Pigeons Impervious to Plastic Predators : Even Birdbrains Fail to Fall for Phony Owls

Pigeons aren’t the wisest things on wings. But they are smart enough not to give a hoot about scarecrows.

Not even about two-foot plastic owls that are permanently perched on building rooftops across the San Fernando Valley to scare them off.

Businessmen hoping to avoid pigeon droppings on sidewalks and on customers’ heads have installed more than a dozen fake owls atop Valley office buildings and shops in the past year.

Real owls are natural enemies of pigeons. The phony owls stand unblinkingly at attention, seemingly ready to swoop down at a moment’s notice to pluck a pigeon dinner.

Owl decoys have been used for years to protect buildings in New York City and other Eastern cities. They are also common at yacht clubs and ocean piers where gulls are a problem.

But Valley pigeons are apparently too laid back to fall for the trick.

Foes Become Friends

“I think they’ve become friends with the owls,” said Stuart Berman, co-owner of a four-story office building on Van Nuys Boulevard in Sherman Oaks that is topped by a fierce-looking artificial horned owl.

“It worked very well for about three months. There was a substantial drop-off in . . . well, pigeons,” Berman said. “But now, the pigeons are back.”

Pigeons have also moved in with owls above Ben Karbelnig’s mortgage company office in Studio City.

Karbelnig nailed nine of the hollow owls along the parapet of his two-story Ventura Boulevard building after pigeons began wrecking the building’s trendy-looking storefront awning.

“They were making a mess all over the place. Their droppings were starting to eat up the paint,” he said. “I bought the owls for $12.50 each from a mail-order place.

“I was apprehensive at first. I didn’t want the neighbors suing me if the pigeons went someplace else to nest.”

That fear was unfounded. The pigeons didn’t go far--and they didn’t stay long.

“The funny thing is when you look up now and see pigeons land on top of the owls,” said Chris Knight, whose Studio City recording studio roof is “protected” by some of the owls. “The owls don’t bother anybody. They don’t eat much.”

Brenda Scott-Hargrove, who owns a boutique in the owl-covered building, said the pigeons digest plenty, however. “The pigeons are a problem. I don’t think the owls are working,” she said.

Ron Sorrentino, a clerk at a clothing store down the street from the owls, said the hollow replicas look phony to him--and probably look the same to pigeons.

“Maybe they should put owl scent on them,” Sorrentino said.

The scents idea makes sense, according to one expert.

“We sometimes put out pigeon repellent,” said Lt. Robert Pena, a senior Los Angeles city animal control officer for the East Valley. “We work with the county Department of Agriculture. The repellent disorients the pigeons. They associate a bad feeling with it and they move on to someplace else.”

It is illegal to poison or shoot pigeons in the city, Pena said. “We receive complaints about dead pigeons, but poisoning is a difficult thing to prove unless someone sees it done.” The city does not perform autopsies on dead pigeons, he said.

“Owls will probably scare off pigeons for a while,” Pena said.

“But, even though pigeons are not all that bright, they know that a fake owl isn’t going to harm them.”