How to stop Pigeons on bird feeders
Pigeons can be a real nuisance when it comes to feeding your favorite backyard birds, as these gatecrashers can really bring a dampener on proceedings.
How to stop pigeons on bird feeders is to designate their own dining area on the other side of the yard, then pigeons can eat in the open there while your favorite, more timid birds can eat at bird feeders as normal. If this fails you can surround a ground bird feeder or the hanging type in an anti-squirrel cage.
It can be a real pain in the backside when having fun attracting your favorite backyard birds, only for pigeons to come along to spoil it all.
You can't really blame pigeons as they must eat also, only in the process they are scaring off more timid birds while eating up all the bird food in use.
What I recommend you do is provide pigeons their own area in the yard to offer them real bird food - as oppose to no junk food - out in the open to allow pigeons to feed, yet distract them at the same time from the main bird feeders hanging off a pole.
Not 100% guarantee to work all the time, but for the most part the few pigeons who visit can come to rely on this special pigeon dining area.
If more pigeons arrive then their own area will become a nuisance, thus you'd have to dismantle it while referring back to keeping pigeons off the original bird feeders.
How to feed birds without pigeons getting involved is under the cover of a reliable metal cage surround.
Ground bird feeders can be protected with this anti-squirrel cage, whereas this same cage can be placed on top of a platform bird feeder if it fits. Heck, you can even protect a pile of bird food on the lawn with this useful device.
Designate Pigeon dining area
What you have to give pigeons credit for is patience and determination, though what they leave behind is usually a mess of poop while keeping small birds at a distance.
It can almost be a guarantee when pigeons attempt, and I do mean attempt only, when raiding our bird feeders it will usually come to no success due to their size and clumsiness.
However pigeons can access bird food if its left out in the open for all birds to access.
For now you could be using a classic bird feeder platform with a pigeons favorites piled on top - including seeds, grain and berries - so of course pigeons are going to freely help themselves, as they need to eat too.
How to stop pigeons on open top style bird feeders is to designate their own dining area.
Pigeons must feed and will do anything to get a meal, thus to offer them their own area to feed at, including their most natural wild bird food - can only distract these larger birds and many others - while ignoring the bird feeders you want them to avoid.
Now, there is no guarantee pigeons won't stop eating at regular bird feeders, though there is a chance pigeons will reduce in numbers.
Similarly, your favorite common backyard birds may prefer to use the feeding area setup exclusively for the pigeons - rather than only using their own bird feeders.
Cover ground feeder in cage
What your common backyard visiting pigeon is are ground eating birds, thus prefer to eat off the ground rather than tackle a small yet complex bird feeder.
If you make use of a ground bird feeder platform is simply uses a dish on the ground to feed all ground feeding birds; you'd then have to stop this unless you invest in what is simply a cage to stop pigeons.
How it works is this cage will surround the bird feeder on the ground; as the feeder sits in the center it would than be out of reach of pigeons and nuisance large birds like crows.
What happens then is the small backyard birds can pass in-between these gaps of what would be a made in metal cage - while larger birds are blocked off.
And this is how you feed smaller birds and not pigeons in your yard, if concentrating on feeding ground eating birds while deterring pigeons who forage on the ground.
While clever crows or even squirrels can learn to move this cage closer to the food source, pigeons are not as intelligent.
Even so, you'd still need to anchor this cage to the ground to prevent it being moved by unsuspecting pests.
Hang fewer small bird feeders on pole
You know what pigeons don't have a chance in hell to reach the bird food, including seeds or nuts in a hanging, small compact bird feeder.
Clear plastic tubes for seeds or mesh wire bird feeders for peanuts are impossible for pigeons to access the feed, while there's no area on these types of bird feeders for pigeons to properly perch.
How to keep pigeons off bird feeders is to simply use a compact, self-enclosed bird feeder - over the use of open to all platform or tray type feeders.
In addition to these kinds of bird feeders they must only be allowed to hang off a normal bird feeder pole.
It can be a multiple bracket bird feeding station or a single hook Shepherd's hook; either way you can't hang bird feeders off a branch or anywhere else where pigeons can use an adjoining object to give them a foothold.
On this bird feeder pole you must use far fewer hanging bird feeders than before, as any bird feeder sitting near by would be used for pigeons to perch on - to reach across and feed on any exposed bird food.
And there you have it, use fewer hanging bird feeders on a pole while forcing pigeons to perch on the same pole - you won't be able to stop that - while keeping them well off the small, swinging bird feeders hanging below them.
NO open bird food dish
How to stop pigeons on bird feeders for real is to no longer feed backyard birds in the open, thus no more open to all platform feeders or dishes.
Actually I will say you can continue to use these same open top bird feeders if you only pigeon proof your bird feeders with a cage sat over them.
As mentioned previously smaller birds can pass through the cage gaps while the too big pigeons are left waiting on the outside.
Similarly, you can place this same ground bird feeder cage on top of a platform bird feeder if it fits, while securing it down to stop it falling.
How to stop pigeons on bird feeders would be to pull down all bird feeders in the meantime, however you don't want your favorite birds to go without - thus an anti-squirrel cage can be used to carry on as normal.
To deter pigeons out of your yard forever may not come anytime soon, though it certainly can help if you never feed them again - despite my efforts in recommending you setup their own dining area.
And remember all this is a great way to stop Crows on bird feeders including other pests or larger birds.
Conclusion
What I usually recommend to people when keeping squirrels off bird feeders is to setup their own feeding area.
Squirrels own dining area can be on the boundary of the yard, or even where they can see it as they make their way to the yard, all in an effort to stop squirrels bothering with your property at all.
Pigeons are different of course as they fly in as oppose to walk or climb like squirrels, but the plan can work out all the same.
What will happen is pigeons will be forced to feed on an open to the elements platform, setup with the same bird food you have trapped under a cage in the area used by smaller, most liked backyard birds.
Pigeons can still be seen to be attracted to the original bird feeders while foraging on the ground for spilled seeds or scraps.
Similarly, your favorite birds can be seen coming and going to the pigeons own dining area on the other side of the garden.
This isn't a problem if in time the pigeons can be seen to only bother at their own area in due course. However, you'd have to stop all this if the food offered up to pigeons only results in more pigeons, and therefore an increase pigeon issue.
How to stop pigeons hopping on top of a ground bird feeder is dropping a anti-squirrel cage over it, with the bird feeder out of reach of pigeons as its positioned in the center.
Smaller birds can pass through these gaps while pigeons and many others cannot go any further.
To use hanging bird seed feeders for example, you'd have to use fewer on a bird feeder pole, to stop pigeons getting a foothold on any additional close by feeders - or as pigeons would be able eat still if setup with a near by branch within trees.
How to realistically stop pigeons is to stop feeding birds in your yards, in the meantime you can prevent them eating at all, while using a cage to cover up platform bird feeders sitting off the ground - or a platform feeder on a pole if compatible.
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