A Noisy Solution To The Pigeon Poo Problem
A Sun-Telegraph Staff Report
SIDNEY - If you mention pigeons in this town, nearly everyone thinks of one location. For just more than a year, a large number of pigeons have called the corner of 10th Avenue and Illinois Street home.
Over this past week, if you’ve been shopping at any of those downtown businesses close to that corner, you may have noticed something out of the ordinary. You may have noticed there aren’t as many pigeons as there were - and it’s a little bit noisier.
That loud squawking sound is coming from a device recently installed to annoy the birds. 
“It’s made by a company called Bird-X, Inc.,” said Police Chief Larry Cox. “It’s set to cycle through pigeon distress calls and predator bird calls every four minutes. The sound is cycled through four speakers to drive away the pigeons.”
The device is a sonic/ultrasonic bird repellent that, while quite noisy, is harmless to the birds. It can be customized by selecting frequency, volume, direction and hours of operation. The speakers are separate from the device so they can be aimed directionally.
According to Cox, the sounds emitted from the device are capable of driving away pigeons in a large area and the city owns two of the noise-makers. Cox said the second one might be installed on the west side of town since they’ve seen a few more pigeons than usual in the area.
That could well be the case since the noisy bird repellent has done its job downtown. Cox said when it was installed, there was close to 150 pigeons on just a few buildings. Since the device was powered up, that number has drastically dropped though a few of the flying pests remain.
“There’s a few hardcore pigeons,” Cox said. “They’ve roosted there and have nests.”
He said once the pigeons are done protecting their young, they too will probably leave the area.
While there aren’t many families who live in the downtown area, there is one family that lives beside The Insurance Store where the device is installed.
“My wife has had a hard time getting to sleep at night,” said Klark Byrd, a downtown resident who is an employee of The Sun-Telegraph. “When it first started sounding off, I thought it sounded like a monkey. I thought it might have been sound effects for the haunted hotel.”
Byrd and his wife, Krystle, have lived in their downtown apartment for over a year. They moved in just before there was a pigeon problem downtown. Byrd said he remembers when the pigeons started coming.
“At first there was only one or two, but over the past year the numbers just kept increasing,” he said. “There were so many at one point in time, they actually had to cling to the stone of the wall for a place to sit.”
While the pigeons were pesky, it’s the mess they’ve created that’s helped drawn attention to the area. At a city council meeting earlier this year, the pigeon poo problem was discussed. At that time, it was decided to try trapping the pigeons. There are still many traps set up downtown, according to city officials. However, it hasn’t stopped the birds’ numbers from increasing nor is it a solution to the clean-up of their poo.
“We live on a second story and we can see above the signs and awnings of a few businesses. It’s not pretty,” Byrd said.
Once the bird repellent has done its job, there’s still the mess they’ve left behind. United Wildlife, a nation-wide animal control company, has a solution. According to the company’s web site, trappers will come in and set up traps to help catch any pigeons too stubborn to leave. It also will develop a pigeon-deterrent system such as the use of spikes to keep pigeons from returning.
United Wildlife also says it will take care of cleaning up the mess left by the pigeons. According to the company, dry pigeon poo can be the most dangerous waste left behind because it easily flakes off in the air and carries diseases. Many of United Wildlife services are covered by building insurance, it says.
The squawk-box project is experimental at this point, said City Manager Gary Person. The removal of the pigeons and their waste is a private matter for the business owners in the area, but the city is willing to help.
“It takes all of us to make it work,” Person said. “It’s becoming a health issue and a deterrent for people in the area.”
Person said the city is offering matching funds to help replace awnings not only to beautify downtown but also to make sure the pigeons have a harder time finding a place to roost.