Baby pigeons trapped in my roof for 3 days with no food or water! Help!

[Eliana]

Hello --
I oive in Miami Beach, and we had many pigeons in our roof. They would enter through the holes where the roof vents used to be, and my landlord decided to patch up the holes and put up some new vent grids. He did that on Saturday (3 days ago), and most pigeons got scared with the noise of the drill and flew away. However, 2 small birds stayed inside -- something that I did not notice until Monday. For two days now I have been running around trying to get help to get those birds out. I finally got someone to climb up there (18 feet high) and remove the vents, but the birds were too scared to come out. I don't even know if they are capable of flying. He went ahead and closed the vents again, which is a hard process, if not dangerous -- because it is so high. I have tried so hard to come up with some idea to gently and safely trap the birds, and I have asked a lot of people, but no one really seems to care. I feel lonely and frustrated in this challenge. The places I have called will not come out to rescue them, and the critter control company wants 210 dollars to remove the birds. How long will they live without food and water?
Thank you for "listening".
Eliana

[maryco]

Hello and thanks for trying to help those poor babies

You will need to get them down ASAP, they will starve up there...I hope someone will come along with an idea on how to get them out...

They are probably squeakers(Young pigeons) that have not taken their first flight yet and are still being fed by their parents.

They seem big but can't eat on their own, check out baby Sara's pics on the front page to determine the age of the two.

The parents will have to come and feed them until they are about 18-25 days when they will learn to fly and come down.

If you take them out then you can close off the area so the pigeons can stop nesting, If they are about 17+ days old then they should and will be ready to eat on their own.
They learn very fast (I caught one pigeon that learned to eat in 10 minutes!)... Just scatter some wild bird seed near them and they should start pecking, If they don't you will have to show them.
Simply peck with your fingers, they will probably be frightened but maybe you could bring them down and bring them inside just until they learn on their own. If the parents don't come back for them they won't get enough food and will probably starve.
You can also take alittle dish of water and gently dip their beaks in and they should learn to drink on their own.

Keep us posted!

Mary



[This message has been edited by maryco (edited November 26, 2002).]

[Eliana]

Thank you, Mary --
Unfortunately their parents do not have access to the area where the birds are, so they have not been fed since Saturday. My landlord will not allow me to leave the vents open because he does not want all the other pigeons back in. My only hope is to be able to catch these birds, bring them down, and feed them until they are old enough to fly. I can't think of a good way to lure them, though. Someone suggested that I put some food on top of sticky tape, so that their feet would get caught, but that sounds cruel to me.
Any thoughts?
Thank you

[maryco]

That doesn't sound like a good idea at all...
How much space do they have up there? Can't someone go up with a ladder and catch them?
I have done that once, it was a very high place too and I was rescuing a squeaker too.

[fred2344]

Do you think a call to your local Fire Department would gat some results?