Why do pigeons have manky feet?

Question

I've heard various tales about their poo being acidic and burning their toes off, getting them run over by trains or electrocuted on telegraph wires....

I'm not sure I believe any of them, but the fact remains that almost every pigeon I see has foot-damage -one I saw yesterday just had a stump where his foot used to be.....

I find this gross and fascinating at the same time!! Why does it happen?

Answer 1

There are five main reasons that most pigeons have awful feet, and I'm listing them in order of priority. Cause number one is the most common, two less common, and so on to 5, the least common:

1). Repellant poisons that damage foot tissue. In some cities where this isn't used, in fact, many pigeons have quite nice feet. In ones where it is used, the open sores it causes allow bacteria to get into the pigeon's skin, which leads to cause #2

2). Bacterial and viral infection transmitted mostly in droppings

3). Accident and/or subsequent infection

4). Parental overpreening of squabs -- very common in altrical (born dependent) chicks, this is where the parents preen helpless chicks overzealously and rip off nails, or even whole toes. Again, these wounds also open up the skin and allow bacterial and viral infection to enter.

5). Poor perching options. Even pet birds, like parrots, begin to have dry, scaly, cracked or bleeding feet when they only perch on wood or another dry surface.

Answer 2

Pigeons spend a lot of time around human environments, which means they have close encounters with litter that people drop. Pigeons often get their feet tangled in man-made fibres- string, cotton, fishing line (are just examples of the kind of thing that I have seen tangled up round pigeon feet). If they can't shake the stuff off immedietly, it often gets caught up on things, or the movement of the legs when the bird is walking causes the material to tighten around toes and feet. This stops the blood circulation in the areas that are tightly bound which causes a form of gangrene that results in loss of toes, or in some cases an entire foot. I've managed to catch a couple of pigeons with man-made materials wrapped around their feet. One had fishing line wrapped so tightly around its ankle region that it was cutting through the flesh, the line was also tangled around one of it's toes which had already turned black. I was able to remove the line with a lot of care, then I let the bird go. Whether this prevented it from loosing a foot I couldn't say, but I think the toe was already dead. Another pigeon had cotton tangled around both its feet. As a result the bird couldn't walk properly. The poor bird hunched in a corner of a bus station on one leg. It could bearly reach the floor with its other foot. Once it had been untangled, he took off and landed a few feet away- if pigeons can looked surprised, this one certainly did when it realised that it could walk again!

I'm not sure if all cases of pigeon foot problems are caused by our litter, but I know at least some of them are. I've seen lots of pigeons with things tangled round their feet, but they fly away as soon as a human gets too close, so it is often impossible to help many of them.

Answer 3

I know in Sheffield, some agencies put down a very toxic repellent on window ledges to stop pigeons gathering there and causing a health risk. This burns the birds' feet off. I am personally of the opinion that pigeons are right up there with rats but that's a cruel thing to do, isn't it?

Answer 4

Not only are their feet manky but pigeons in general are manky. They carry diseases and are just disgusting.

I have seen a few pigeons with funny feet - missing toes and stuff. They tend to hang around tube stations - especially an Notting Hill. Maybe they cut them on wire or they get caught.

Pretty nasty!!

Answer 5

It's partially as a result of some kind of "birth control" which was used some years ago and had horrible results rather like Thalidomide did to pregnant women. The other thing is that they're such stupid birds that they get their feet tangled up in bits of discarded string, wire and fishing line and that doesn't exactly improve their appearance either!
No - they can't get electrocuted because for that to happen they would need one foot on a live electrical conductor and the other on the ground (i.e. earthed) - and even THEY'RE not that clever/stupid !!!

Answer 6

Its some kind of disease or virus that makes pigeons feet like this. Nearly all pigeons have it apparently.

Answer 7

Hey I think I saw the same pigeon. I guess its just cos of where they walk, they get their feet cut, or run over and they fall off.

Oh and be careful asking about pigeons, you will have that mad pigeon lover person after you.

Answer 8

in wild bird its due to local authorities laying poison to kill them but if a strong dose isn't digested it kills tissue in the feet i think this poison is no longer used but pigeons can live on for years with in their blood and be past on to their young

Answer 9

I heard that it was some kind of virus or bacteria that attaks their feet and slowly eats away at them. Either that or they all have a long John Silver fetish.

Answer 10

It's a hard life living in the wild people, should be more kind to them.