Pigeon Trapped in Lightwell - Advice?

[SerendipityCA]

Hi, I live in on the first floor of a 3-story 24-unit apartment building in San Francisco . A few years ago some pigeons took up residence in the building.

Just today the management hired a company to pigeon-proof the building, so they came in and steam-cleaned the lightwells, then installed a mesh extending from the roof to the roof of the building next door.

One pigeon got trapped inside, apparently. I found this out when I emailed a neighbor who is on the 3rd floor on the front lightwell (I'm on the back lightwell) - I asked him whether there were any babies on his fire escape.

He said he didn't think so, but mentioned this bird was trapped and said the bird had been panicking and trying to fly up through the mesh.

I went up to his apartment and climbed out onto his fire escape thinking I might drop a sweater on the bird, put it in a box and free it outdoors where it could rejoin its family.

However, it panicked when it saw me, flew up, clung to the mesh, then sort of flew back down and bounced around from wall to fire escape before disappearing. I was afraid it was getting hurt because it was sort of slamming itself all around in a blind panic. I thought pigeons weren't so skittish!

The lightwells are over a walkway that goes out to the back area - there's a gate the pigeons can't get through when it's closed, that leads to a carport space under the building, thence to the open light.

After his panicky little trip, the pigeon ended up perched on the edge of my fire escape, of all places. This is probably the closest spot he could have picked to his only way out, through the back gate. So I went out and tied the gate open, left a note for the neighbors to leave it open for a few days to let the pigeon out, and dropped breadcrumbs directly beneath the pigeon (cooing at him - he turned his head a few times and I know he was watching me).

The problem is, the pigeons aren't used to using that narrow passageway to get out, they're used to going UP to get out, not DOWN. It's about 20 horizontal feet from the gate to the open sky, and he has to pass a car in a narrow space.

I'm not going to open my window or in any way try to approach him via my apartment because I'm pretty sure he'll panic and when he does, he'll fly UP, not down. And right now he's in the closest location to freedom and I want him to stay there or go for the breadcrumbs.

So, I'm posting for advice (just joined today) and to ask if this doesn't work, what should I do? Feed him? Make friends with him? I think it would be a while before he let me put him in a box and walk him to freedom, to be honest. These pigeons have had no real exposure to humans other than coexisting in this building for a few years.

Also, one more question - if there are babies anywhere in the area and the parents can't get in, will the babies make noise so I can find them? Or will they just hunker down?

Thanks for any advice.

[SerendipityCA]

I went out tonight and the one on my fire escape hadn't moved in hours. So I got impatient and went out onto the fire escape to give him crackers and a tin of water at least.

He panicked, predictably, and flew down to the ground after bouncing off a few walls.

But I thought I heard ANOTHER pigeon and sure enough there was another one in there. That one flew up to the roof panicking and clung to the mesh.

This is a major disruption of their habitat - they've lived here for years. I feel so sorry for them!

Anyway, I went up to the third floor on the fire escape and that one panicked some more and then fell/bounced down to the fire escape outside my window.

Then when I climbed back down, in a stroke of luck he flew into my kitchen (I had climbed out the window and left it wide open). I climbed in after him and closed the window, and after he took a few panicky flights around my kitchen I was able to wrap him in a sweater. I took him downstairs outside and released him in the driveway and he flew out to the street. I'm pretty sure he knows his way around the neighborhood and will rejoin his flock, and I guess they'll have to relocate to another building.

That left the other one who, it turns out, was on the ground in the breezeway. I went out through the garage so I wasn't between him and the open gate, then carefully walked up behind him and managed to walk him all the way out into the carport area, without panicking him and making him fly up. He hopped up onto the car that was parked there and almost seemed to be waiting for me!

I untied the string and closed the gate (phew! no way back in to the trapped area!) then when I approached him, he let me ALMOST touch him, then he flew off into the tree in the backyard on Lombard Street that overlooks ours. It seemed like he kind of crashed into it, he was still a little disoriented.

Long story short, I find it hard to believe TWO pigeons got trapped in there without anybody noticing, unless the pigeon control guys were amazingly sloppy, so perhaps there's a way in but they can't find their way out? I guess we need to have the work inspected.

But at least for now, they're not trapped anymore and they can all reunite and figure out what to do from here.

[clawsywp]

Bless you for saving their lives! What you did was very kind and wonderful, without you they probably would have died of starvation or thirst it seems.

The pest controllers dont care and i have had the experience recently of them sealing in birds, leaving them to die.
they dont care one bit, and they lie through their teeth to try calm concerned people down. So whatever they tell you, make sure it is true, ask a real pigeon expert on here or somewhere else.
I have had bad experience with pest controllers and really outright lied just to shut me up.

Some older baby birds will make a squeaking sound, the younger ones will not i beleive.

What you did is wonderful! Thank you the world needs more kind people like you!

[SerendipityCA]

Thanks for the kind words. I like all animals, including pigeons. I couldn't sleep tonight knowing he was sitting out there on the fire escape confused, no food, no way out, no buddies! And it seemed like he simply WASN'T going to go out on his own.

When I found a full-grown cat inside a cardboard box on the sidewalk in my upscale neighborhood 20 years ago, with a scratching post with "free" written on it, I took it to a shelter and it got adopted.

I decided then and there that if any animal ever crossed my path who needed my help, I would help it, no questions asked. After all, how many people had walked by that poor cat that morning and not stopped to help it? Apparently EVERY person who had passed it had not helped, or it wouldn't have still been there when I found it, right? So if not now, when? If not me, who?

The pigeon control person said that if they found babies, they would take them to a rehab across the bay. I don't know, there was something about his face, I didn't quite believe him. It's like, they tell the soft-hearted pigeon lovers what they want to hear, then they just dispose of the animals and nobody's the wiser. That's the impression I got.

So I told him to give them to me, and I'd take them to WildCare up in San Rafael, that rehabs ALL birds including pigeons.

Anyway, all's well that ends well.

This one pair had babies under my fire escape a couple of times - I'd hear them squeaking for food. Apparently I had set up the perfect habitat for them - my fire escape has bars on the floor so I put plastic astroturf over them, and there's about 18" of clearance between that and the roof of the garage which juts out under my fire escape (then there's a walkway out to the back area). So, the babies lived under there. I peeked out a couple of times and lifted up the corner of the astroturf, and the two of them would be huddled there in the corner, impossibly ugly to be honest (so ugly they were cute if you know what I mean)....eventually they grew up and flew away. I was glad I had a nice little area for them to hide in though.

There was another sad story, I was coming home late at night one night and I saw an animal, either a raccoon or a cat, descending this tall narrow bush outside my next door building. It didn't run away, just crouched behind the planter and then a few seconds later it ran off down my own driveway to my back carport area. I looked back there and saw two little lumps in the driveway and thought it might have pooped back there, and since I have the only dog in the building I'm careful to pick up anything I find in case it would be blamed on my dog, so I grabbed a plastic bag and went down to pick it up. It turned out that it was two little baby birds, still warm, which it had killed and taken down the driveway, but it had dropped them. I picked them up and took them back to the bush, where their parents must have nested (a horrible skinny bush with almost no branches on a very busy street), and went to put them at the base of the bush so at least their parents would know what had happened to them. To my dismay I found two MORE dead babies on the ground under the bush. So whatever animal that was, had climbed up the bush and killed all the babies. And that's why it hadn't run away when I had approached. It had dropped them on the ground and was trying to pick up as many as it could.

So I feel sorry for little birds trying to scratch out a living in a hostile habitat.

I'm afraid another pair is nesting in that same bush this year, too! I was pretty sure I saw a mommy flitting around it earlier this week. Sigh.

Anyway, I'm glad my pidgies aren't trapped anymore.

[Trees Gray]

What a situation, thank you for rescuing these two pigeons, they certainly would have come to a horrible end if it wasn't for you. I appreciate your efforts!!

Thank you for sharing your stories, you definitely are among friends here.!