The most effective solution I found for pigeons (although I haven't built this so can't compare...) is feeding them at regular times. It doesn't even have to be a lot. They're smart enough to know I come out around 0830 to give them some seed, and then they fly away for the rest of the day because no more food is coming. Sometimes when new babies appear, it takes a couple of weeks for them to copy the pattern though.
The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem
61–70 of 107 posts
Re: The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem
#62Cool project! A simple solution that worked for my balcony and window sills was to leave a few cm of reflective tape [1] in some strategic places.
Re: The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem
#63I've been daydreaming about something like this for my squirrel problem. The damn things nearly leave me without nectarines unless I install a cumbersome, unsightly net over the tree.
You might like this: https://docs.vizycam.com/doku.php?id=wiki:birdfeeder_app
Re: The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem
#64You can just buy off the shelf a ordinary lawn sprinkler controlled by a motion sensor. Though maybe the total amount of water might be undesirable on a balcony. I found them quite effective at supplementing a fence to keep deer out of areas they shouldn't be in.
Any particular motion sensor? Low voltage?
The ones I use and have seen use PIR, and are battery powered. The batteries last a long time esp. if it isn't triggered often.
The biggest limitation I've found is that it takes a bit of soldering iron adventure if you want to have a remote disable switch. :)
Re: The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem
#65If you want the low-tech solution, here is a recipe that definitely resolved it for me: - One big spoon of cinnamon - One big spoon of chilli peppers - Half a bottle of cheap, cleaning vinegar Spray it in all the places that the pigeons want to land. I am doing that once a week and it is enough to keep them away. If you clean your whole balcony with it, you might be able to go through most of the spring - when I thin…
Another low tech solution: feed them occasionally on your balcony… birds are smart and they will not poo in their food plate. Cooked pasta works well, nothing will be left when they leave.
I was under the impression that birds have no sphincter so they can't control when they poop. Is this not true?
Re: The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem
#66Did something similar. My wife was upset about the flying rats defecating on her flower pots on the terrace. Those birds are stationary (generally) and slow so I managed to iterate a solution that (a) used a 3w green laser mounted on a webcam with servos and (b) later used a static laser with a mirror that was mounted on a set of servos. I used a stationary 4k webcam. I mapped the whole terrace so I didn't need to use stereoscopic vision. When a bird was detected (i sampled images at 1fps and built a custom model for pigeons, it was generally ok at avoiding other birds, but not perfect), i'd triagulate its position and light it up for 100ms. I used a similar contraption as the OP to cut the power. The pigeons would react by flying away, even when hit from behind or underneath. I used a series of experiments before settling on 3w. 1w was not enough.
It solved the problem for good. Its not a perfect solution, obviously: i had to implement a master override which stopped it when terrace doors were open, also it only fired at horizon or below since I didnt want to accidentally light up a plane (there is an airport 5km from where I live). We dont have kids, and rarelh entertain guests, so I didnt need to implement additional safety Measures. Lastly, it was running on a pretty beefy pc and was consuming around 60w constantly.
We fixed the problem for good by moving out. If i had to do it again, I'd try with water pistols, way safer than laser.
Re: The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’m curious, could you somehow make the background model adaptive by averaging a rolling window of camera frames to use as the background model in this?
This is pretty much what I’m doing. Except that I’m using an exponential moving average so I don’t have to mess with windowing.
Oh nice, I hadn’t thought of that.
Re: The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Another low tech solution: feed them occasionally on your balcony… birds are smart and they will not poo in their food plate. Cooked pasta works well, nothing will be left when they leave.
I was under the impression that birds have no sphincter so they can't control when they poop. Is this not true?
Wouldn't it then always slowly leak out rather than become one big glop?
Re: The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem
#69I hope that at least one person pauses to consider the pigeons' close relation to us on the family tree of life, the fact that they have feelings and personalities and can experience joy and pain.
Re: The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem
#70Did something similar. My wife was upset about the flying rats defecating on her flower pots on the terrace. Those birds are stationary (generally) and slow so I managed to iterate a solution that (a) used a 3w green laser mounted on a webcam with servos and (b) later used a static laser with a mirror that was mounted on a set of servos. I used a stationary 4k webcam. I mapped the whole terrace so I didn't need to us…
That’s an awesome setup. Curious how do you triangulate using the video from a camera.