I found this Rock pigeon in the garden of the Belvedere Palace in Vienna while taking an office break. My former office was next to the Palace and was just about a few meters away. I used to go with my officemate and sit awhile in the garden of the Palace to eat our sandwiches. The pigeons were always present there particularly when flocks of tourists came by to visit the palace. They expect that tourists will have food rest and so the birds were just standing by on the sides, waiting , waiting, waiting.
These rock pigeons are very dependent on humans, they eat leftovers they could find everywhere. They are "city dwellers" that´s why they are also called city pigeons. In the city of Vienna, all old buildings that are historical are being protected by wires and screens since these birds create a lot of dirt that are very hard to get rid of. They live on ledges of buildings sometimes so high up that cleaning is unmanageable.
Their droppings could cause corosions to surfaces particularly to metal because the droppings contains a very high percentage of uric acid. They can destroy insulations, block pipes and most of all they are health hazards. More and more methods are being implemented using screen, wires, spike, slides to keep pigeons away. Although humans should not feed these birds, some still do. These pigeons are tamed and they even get so close to people because they are just used to being getting food from humans. So they come near you and would beg for food by using eye contact, lol.
This is my entry in this weeks theme of Feathered Friends Birds on the Grass (Nr. 64) as sponsored by @melinda010100 and moderated by @nelinoeva. Thanks to the Community Team for initiating such fun challenge.
