Apartment owners frustrated by pigeons living on balconies

Some Saskatchewan apartment buildings have been housing unwelcome guests.

Pigeons have been making their homes on apartment balconies and roofs.

Jill Corrin lives in a Saskatoon apartment, and was shocked to find a nest while cleaning up her balcony for the summer.

“All of a sudden I look down and there were two little babies nesting in the tarp,” said Corrin.

When she called the wildlife federation, she was told the pigeons would fly away within a week and a half when they were old enough. However, once they did, a new set of baby pigeons soon appeared.

Corrin said she tried different tactics for getting rid of them, such as spraying them with water and letting her dogs near them, but nothing was working.

The mess left behind on Jill Corrin’s balcony by pigeons. (Jill Corrin/Submitted)

“Gardening season had just started and I was trying to plant my garden and the pigeons kept plucking the little baby sprouts,” said Corrin. “It really delayed my gardening season.”

They also created a mess on Corrin’s balcony, leaving the floor covered with twigs and pigeon poop.

The baby birds were removed, but other pigeons will occasionally still stop by the balcony. She said her building’s roof is also covered in pigeons.

This issue is extremely common in Saskatchewan.

“They’re incredibly persistent birds,” said Shawn Sherwood, a manager for Poulin’s Pest Control.

“Once the female has decided where she wants to build the nest, she will continue trying to build it in there in spite of efforts to try to clean up the mess they make, until you take exclusionary efforts to get them out of there.”

Sherwood says his team gets rid of pigeons by putting up mesh fencing over the balcony openings the pigeons are using to get in. Eventually they’re forced to find somewhere else to go.

Sherwood says that limits people’s access to their balconies, but it’s worth it.

“It can be inconvenient but we don’t see it as being more inconvenient than the mess a bunch of pigeons make,” he said.

According to Sherwood, pigeons will continue to hatch eggs constantly. Once they find a spot they like, they will try everything in their power to stay where they feel the most comfortable.

There are no pigeon bylaws in the province, said Sherwood, so people can get rid of the birds in any way they want. But he encourages getting the help of a pest control professional.