Pigeon With Tangled Foot

Vojera

Hi all.

A pair of pigeons have decided to make my balcony their home. I'm not too impressed and I plan to deter them as best I can (they're sleeping in some disused plant pots) but that's a different story.

I noticed one of them today has come back with some string wound around her leg. It's distressing her quite a bit and I imagine if it doesn't come off she'll eventually lose the foot due to lack of circulation. I know people have quite negative views of pigeons and I'm not mad on them myself, but I wouldn't feel right about not trying to help her.

Any tips for capturing her? She naturally flies off when I go near her. Or would catching her make things worse? I'm hoping that a pair of tweezers and some nail clippers or scissors will be enough to free her foot. If I do manage to catch her, is there a best way of holding her so I don't damage her?

aonb

it would be better if you had someone to remove the string while you hold her.
If you can throw a towel over her to catch her, rather than trying to grab her.
Pick her out of the towel, holding her wings flat against her body in the crook of your arm. If you can, position her head under your arm/in your elbow, that will cause her to relax/calm down, while you hold her body against your side, with her wings held in place. Then get a.n.other to remove the string. Dont hold her upside down by the legs! Good luck!

Rancid

Very good advice, there.
Throwing a towel over her to catch her is probably the only way to catch her.
And she will definitely stop struggling if you can tuck her head under your arm or inside your jacket, the darkness will calm her.

Having unpicked thread and that awful plastic netting from the feet of a few pigeons, the best tools are a small scissors and a tweezers. Clip as many parts of the thread as you can, even clipping some bits twice, then it's easier to remove them with the tweezers, less pulling involved.
If it's only happened to her recently, it shouldn't have become embedded in the skin yet.
Good work on trying to help her.

Knine

Wait till she is all tucked up for the night in the flower pot. Much easier to catch them in the dark!

Vojera

Thanks for the advice Neither of the pair have come back this evening so hopefully she'll come back tomorrow and I can try to catch her. I have my towel at the ready!

MrWalsh

I used a large folded up fleecy blanket before to catch one and check her tag.

The blanket was very fluffy and when I threw it over her I was able to "gather" her into it and then just put the whole bundle under my arm while himself went in from the bottom to look for her feet. She was grand about it.