Naughty Pigeons (eating all the food in the feeder)

Pigeon on the feeder for small birds

It all started when I found that the bird food was going down extremely fast all of a sudden in the last few days. I didn't understand right away, but yesterday I caught a pigeon landing on the feeder and holding on and putting its beak into the next feeding hole. The little sparrows even tried to shoo it off, and it did not care. Many more pigeons were there, trying to land on the railing of our balcony at the same time to get at the feeder. So I just took this picture quickly with my phone, hence the rather blurry quality.

Before that, I tried to prevent the perches from falling off onto the ground below with tape. Because every morning, I would find that at least one perch had fallen off again. You can remove them to clean the whole feeder out properly.

The pigeons were everywhere, waiting for me to go away, so they can get back to the feeder lol...

One was on the building right beside us, it's sitting on a steel beam that is part of a balcony.

Another one was just a floor higher at the same building, there was another one sitting on the steel beam for the balcony.

Then others sat higher up on the roof of another nearby building...

After a while, they did not even care that I was there and came down anyway. One was right back on the feeder, while others tried to get at it too. I counted about 7 pigeons on and right below our balcony. So I got the smaller feeder out and hung that one out, but the pigeons still managed to get onto it.

Then I brought the feeder in really close to our railing, but that did not prevent them from flying onto it either. I tried all kinds of things all afternoon yesterday, but to no avail. Instead, even more pigeons came...

I just knew some people are bound to complain about having a bunch of pigeons around. So I brought the feeder in and today, I put it into the bushes near our balcony. I tried to put it into the bush as far as possible, so that the pigeons can't fly into it.

Now I can only see it from our bedroom window. It's almost impossible to see in that picture though.

Here a bit zoomed in

I was worried the little birds would not find it, but they did! Within minutes they found it and now they've been feeding from it all day. So far no pigeons.

I don't even mind the pigeons, I even like them and find they are interesting birds. But people get upset about having too many around and the small birds get all their food eaten up.

Now, I will try to find a feeder or feeding station that I can put on our balcony that the pigeons can't feed from and that they can't destroy. That also includes the Crows that had destroyed one of my other feeders last winter. I hope I'll find something suitable soon.

Pigeons are Rascals lol! But it also goes to show how amazing nature is. The pigeons learned from the little birds how to get to the food and it probably took them quite a while to be able to hold on to it and feed at the same time. Their flying skills are awesome.

This is why this post is also my entry for the Amazing Nature Contest - July 2019 - #01 by @adalger

Wishing everyone and their cats a wonderful day!