How to Get Rid of Pigeons (2026 Guide)

Pigeons stay where three things meet: food, a flat perch, and a quiet corner. Take all three away and the flock moves to an easier building, usually within days. Gadgets alone fail because a fed pigeon tolerates every owl statue and shiny disc in the catalog. The order below is the whole strategy: starve the site, clean it safely, block every landing strip, and net the nesting spots. Skip the first step and the rest is decoration.

What draws pigeons to your building?

Feeding, almost always. A daily handful of bread or seed trains a flock to treat your balcony as a diner, and spilled seed under a well-meant bird feeder does the same job quietly. Open trash, outdoor pet bowls and fruit trees add side dishes. Exclusion is the practice of physically denying birds each perch and cavity, but it only holds when the buffet closes first, because hungry birds test barriers while fed birds simply wait you out.

Hand feeding builds a loyal flock fast. Every removal plan starts by ending the free meals.

Walk the property and list the rest. Flat rails, sills, signs, AC units and roof ridges serve as perches. Sheltered eaves, balcony corners, vents and the shade under solar panels serve as nest sites. Pigeons breed through much of the year with a spring peak, so a quiet nook found in March holds a family by May. Remove nesting material the day it appears, wearing gloves and a mask, and plan hardware installs before the season starts rather than during it.

Which deterrents actually hold?

Spikes and netting, installed without gaps. Everything else is seasoning.

Stainless spikes work by removing the landing, not by hurting birds. The blunted wires make perching uncomfortable, and pigeons pick an easier building. The failure mode is always coverage: a strip narrower than the ledge leaves a walking lane, and pigeons stuff twigs behind a gappy row until it becomes a nest base. Measure each surface, buy the width that covers it fully, and glue or screw strips down with no lane left. Clean old droppings first so birds cannot build on a dirty pad above the wires.

Spikes with gaps become furniture. This pigeon sits comfortably behind a strip that never covered the ledge.

Netting seals what spikes cannot: eaves, balcony openings, courtyard corners. Use 2-inch mesh for pigeons, pulled taut on all sides so birds cannot slip behind a sagging edge or get tangled. High-rise and commercial installs belong to pros with anchor hardware and lift access. Done right, netting is close to invisible from the street and lasts years.

Compare the options before spending:

Method	What it does	Verdict
Stop feeding, spill-proof feeders, locked trash	Removes the reason the flock visits	First step, decides everything
Full-width spikes on rails and sills	Denies flat perches	Best perch fix when gapped nowhere
Taut 2-inch netting over openings	Seals nesting nooks entirely	Best nest fix, pro for high work
Wire coils and angled ledge strips	Narrows landing spots	Good for pipes and thin rails
Owl decoys, CDs, reflective tape	Startles new arrivals briefly	Backup only, birds habituate fast
Ultrasonic gadgets	Noise you cannot hear	No solid evidence behind them, skip
Poisons and shooting	Kills individual birds	Legal minefield, flock refills, skip

Decoys deserve a clear verdict because stations and stores display them everywhere. Pigeons habituate to a motionless owl within days, and the proof sits in plain sight wherever a pigeon naps beside a plastic predator. Move a decoy every few days for a small lingering effect, pair it with real spikes, and never buy it as the plan.

Spikes plus a motionless owl at a train station. Decoys add a little while they keep moving, and nothing once birds learn them.

The edge-to-edge coverage test

Run this check on each installed strip before blaming the product. Look along the ledge at pigeon eye level: any flat walking lane wider than two fingers means failure. Push the strip: movement under adhesive means pigeons will pry it. Check above: a dirty pad of old droppings gives nesting material on site. Fail any check and the fix is more width, better fastening, or a cleaning, not a different brand.

Is it legal to remove pigeons and nests?

Federal law gives you room, local law sets the edges. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act shields native birds, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service expressly lists the rock pigeon (Columba livia) among introduced species the Act does not cover. That is the opposite of the rule for native songbirds and woodpeckers, which need federal permits to touch. State, county and city codes still vary widely, and many protect active nests holding eggs or chicks regardless of species. Confirm your local rules before removing a nest, and time hardware installs for before the breeding peak so the question rarely arises.

Trapping and poisons need the same caution. Live-trapping pigeons triggers local animal rules and leaves you holding birds with nowhere legal to release them. Avicides are restricted-use pesticides in most states, dangerous to protected birds, pets and raptors that eat poisoned pigeons, and they never fix the perches that drew the flock. Exclusion has no such baggage: spikes and netting are legal everywhere and solve the cause.

How do you clean droppings without getting sick?

Treat small jobs as routine and big jobs as hazardous. A routine windowsill wipe-down poses little risk to healthy people: gloves, washable clothes, soap and water, then hand washing. The risk climbs with old, thick accumulations, where droppings can harbor the Histoplasma fungus and other organisms. CDC guidance says to avoid stirring dusty material, keep it wet, and wear an N95 for dusty work, with large cleanups left to specialists. New York City health officials add the same core rules: gloves on, no dry sweeping, soak and bag the waste, respirator for large jobs.

For a serious buildup, follow the Illinois public-health procedure: shut down air intakes near the work, wear respirator plus disposable coveralls and gloves, mist the mass lightly, bag it sealed, rinse the bag exteriors, strip protective clothing while still masked, then wash up. Keep immunocompromised people and children away from the work entirely. After the area is clean, wash it regularly and finish the spikes or netting the same week, since a clean ledge without hardware refills fast. The same wet-method caution runs through bat cleanup, where guano carries the same fungal risk.

Spikes, net or call? Decide in 60 seconds

Match your situation to one row and commit.

• A few birds visiting a feeder area: stop feeding two weeks, clean rails, watch. No hardware yet.
• Birds perching on rails, sills or signs: full-width spikes, edge to edge. DIY.
• Nesting in eaves, balconies or AC alcoves: taut netting. DIY low, pro high.
• Thick old droppings across a roof or air shaft: stop, gear up or hire the cleanup, then exclude.
• Active nest with eggs or chicks, or a local ordinance question: check the law first, hands off until clear.

The bird hub gathers this species with the woodpecker and nesting-bird guides to come, and the wildlife group covers the rest of the outdoor crew. Droppings caution echoes bat work, attic entries mirror squirrel exclusion, and food-source discipline matches rat-proofing. Compare night and day visitors across all pests, and open the pro finder the moment high roofs, heavy fouling or legal questions enter the picture.

How to: How to Get Rid of Pigeons (2026 Guide)

Starve them, spike them out, net what remains.

You'll need

• stainless bird spikes to fit each ledge
• 2-inch mesh bird netting with mounts
• construction adhesive or screws
• disposable gloves
• N95 respirator
• heavy-duty trash bags

Tools

• tape measure
• ladder
• stiff brush and bucket

1. Stop every food source

   End hand feeding, switch to spill-proof bird feeders or take feeders down for two weeks, lock trash lids and pull pet food indoors. Fed flocks ignore hardware, so this step decides everything after it.

2. Clean droppings safely

   Suit up with gloves and a respirator, mist droppings wet, then scrape into bags. Never dry-sweep dusty accumulations. Wash the surface and your clothes after.

3. Spike each perch edge to edge

   Measure every rail, sill and sign. Fit spikes across the full width with no walking lane, glued or screwed down. One gappy strip becomes a nest foundation.

4. Net the nesting nooks

   Stretch 2-inch mesh taut across balcony openings, eaves and AC alcoves so no bird slips behind it. Hire a pro for high or large installs, and act before spring nesting starts.

Frequently asked questions

Do plastic owls keep pigeons away?

For a few days at most. Pigeons learn quickly that a decoy never moves, and photos of pigeons perching beside station owls prove the point. Move any decoy every few days for a small boost, but treat it as backup to spikes and netting, never the plan itself.

Are pigeons protected by law?

Not at the federal level: the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lists the rock pigeon among introduced species the Migratory Bird Treaty Act does not cover. State, county and city rules still differ, and many cover active nests with eggs or chicks, so confirm local law before removing a nest.

Can pigeon droppings make you sick?

Large, old accumulations can harbor the fungi behind histoplasmosis and cryptococcosis, plus the psittacosis bacteria. A routine windowsill cleaning poses little risk to healthy people. Big jobs need gloves, a respirator, wet methods and sometimes a pro, per CDC and city health guidance.

Why do bird spikes fail so often?

Gaps. Spikes work only when they cover the full landing surface edge to edge, and pigeons nest happily behind a narrow strip, as countless photos show. Measure each ledge, pick the right width, glue or screw strips with no walking lane left, and clean droppings off first so birds cannot build on top.

How do I stop pigeons nesting on my balcony?

Remove nesting material the day it appears, while wearing gloves and a mask. Then net the whole opening taut or spike every rail and ledge, stop all feeding on the balcony, and use the space daily. Pigeons pick quiet, undisturbed corners, so a lived-in balcony is itself a deterrent.

Useful links (5)

1. Federal Register: List of Bird Species To Which the MBTA Does Not Apply (2020)— federalregister.gov
2. USFWS: Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918— fws.gov
3. CDC: Reducing Risk for Histoplasmosis— cdc.gov
4. NYC Health: Pigeon-Related Diseases— nyc.gov
5. Illinois DPH: Health Hazards Associated with Bird and Bat Droppings— dph.illinois.gov

Photo credits

Thank you to Dori, Gilles San Martin, Andy Li and JoachimKohler-HB for sharing these beautiful photographs and helping bring this guide to life.

Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 us · CC BY-SA 2.0 · CC0 · CC BY-SA 4.0