Vienna installs first mobile pigeon loft

Vienna has installed the city’s first mobile pigeon loft near Ottakring station, ORF reported. The Wild Animal Service placed the structure between the underground and suburban railway lines to reduce the pigeon population around Ottakringer Markt and Koppstrasse.

The standalone loft covers about nine square metres and can accommodate around 150 pigeons. Staff from the Wild Animal Service will replace the birds’ eggs with artificial eggs as part of a controlled birth-control programme, service director Günther Annerl told the ORF programme Wien heute.

Vienna already operates three permanent pigeon lofts in the city’s second, fourth and 12th districts. The approach has prevented offspring elsewhere. Opposite the city’s main railway station, staff have already removed about 1,500 unincubated eggs.

Occasionally, the pigeons are allowed to hatch eggs so they continue to use the loft as a breeding location rather than seek another place. The city said it had observed pigeons flying across the railway tracks at Ottakring and returning before installing the new loft.

Metal panels beneath the side openings are intended to keep martens from climbing into the structure. The city also plans to have the mobile loft artistically designed so it can be recognised as a work of art in public spaces. It has not yet decided who will create the design and is looking for additional possible locations.