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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)

#51

Post by wiml »

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".

In English there is also the name "rock dove" for pigeons (but I think technically rock doves are the wild ancestors of both white doves and city pigeons).

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

#52

Post by hypercube33 »

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.

Clearly you don't live near trains that carry grain. They leak corn all over and are basically a breeding ground for pigeons.

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

#54

Post by bigiain »

perihelions wrote: post #21
jijijijij wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can make friends with crows. They seem to really like peanuts and, if you offer them shell included, it's a somewhat selective package tailored to them (although great tits try, you may bribe them with sunflower seeds in selective feeders). I read reports of people sometimes receiving gifts from befriended crows in return, too, so it's possible to form complex relationships. Anyway, the downside is their beautifu…

Downside is they're intelligent adversaries who won't permit you an out, once they've classified you as a food source. Mine have surrounded my apartment and tap on the windows from every angle. There's no place to hide. I'm not even allowed to sleep in late.

Didn't Alfred Hitchcock make this movie?

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

#55

Post by card_zero »

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…

Correct! Keep it up and soon you will have baby pigeons, several times a year until you run out of names and emotional capacity to worry about them all. The babies are kind of terrifying-looking but they fledge in a month or so. Sometimes pigeons take baths together with their pigeon spouses and they wash each other by splashing, which is cute. A small pigeon nestling in your cupped hands in winter is marvellously warm. They are domesticated animals, of course, but when we all stopped putting their numerous babies into pies we stopped being friendly to them too, and now they're all feral. Is that a better deal for the pigeons? I doubt they worry about it either way.

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

#58

Post by goopypoop »

hermitcrab wrote: post #27
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…

Charles Darwin was a 'pigeon fancier' (not as dodgy as it sounds), so you are in good company.

Darwin ate pigeons, owls, tortoises etc.

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

#59

Post by Taek »

maxmunzel wrote: post #49

Hey, author here — thanks for posting it again! As of 2025 the pigeons are back and version 2 with aiming and a microphone array for target acquisition is still work-in-progress. I’m heading to bed now, but I’ll happily answer any questions tomorrow.

The introduction of GPT 4o probably gives you a much simpler path to identifying the location of pigeons right? Is that something you have looked into?

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

#60

Post by guest__user »

maxmunzel wrote: post #49

Hey, author here — thanks for posting it again! As of 2025 the pigeons are back and version 2 with aiming and a microphone array for target acquisition is still work-in-progress. I’m heading to bed now, but I’ll happily answer any questions tomorrow.

I am using a raspberry pi and a two axis turret with a pump and reservoir from a car windshield sprayer. right now it's just using differences in pixels to detect movement, by it it's keeping the balcony pigeon free! (a few false positives when a bumble bee flies too close to the camera though) I also have a yolo model version but haven't implemented it yet !
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