Ultraviolet lights do not deter songbirds at feeders

Habberfield, Michael; Clair, Colleen Cassady St.

doi:10.1007/s10336-015-1272-8

Cited by 6 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 54 publications

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“…Ultraviolet sensitivity is well documented in pigeons (Emmerton and Delius 1980;Vos Hzn et al 1994), although a repellent effect of UV light stimuli on birds has never been clearly shown (Habberfield and St Clair 2016). However, it has been shown that the efficacy of post ingestive anthraquinone-based repellents is enhanced if the food ingestion by birds occurs from feeders provided with UV light stimuli (Werner et al 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An experimental study on the effectiveness of a gel repellent on feral pigeons

et al. 2020

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The presence of feral pigeons ( Columba livia ) in anthropic environments often has a negative impact on human activities, public health and historic buildings. A number of different kind of dissuading devices, including gel repellents, are on the market. However, their efficacy has been rarely rigorously tested. We reported the effect of a recent multi-cue gel formulation (Bird Free®) on free living feral pigeons. In order to assess the efficacy of this product in discouraging the birds from occupying buildings, we conducted tests on both a night and a day roost. In addition, we performed a test on sites potentially suitable for nesting, in order to assess how pigeons reacted to the installation of the product just on the small area that can be occupied by a single nest. The tested product totally abolished the presence of feral pigeons at the night roost, and significantly reduced for at least one year their presence on the day roost area, compared to the control treatment. In addition, we observed that pigeons are discouraged from building their nests on sites treated with Bird Free® for at least three months. Our results indicate that Bird Free® is an effective method for reducing the location-specific impact of pigeons on buildings. The local effect of the product, strictly limited to the treated area, makes Bird Free® not suitable for large scale pigeon management programs aimed at reducing the carrying capacity of urban environment by lowering nest and roost sites availability.

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