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The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem (2022)

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Re: The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem (2022)

#41

Post by yapyap »

yegle wrote: post #38
Mikhail_Edoshin wrote: post #23

We have a pigeon on our balcony. We picked him when he was only a week old and now he lives with us. Our balcony is isolated from the street, so every morning we open a window there so Theodor (his name; although we're not sure, maybe he is she), so Theodor can go out and fly. In the evening he returns; sometimes he gets stuck somewhere due to rain (they do not fly in the rain) until dark (they do not fly in the dark…

> Pigeons are very pleasant to touch. The feathers have a silky feeling and they are warm, warmer than people. My first language is not English, so I learned this late: pigeons are perceived as dirty birds due to its presence in urban environments, but they are the same species of doves which is perceived as clean. In my first language they are just called "pigeon" and "white pigeon".

Huh, I wonder if this is an universal thing because over here in western europe i dont mind pigeons just flying around

Re: The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem (2022)

#42

Post by assemblyman »

As an aside, pigeons are deeply misunderstood. Here's a very nice article about it: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240620-why-do-people-pe...

From the article: "One study found that, between 1941 and 2004, there were just 207 reports of pathogens transmitted from pigeons to humans – anywhere in the world. In all, there were 13 recorded deaths. The true number may be higher, but it would have to be off by several orders of magnitude to compete with the scale of infections from other domesticated animals – particularly some of those with more favourable reputations."

I occasionally (2x per week per location) feed a group of pigeons both in my apartment building's garage as well as my grocery store's open parking lot. They love sunflower seed kernels (unsalted since salt can be really bad for them) which has led to me hoarding sunflower seeds every time I go food shopping. They now recognize my car and swoop in as soon as I drive up to a parking spot (which is not consistent at the grocery store). Hopefully, one day I'll convince myself to stop/slow working and dedicate my free time to studying animal communication and behavior with some ML involved.

Re: The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem (2022)

#43

Post by RealityVoid »

assemblyman wrote: post #42

As an aside, pigeons are deeply misunderstood. Here's a very nice article about it: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240620-why-do-people-pe... From the article: "One study found that, between 1941 and 2004, there were just 207 reports of pathogens transmitted from pigeons to humans – anywhere in the world. In all, there were 13 recorded deaths. The true number may be higher, but it would have to be off by severa…

Noble outlook, probably nicer animals than we give them credit, but it's a bit harder to be charitable when they are shitting all over your balcony.

Re: The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem (2022)

#44

Post by mzhaase »

assemblyman wrote: post #42

As an aside, pigeons are deeply misunderstood. Here's a very nice article about it: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240620-why-do-people-pe... From the article: "One study found that, between 1941 and 2004, there were just 207 reports of pathogens transmitted from pigeons to humans – anywhere in the world. In all, there were 13 recorded deaths. The true number may be higher, but it would have to be off by severa…

Please don't feed them. They destroy balcony plants and shit everywhere.

Re: The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem (2022)

#45

Post by vjerancrnjak »

ho_schi wrote: post #40

Solution: Cut food supply through humans trash. Don’t allow people to drop food on the ground in city center or elsewhere. And make life for some natural predators comfortable, like crows. When I first saw how two crows shared a pigeon I was impressed.

Let’s solve the problem with ingenuity, not brutality.

Brutality is lazy. Dealing with animal overpopulation by introducing carnage. I know nature is indifferent but Homo sapiens should not be.

Re: The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem (2022)

#47

Post by skopje »

vivzkestrel wrote: post #37
cyb0rg0 wrote: post #2

TL;DR: I built a wifi-equipped water gun to shoot the pigeons on my balcony, controlled over the internet by a python script running openCV reading the camera image of my old iPhone.

mind sharing a video or a blog post that explains how it was made

i think that was a summary of the article, which you can click on! haha!

Re: The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem (2022)

#48

Post by righthand »

assemblyman wrote: post #42

As an aside, pigeons are deeply misunderstood. Here's a very nice article about it: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240620-why-do-people-pe... From the article: "One study found that, between 1941 and 2004, there were just 207 reports of pathogens transmitted from pigeons to humans – anywhere in the world. In all, there were 13 recorded deaths. The true number may be higher, but it would have to be off by severa…

Feeding pigeons is a bad thing. For one the pigeons are not starving and you are over feeding them. The other issue is that you are training them to depend up humans for food. You are also aiding in creating unnaturally large pigeon populations since they are overfed.

Many places it is illegal to feed the birds. Media has created this stupid meme where people think it’s a hobby to over feed birds in cities.

Re: The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem (2022)

#50

Post by bikeshaving »

It’s funny when engineers accidentally create/recreate weapons of war to scratch an itch. Like when Mark Rober et al tried to do an egg drop from space only to realize they were essentially creating precision-guided missiles.

https://youtu.be/BYVZh5kqaFg?si=Ml6e24BO9iiUL6d6&t=650

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