expert nest building skills. They will make do with whatever material is available to them and construct a make shift platform in which to lay their eggs. Some materials they use are twigs, pine needles, string, straws, leaves etc. What you most likely saw, this "brown, goopy stuff" you mentioned, was probably the fecal matter of the babies and parent birds. The young chicks in the nest soon learn to put their bums over the edge and deposit their poops out of the nest. It can build up quickly and will get hard and look like clay or mud.

[feralpigeon]

Hi Brad,
Ya, that's what I was wondering. Think I'll keep that a secret when talking w/those who are adamant about pij's being filthy.
fp

[Pigeonpal2002]

Originally Posted by feralpigeon

Hi Brad,
Ya, that's what I was wondering. Think I'll keep that a secret when talking w/those who are adamant about pij's being filthy.
fp

LOL, It's not so bad. Actually, it's rather tidy of the birds to know to keep their poops out of the nest itself. In a sense it's a lot better than some other species of baby birds that will poop in the nest and then the parents have to remove those feces in their beaks

[feralpigeon]

Hey Brad,
Thanks for helping me to look on the bright side LOL!
fp

[Larry_Cologne]

We found two 8-12-days-old baby pigeons in their nest built inside a large flower pot, which someone removed from their inner city balcony and set out on the street last April 30th.

The nest was made of twigs, none smaller than a toothpick, and most of the twigs and sticks were 4 to 10 inches long. The nest was loosely built. There was no poop build-up in the upper part of te nest. Everything fell through the loose twig formation to the bottom of the flower pot (and actually I did not see any poop).

It was cold, so after we set their flower pot on a terrace about 50 yards from where we found them, and waited without positive results for the parents to find them, we took them into our apartment, put them on a dish towel in a stainless steel bowl on top of a heating pad set on low (and monitored or the correct warmth by hand).

One ("Chocolate") died after 13 days. The other, originally "Vanilla" but renamed "Pidgiepoo," we raised to be a healthy adult male pigeon, reddish-brown wings and neck, with white body and tail. Beautiful. On January 14th Pdgiepoo was chased by crows in a small local park in Cologne while my wife was running with him. He was on he ground at the time, and she was ten or fifteen yards away from him. We haven't seen him since. We have spent a lot of time looking or him.

Back to the poops: Each of the two birds would back up in circles to the edge of the bowl (their nest) to poop. The little rectum would protrude about a quarter inch, out would be projected a small poop th size of an olive pit (often dry enough to roll, and be picked up by hand), and then the rectum would go back in. They were incredibly clean! No toilet paper! Pidgiepoo always had the whitest, fluffiest feathers around his vent, and he kept the area picked free of excessive feathers. When he pooped or got ready to mate, he would spread open the feathers around his vent (like he was opening an umbrella).

We miss him terribly. Cleaning up his poops was a minor detail of our everyday life with him. Internet cafe is closing, have to go.