by Pigeon Patrol | Jun 21, 2021 | Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons, Pigeons in the News, Raccoons, Sparrows, UltraSonic Bird Control
Photographs, especially of humans, are widely used as stimuli in behavioural research with pigeons. Despite their abundant use, it is not clear to what extent pigeons perceive photographs as representing three-dimensional objects. To address this question, we trained 16 pigeons to identify individual, real-life humans. This discrimination depended primarily on visual cues from the heads of the persons. Subsequently, the pigeons were shown photographs of these individuals to test for transfer to a two-dimensional representation. Successful identification of a three-dimensional person did not facilitate learning of the corresponding photographs. These results demonstrate limitations of cross-recognition of complex objects and their photographs in pigeons.
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Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Bird Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products ten years in a row.
Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca
Pigeon/Pigeon Patrol / Pigeons Roosting / Vancouver Pigeon Control /Bird Spikes / Bird Control / Bird Deterrent / Pigeon Deterrent? Surrey Pigeon Control / Pest /Seagull deterrent / Vancouver Pigeon Blog / Birds Inside Home / Pigeons in the cities / Ice Pigeons/ What to do about pigeons/ sparrows , Damage by Sparrows, How To Keep Raccoons Away, Why Are Raccoons Considered Pests/ De-fence / Pigeon Nesting/ Bird Droppings / Pigeon Dropping/ woodpecker control/ Professional Bird Control Company/ Keep The Birds Away/ Birds/rats/ seagull/pigeon/woodpecker/ dove/sparrow/pidgeon control/pidgeon problem/ pidgeon control/flying rats/ pigeon Problems/ bird netting/bird gel/bird spray/bird nails/ bird guard
by Pigeon Patrol | Jun 14, 2021 | Bird Deterrent Products, Bird Netting, Pigeon Predators, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons, Pigeons in the News
If you could ask any animal ‘A penny for your thoughts’, which would you choose? When the question occurred to Fumihiro Kano from Kyoto University, Japan, he decided to focus on the great apes. ‘Eye movement is a good indicator of attention, cognition and emotion’, he says, explaining how he uses an infrared eye tracker to monitor ape eye movements to understand their thought processes. However, after a decade, Kano decided to switch from working with apes to investigating the minds of homing pigeons through their eyes. Bird eyes are almost fixed in their sockets, allowing Kano to infer where they are gazing from the movements of their heads alone. Teaming up with fellow primate biologist – Dora Biro from the University of Oxford, UK, who also has a passion for researching pigeon navigation – Kano set about designing a head sensor that would allow him to measure the birds’ head movements to test how they use their eyes while homing through the Oxfordshire countryside.
Combining a GPS tracker, microcomputer and battery in a pigeon-sized backpack, Kano added an inertial measurement unit, which could track the bird’s head movements using a gyroscope and accelerometers, mounted on a custom-built mask. ‘Constructing the mask was actually the most challenging, but most fun, part of this study’, smiles Kano, who frequently visited the local craft store in Oxford to try out different materials until he had perfected the wire, felt and elastic band design. ‘The most important thing was to design the mask so that it did not interfere with the bird’s breathing when flying’, he recalls, adding, ‘Most of them were okay to wear it, but some of them didn’t seem to like it and immediately took it off, so we continued to modify the design until they were comfortable’. Once Kano, James Walker, Takao Sasaki and Biro were confident that the pigeons were content to fly wearing their new accessories, the team drove the birds 4 km up the road and then released them individually for the 10 min flight home.
Downloading the data after each bird returned, the team was delighted to see every detail of the head manoeuvres, in addition to the GPS plot of the return flight path. The first thing that they noticed was how stable the birds’ heads were; ‘it is like a high spec gimbal’, says Kano, describing how the heads of the animals barely wobbled. It was also clear that the pigeons were actively glancing from side to side, scanning the landscape, during their solo flights; ‘[They] moved their heads far more than necessary for manoeuvring flight’, says Kano. In addition, the birds reduced their head movements when approaching landmarks, including a main road and a railway line, ‘which indicates that they indeed “see” them to navigate’, says Kano. Finally, the scientists dispatched the birds in pairs to learn more about how they use their eyes when flocking, and noticed that the birds reined in their head movements when flying with a partner, ‘indicating that the flock-mate is a key visual cue that they need to pay attention to’, he says.
It seems that pigeons keenly observe their surroundings, especially when flying solo, and the team is eager to incorporate a tiny camera into the sensor to get a true bird’s-eye view of the world, with the hope of eventually taking a glimpse into the minds of other bird species.
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Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Bird Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products ten years in a row.
Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca
Pigeon/Pigeon Patrol / Pigeons Roosting / Vancouver Pigeon Control /Bird Spikes / Bird Control / Bird Deterrent / Pigeon Deterrent? Surrey Pigeon Control / Pest /Seagull deterrent / Vancouver Pigeon Blog / Birds Inside Home / Pigeons in the cities / Ice Pigeons/ What to do about pigeons/ sparrows , Damage by Sparrows, How To Keep Raccoons Away, Why Are Raccoons Considered Pests/ De-fence / Pigeon Nesting/ Bird Droppings / Pigeon Dropping/ woodpecker control/ Professional Bird Control Company/ Keep The Birds Away/ Birds/rats/ seagull/pigeon/woodpecker/ dove/sparrow/pidgeon control/pidgeon problem/ pidgeon control/flying rats/ pigeon Problems/ bird netting/bird gel/bird spray/bird nails/ bird guard
by Pigeon Patrol | Jun 14, 2021 | Bird Spikes, Columbidae, Doves, Pigeon Predators, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons, Pigeons in the News
Getting rid of pigeons on your own isn’t easy. These pest birds have an inbred homing instinct that makes them feel attached to their established roosting and nesting sites. Plus, mating pairs can hatch as many as four broods a year, so a small pigeon problem can quickly turn into a disaster. Pigeons will resort to laying eggs on bare surfaces if need be, so getting rid of pigeons isn’t as simple as removing their nests. Fortunately, Bird Barrier offers a number of high-quality pigeon control products that can effectively resolve any type of pigeon problem.
Problems Caused by Pigeons Sitting and Nesting
Pigeons are the most common type of pest bird in North America and they cause a variety of problems at all kinds of buildings, from airports to manufacturing facilities to power plants and the rooftops of stores, offices, and homes. Because pigeon droppings contain uric acid, which is highly corrosive, pigeons can cause a great deal of damage in a short amount of time. Feral pigeons are responsible for untold millions of dollars of damage each year in urban areas. Here are a few of the other most common pigeon roosting problems (and reasons why people need effective pigeon deterrents):
- Pigeons (and pigeon waste) can hurt the image of a business or commercial enterprise as they leave a bad impression
- Collected debris from roosting pigeon flocks can cause water damage by blocking up gutters and drains
- Roosting pigeons often cause extensive damage to air conditioning units and other rooftop machinery
- Droppings create hazardous surfaces that lead to slip and fall liability
- Bacteria, fungal agents, and ectoparasites found in pigeon droppings can pose a health risk.
Tell us about your pigeon problem and we’ll point you to the solutions you need.
Pigeon Control Solutions: Pigeon Spikes, Netting, Birth Control and More
Because pigeon prevention can be easier than pigeon removal, we at Bird Barrier always recommend proactive use of deterrent products that will cause these birds to roost elsewhere, so their homing instinct isn’t bringing them back to your property!
If you already have a flock of pigeons on your property, the first line of defense, as with all pest birds, is removing all sources of food and water from the site. However, you will need to take additional steps to control an established pigeon problem. Bird Barrier offers a number of solutions to deter and repel pigeons, from pigeon spikes to exclusion netting to birth control and beyond. With the right pigeon control products, you can solve any pigeon problem for good.
How to Select the Right Pigeon Deterrents For Any Situation
The most effective approaches to pigeon control and prevention include:
- Exclusion Netting
- Electric Shock
- Spikes, Optical Gel, Coil
- Pigeon Reproductive Control
- Audio, Visual, and Taste Deterrents
by Pigeon Patrol | Jun 7, 2021 | pet bird, Pigeon Control, Pigeon Droppings, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons, Pigeons in the News
Iron crystals in their beaks give birds a nose for north.
It’s official: homing pigeons really can sense Earth’s magnetic field. An investigation of their ability to detect different magnetic fields shows that their impressive navigation skills almost certainly relies on tiny magnetic particles in their beaks.
The discovery seems to settle the question of how pigeons (Columba livia) have such an impressive ‘nose for north’. Some experts had previously suggested that the birds rely on different odour cues in the atmosphere to work out where they are. But the latest findings suggest that they are using magnetic cues.
The idea that pigeons’ beaks contain tiny particles of an iron oxide called magnetite is not a new one, says Cordula Mora, who led the latest study at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. But the particles themselves are likely to be only a few micrometres across, and no one has ever seen them under the microscope.
Mora’s behavioural experiments therefore give the best indication yet that pigeons are aware of Earth’s magnetic field. She and her colleagues taught the pigeons to discriminate between magnetic fields by placing them in a wooden tunnel with a feeder platform at either end and coils of wire around the outside.
The pigeons were trained to go to one end of the tunnel if the coils were switched on, generating a magnetic field, and to the other if they were switched off, leaving Earth’s natural field unperturbed. “I was pleasantly surprised. The pigeons were very fast learners,” says Mora, now at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
Their skills were impaired, however, when the researchers attached magnets to their upper beaks, and also when the upper beak was anaesthetized. This suggests that their ability is down to the presence of magnetically sensitive material in this area, the researchers report in this week’s Nature1.
The team then set about seeing how these magnetic signals might be transmitted to the birds’ brains. When they severed the ophthalmic branch of the trigeminal nerve, which leads from the upper beak to the brain, the birds were unable to distinguish between natural and perturbed magnetic fields. But when the olfactory nerve, which carries smell signals, was cut instead, the birds performed fine, dealing a seemingly fatal blow to the idea that they navigate by relying on odours.
The results sit well with previous studies of another impressive navigator, the rainbow trout. The species both seem to have a system in which signals from magnetite particles are carried from the nose to the brain by the trigeminal nerve, says Mora. This is not surprising, she says, as iron-containing materials are common in many animals’ bodies.
So why has nobody seen the particles? Other researchers are looking for them, Mora says. But the problem is that even though we know where to look, they are elusive because of their small size and the fact that many other biological materials, such as blood, contain iron.
The particles are small because there’s no reason why they should be any larger, Mora adds. “You don’t need a large receptor structure like you do for the eye, because the magnetic field permeates everything,” she says. “It’s like a needle in a haystack.”
Source
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Bird Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products ten years in a row.
Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca
Pigeon/Pigeon Patrol / Pigeons Roosting / Vancouver Pigeon Control /Bird Spikes / Bird Control / Bird Deterrent / Pigeon Deterrent? Surrey Pigeon Control / Pest /Seagull deterrent / Vancouver Pigeon Blog / Birds Inside Home / Pigeons in the cities / Ice Pigeons/ What to do about pigeons/ sparrows , Damage by Sparrows, How To Keep Raccoons Away, Why Are Raccoons Considered Pests/ De-fence / Pigeon Nesting/ Bird Droppings / Pigeon Dropping/ woodpecker control/ Professional Bird Control Company/ Keep The Birds Away/ Birds/rats/ seagull/pigeon/woodpecker/ dove/sparrow/pidgeon control/pidgeon problem/ pidgeon control/flying rats/ pigeon Problems/ bird netting/bird gel/bird spray/bird nails/ bird guard
by Pigeon Patrol | Jun 7, 2021 | Bird Law, Bird Netting, Bird Spikes, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons, Pigeons in the News
Last September, as part of Twitter’s #PoweredByTweets exhibition at Somerset House in the UK, a proposal called ‘Pigeon Patrol’ was presented. The idea was this: armed with pollution monitors in tiny backpacks, pigeons would Tweet live pollution data from the skies of London.
It seems a little far-fetched – I mean, a pigeon can’t actually tweet, obviously – but the concept was one of the standouts of the competition. And now, ‘Pigeon Patrol’ is officially live, with a team of flying pollution monitors at work, tweeting back data from around the city.
“Over the course of three days, Plume Labs (@Plume_Labs) and DigitasLBi (@DigitasLBi_UK) will release ten pigeons wearing small pollution-monitoring backpacks. These lightweight pollution sensors, created by Plume, are stitched onto small fabric vests which fit comfortably on the pigeons and measure levels of nitrogen dioxide and ozone, the main gases behind harmful urban air pollution.”
The idea is one of the more interesting and innovative ways of using Twitter data, and it underlines the capacity of the platform as a real-time news and update service. Pigeon Patrol was one of several ideas to spark new conversations around how Twitter can be used for such purpose – others included Guys and St Thomas’ Hospital, which created a chemotherapy ward with Tweet-powered visualizations and WaterAid, which developed a water pump that Tweeted donors with live updates of where their money was going.
It’s in that capacity for real, immediate updates that Twitter holds such great value and potential. And it’s not just in terms of world events and breaking news – the more intimate and geographically targeted Twitter alerts and tracking can be the better. We’ve already seen examples of how tweets can be used to better predict earthquakes or map the path of destruction from hurricanes. Imagine if you could use tweets to get a better understanding of local traffic concerns as they happen, to track petrol prices or supermarket offers nearby? These are relatively basic, by comparison, but the underlying principle is that Twitter’s real-time stream is extremely valuable for such purpose – more so than the algorithm defined News Feed of Facebook.
The main requirement for such application, of course, is Twitter use – more people using the platform means more data, which, again, is why Twitter’s current growth issues flag a concern for the ongoing viability of the service. Right now, Twitter’s used by enough people to be an indicative measure of most large-scale events. But micro-trends – those smaller, localized alerts – would require higher concentrations of local users in order to be effective. There are examples of this type of process in action – in Spain, the town of Jun is effectively governed via tweet, for example – and as the next generation of digital natives grows up, Twitter use is likely to become more prominent. But the issue does underline, once again, why Twitter needs more people tweeting, and why ongoing growth is such a big focus for the platform.
For now, we’ll have to settle for pollution tracking pigeons, flying around London in teams of 10 and tweeting back updates.
Source
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Bird Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products ten years in a row.
Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca
Pigeon/Pigeon Patrol / Pigeons Roosting / Vancouver Pigeon Control /Bird Spikes / Bird Control / Bird Deterrent / Pigeon Deterrent? Surrey Pigeon Control / Pest /Seagull deterrent / Vancouver Pigeon Blog / Birds Inside Home / Pigeons in the cities / Ice Pigeons/ What to do about pigeons/ sparrows , Damage by Sparrows, How To Keep Raccoons Away, Why Are Raccoons Considered Pests/ De-fence / Pigeon Nesting/ Bird Droppings / Pigeon Dropping/ woodpecker control/ Professional Bird Control Company/ Keep The Birds Away/ Birds/rats/ seagull/pigeon/woodpecker/ dove/sparrow/pidgeon control/pidgeon problem/ pidgeon control/flying rats/ pigeon Problems/ bird netting/bird gel/bird spray/bird nails/ bird guard
by Pigeon Patrol | May 31, 2021 | Bird Netting, Bird Spikes, Columbidae, history of pigeons, MBCA, Pigeons, Pigeons in the News
CHICAGO – A pigeon apparently didn’t think much of a lawmaker’s ideas to address a messy situation at a Chicago Transit Authority stop known by some as “pigeon poop station.”
WBBM-TV reports that one of the birds did its business on the head of Democratic state Rep. Jaime Andrade as he was discussing the problem with a reporter outside of the Irving Park Blue Line station.
During the interview, Andrade rubbed the top of his head and said, “I think they just got me.” They did.
The sidewalks outside of the station are covered in bird waste and feathers.
Andrade has been trying to fix the problem. One of his ideas is to ask the CTA to install a hose line for power washing when it constructs new escalators at the stop.
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Bird Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products ten years in a row.
Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca
Pigeon/Pigeon Patrol / Pigeons Roosting / Vancouver Pigeon Control /Bird Spikes / Bird Control / Bird Deterrent / Pigeon Deterrent? Surrey Pigeon Control / Pest /Seagull deterrent / Vancouver Pigeon Blog / Birds Inside Home / Pigeons in the cities / Ice Pigeons/ What to do about pigeons/ sparrows , Damage by Sparrows, How To Keep Raccoons Away, Why Are Raccoons Considered Pests/ De-fence / Pigeon Nesting/ Bird Droppings / Pigeon Dropping/ woodpecker control/ Professional Bird Control Company/ Keep The Birds Away/ Birds/rats/ seagull/pigeon/woodpecker/ dove/sparrow/pidgeon control/pidgeon problem/ pidgeon control/flying rats/ pigeon Problems/ bird netting/bird gel/bird spray/bird nails/ bird guard
