Why Don't I See Pigeon Babies?

Pigeon babies, also known as squabs, are out there. Just because you aren't seeing them doesn't mean they don't exist. It does mean, however, that the parents have done a pretty good job of keeping that nest hidden from sight, thus making the path of survival stronger for their young.

Fact: Pigeons breed all year.

Although peak breeding seasons are in spring and summer, when food is plentiful and the weather is nice, pigeons will actually have multiple ‘litters' of squabs each year. They are usually monogamous birds, meaning that they will have the same breeding partner for life (unless one of them dies), and both males and females can start the reproduction process at quite an early age — only around six to seven months of age.

A female will give birth to one to four eggs, although there are usually only two, and they will hatch around fifteen to twenty days after they have been laid. The squabs are pretty helpless at first, but it doesn't take them long to learn the ropes. In less than a month, the majority of those squabs will have flown the nest, although they do tend to stay there for a bit longer during the colder, winter months, slightly more reliant on their parents for food and protection, as well as warmth. During winter, it is not unusual for a squab to stay with its parents for up to two or three months.

So, where are these pigeon babies?

Most of them are hidden away, in nests. Pigeons build these nests and roosts in spaces that would mimic their natural, wild territory. Cliffs, clifftops, and cliff edges and ledges have been replaced by church steeples, windowsills, TV aerials, the high beams inside factories and warehouses, on the roof, and even in the attic.

How can you find them? Watch where the pigeons are flying in and out of, or the direction that they seem to head at dusk. This is when the flock will return to the roost for the night, and you can use this sunset alarm call (as such) to help you figure out where they are going.

There are other signs; feces is a big giveaway. If you can see trails of feces leading to a particular area of your building, or you notice that feces is littering the walls, you might have just found yourself a nest location. If you can combine that with the direction the birds are travelling at sunset, your theory will be reinforced.

It is very common for females to lay a second round of eggs before her first lot of squabs have flown free to start life as an adult pigeon, which means a pigeon infestation will almost always come with viable eggs or babies in a nest, making life more difficult if you're trying to remove them. If you try to cull any of that flock, just like rodents the pigeons will simply increase the speed at which they breed, not taking very long at all to build those numbers right back up. In some ways, pigeons and rats are very much similar pests, and it is quite common for one of the pests to attract the other. Rats are attracted to the roosting spots because of dead pigeon carcasses and young squabs that didn't make it, and also from the food leftovers that pigeons leave around. They're voracious eaters, but they're not tidy eaters.