What can I plant to feed wild pigeons?

[Florencevegan]

I would like to help the wild flock become more independent from my feeding. I have a big garden and a variety of plants including marigolds, nasturtiums, cotoneaster, viburnum, roses (& hips), elder trees (& berries), a young rowan tree (& berries), Fever few, St John's Wort, etc.. I am not growing any vegetables or fruit so far. I wonder what I could plant to feed the birds. Can we grow wheat and corn in Scottish cities?! I do try to grow sunflowers but they get blown down usually - I know their seeds are good for birds in late summer. Of course I don't spray insecticide and I went berserk at a Council man this week who sprayed my garden with weed killer without even asking if I wanted that. (Grr). Thanks for any advice. Florence.

[John_D]

Our feral pigeons are basically seed and grain eaters, but woodpigeons eat a variety of fruits and berries. Ferals who have to forage in parks and gardens will look for weed seeds and grass seeds - some kinds of weed seeds are often part of made-up pigeon feeds.

Here is a list of some of what woodpigeons eat (from a post by CanaryJayne) just for information:

Berries: ivy,buckthorn,blackberry,Hawthorn,rose hip,dogwood,spindle-tree,elderberry.

tree flowers and leaf buds: ash,beech,elm,hawthorn,hazel, willow,oak, elderberry

Leaves: Various clovers,charlock,cultivated mustard,poppy,
knotgrass,scarlet pimpernel,sheeps sorrel,dandelion,speedwell,grass,sugar beet,buttercup

Seeds and nuts: wild oat, wild pansy,chickweeds,common vetch,knotgrass.
Beech nuts, Hazel nuts,Acorns.

John

[Florencevegan]

I don't get wood pigeons, though my brother a mile further into suburbia does.
I have giant poppies! I wonder if the seeds (thousands of them if I burst the pods) would drug the birds like opium?! (There are enough junkies around this neighbourhood!)
I have buttercup, not half, but maybe I will not weed them so much. And the dandelion. After all, we drink its tea.
I buy wild-bird food (50p a kilo)(6 a day) which seems to have corn, wheat, dried peas etc. I don't buy what is labelled as maize or pigeon food because the bits look huge and I worry they will choke. I don't buy peanuts for the same reason though sometimes I have and crushed them up but I do worry they will choke, as I do on them. I'm afraid I supplement the real food with cheap bread to fill them up. And sometimes corn flakes crushed up. And their fresh 2 litres of drinking water every morning. Best I can do. They seem well on it. One case of pmv last year but nobody is sick this year, touch wood. They are happy birdies and the cocks do their lovey dovey displays and chasing the girls all the time. Ah well, they're only young once. (Do the girls have a menopause like us?!)
Flroence.

[flitsnowzoom]

Florence, great idea. I have a garden in my front yard that I purposely let go to seed just for the critters.
Go to the resource section and take a look for the list of plants that are okay and not okay for pigeons to eat. See what's on there that is edible and "socially acceptable" to your neighbors. Some neighborhoods in the USA have covenents that make it unacceptable to have grass over a certain height, certain plants in the yard, even the color of the houses and the drapery that face outside must be of just the right hues Sheesh!

If you can plant as many tall flowers as possible then you can also grow in the grasses and other seedy plants. Stealth gardening. One neighbor in my area plants sunflowers that are 6 to 7 feet tall and then plants small stuff underneath. The birds just love him!!

[KIPPY]

I always thought he same thing and now that bird seed is going up in price.
It would be nice to plant a garden of some kind out in the yard where they can help themselves.

Then I would probably have a hundred birds going for the garden buffet.

My neighbors would freak.

[flitsnowzoom]

Hah, let 'em freak. I entertain 4 feral cats, 3 foxes, a family of 6 ravens -- I will be soooo glad when the babies are finally gone, 3 or 4 magpies, loads of mourning doves, several flickers, house finches, sparrows, chickedees, way too many squirrels, robins, a couple of blue jays, a raccoon or two, and last -- that derned skunk. Oh, I can't forget that little hawk that comes to check things out every month or so.
The worst thing about growing some of the flowers to seed was at night the earwigs (gad, my Hell will be populated by earwigs ) came out and started chewing.
I really don't get that many birds at one time looking in garden for seeds, but I know they do come by.

[Florencevegan]

Garden buffet! LOL My neighbours right along the street and neighbourhood already freak, and reported me to the Housing Manager, and I have sat sweating for 6 months in fear of eviction, but so far so good. I wish I had your garden, Flitsnowzoom! My neighbours even moan about a couple of house-plants on the stair-landing (I live on the second storey of a block of rented flats). I am the only one for miles who has cultivated a garden - the rest are just grass. The Council spray them with WEED KILLER. :-O It is like living in an institution. I would get a complaoint letter if I let thegarden go to seed or be untidy or not cut the grass under my trees where the Council men cannot reach with their wretched mowers which kill so many insects. I just use shears and go as non-violently as I can. When I plant I always try to lift the worms and beetles to safety. And the greenfly get fat on my lupins every year. :_(
I love your signature, Flitsnowzoom, but have tried unsuccessfully to Google for Joyce Glass's poetry. Is it your own, perchance?
Praying hawks go vegan, like the pigeons ... :-)
Florence.

[flitsnowzoom]

Hi Florence,

I was very moved by this poem. There is a hookbill (mostly) rescue group in Denver, Colorado, the Gabriel Foundation, that has this on their website. My son and I have visited it so I know first-hand of their work.

Here's the thread that I posted a few months ago. It has the whole poem in it.
http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showthread.php?t=20893


I do not know if Joyce Glass wrote another poem, however, it expressed so much about all what I observed about all the folks on Pigeon-talk. I have never been a part of another community that supports one another in quite such a strong way, and has such a wide scope of members and interests. We're not a lock-step community; thank goodness for that. There's enough of that in our daily lives.

The common thread is that we value each pigeon as an individual and do our best to take good care of them. Some are fanciers, some race, some rescue and rehabb, and many do a mix of all of those aspects. Me, I just had a couple of wayward fancies come into my life and came to this group for advice.
As a result of this community, I got involved with 911 PigeonAlert so even though my "rescues" are long-distance, I can help people that have pigeons come into their lives needing human help to get home, find a new home, or get well. 911 gets mostly banded birds, but a fair number of ferals are rescued and brought to our attention. My first response is to send them to Pigeon-Talk, because the depth of experience in injuries and illnesses here is tremendous.
So a long-winded answer (I do a lot of that ) to your question.

I'm glad you have become a part of this group and I know that you will become a valuable resource to the UK group and it's nice to add to their numbers.

Okay, for fun, back on topic. If you can't plant locally, can you find a little place that's a bit less tended that could use some TLC and brightening up, that also can help "feed the birds" as a bonus. A run-down cemetary perhaps. Surely, Scotland isn't as tame as all that so everything is highly groomed.

[flitsnowzoom]

Florence, you'll love this. When we get rain (seldom enough) the earthworms come to the top so they won't drown. I wind up doing a driveway search before I back my car out. Those silly worms will dry out in no time on the concrete. I usually toss them back in the yard. The robins and grackels may get them but at least they don't turn into little worm sticks or get flattened by my tires. I do draw the line at ear wigs though. They, flies, yellow jackets, and mosquitos are about the only thing that are not ushered to safety in my house.

Can you plant in pots around your trees? Does grass actually grow under trees?
I live in my own house in an older neighborhood without those convenant restrictions. I'm the only one on the block without a sprinkler system so my grass is going toasty brown. It's supposed to get up to 100F today and bluegrass isn't capable of looking perky at 5500 feet in direct sun at 100F with no water. Bindweed however love those conditions. My yard is mostly bindweed now, with a bit of bluegrass.
I can't keep up with the pulling of weeds and I don't want to put down chemicals because the birds eat the little bugs in the yard so. I'm sure the neighbors aren't all that thrilled either. But we all live here, because we don't want a bunch of nitpicking rules on the house colors, the flowers in the front, or the kind of landscaping we do. We're encouraged to xeriscape (uses less water) because of the booming population and limited water supplies.

However a covenented community just across town successfully sued a homeowner that took out the blue grass (a huge water consumer) and planted native grasses that actually survive on the rainfall amounts that normally fall in this part of the country. The poor man spent over $20000 to do the xeriscaping and then had to rip it all out and replant blue grass. Gad!

PS. I'm not a vegetarian, but I value that animal and understand what it takes to put that meat on my table, just as I value those fruits and vegetables that we also consume. There is a life force in everything we eat and I think that is one reason behind saying Grace before eating a meal. For me, it's an acknowledgement of the life behind each food that is in front of me.

[Maggie-NC]

Originally Posted by flitsnowzoom

Florence, you'll love this. When we get rain (seldom enough) the earthworms come to the top so they won't drown. I wind up doing a driveway search before I back my car out. Those silly worms will dry out in no time on the concrete. I usually toss them back in the yard. The robins and grackels may get them but at least they don't turn into little worm sticks or get flattened by my tires. I do draw the line at ear wigs though. They, flies, yellow jackets, and mosquitos are about the only thing that are not ushered to safety in my house.

Mary, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who does all of the above but with one exception - I even free yellow jackets.

Butterfly bushes are also great to draw hummingbirds and butterflies.

[Margarret]

Guess there are a number of us that try to keep our outside environment creature friendly. Flit, your post pretty much sums up what we do as well here in California. I absolutely detest those covenented communities. They always remind me of Orwellian dwelling.

Florencevegan, I think your idea of planting supplemental food plants is excellent. You would have to research what is native perhaps to your area and see if there are plants that would be considered ornamental as well as pigeon friendly so that the neighbors are happy. I have seen the ferals here nipping the green buds off of clover. They love greens. Perhaps you could sneak a bit of clover seed into the grass? I think you probably have enough rainfall or irritgation there to allow it to germinate and grow without additional water.
Margarret