Feral pigeons: the law and the evidence

Last reviewed 23 August 2026. Sources linked inline. This page describes the legal position and the published evidence on population management. It does not take a position.

What the law permits

Feral pigeons (Columba livia) are wild birds under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Killing or taking them is an offence unless done under licence. In England the relevant general licence is GL41, issued by Natural England, valid 1 January to 31 December 2026.

The first of those is recent, and the date matters when reading cull records. The licence issued on 1 January 2024, which ran to 31 December 2025, applied Condition 1 to “feral pigeon or jackdaw” and required the user to be satisfied, before acting, that reasonable endeavours had been made to achieve the purpose by alternative lawful methods not covered by the licence — and to continue making them. The licence issued on 1 January 2026 narrowed the same condition to jackdaw alone. Natural England records the reissue as introducing “changes in structure and to wording of conditions and advice”. Compare the 2024 licence (archived) with the 2026 licence.

What the licence does require: under Condition 2, any bird killed must be killed “in a quick and humane manner”, defined as taking all reasonable precautions to ensure a single, swift action. The 2026 licence also defines “to kill” as including accidentally wounding a bird while attempting to kill it in accordance with the licence. Failure to comply may mean the licence cannot be relied on as a defence under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, where causing unnecessary suffering carries up to an unlimited fine and six months' custody. Natural England additionally recommends — but does not require — avoiding lethal control of adults during the breeding season to protect dependent young.

Permitted methods under GL41 include shooting with any firearm (including semi-automatics, shotguns and air guns), egg pricking and oiling, nest and egg destruction, killing or taking by hand, targeted falconry, and hand nets. Wales and Northern Ireland operate separate licences via Natural Resources Wales and DAERA.

The Transport for London figures

Freedom of Information data obtained by Manchester Pigeon Rehab and reported in August 2026 records approximately 123 organised shoots across London Underground stations and depots between March 2024 and March 2026, in which at least 655 pigeons were killed, 17 active nests were removed and at least seven dependent chicks were killed or removed. Shoots were carried out out-of-hours, typically between midnight and 5am. Job reports include an incident at Arnos Grove in which four shots were fired at one bird, and records of wounded birds that flew off and were not recovered. Some birds were shot after becoming trapped behind anti-bird netting. A separate cull of eight pigeons at Harrow-on-the-Hill in July 2024 prompted a local protest in August 2026.

Three things about the shape of that data. The disclosure covers 20 March 2024 to 26 March 2026, so all but the last three months of it fall under the licence whose Condition 1 did apply to feral pigeon. Manchester Pigeon Rehab says it obtained job reports for 90 of the 123 shoots, which makes the totals floors rather than counts. And it says the reports name the contracting chain as Transport for London to ABM for facilities management, and ABM to AGS One for bird control; it quotes the disclosed contract as requiring the supplier, where feasible, to eradicate all pests from the sites.

From mid-2025 the job reports also recorded shots fired. TfL has said this was to track potential property damage. Where that data exists, Manchester Pigeon Rehab counts 269 on-target shots against 220 birds killed. TfL, giving an example from Arnos Grove, said four shots hit a bird without producing an instant kill, which was why 20 shots were fired and 16 culled pigeons recorded.

Manchester Pigeon Rehab has reported its concerns to British Transport Police but has not alleged illegality. Its stated position is that it opposes lethal control and the removal of active nests, eggs and dependent young, and that TfL should move to habitat modification and non-lethal management.

TfL's response, given to several outlets: its approach is focused on prevention and the avoidance of animal cruelty is taken very seriously; where preventative measures are unsuccessful and an unsafe environment results, removal is undertaken as a last resort; humane bird dispatchers are used with the aim of making the process as swift as possible; it is exploring and trialling other approaches including laser deterrents, closing gaps in buildings and installing mesh; and it carries out spot checks on contractor job completion records.

What the published evidence says about managing numbers

Culling does not reduce populations

Giunchi and colleagues, reviewing the control literature in Feral Pigeons: Problems, Dynamics and Control Methods (2012), record that culling has no long-lasting effect on population size because losses are filled through compensatory natality and immigration, and that control mortality is often compensatory up to a threshold estimated at over 30% of the population per year. The same review reports that reducing the carrying capacity of the habitat has the more lasting effect.

Food supply is the controlling variable

Litter management, bin design and enforcement against street feeding are the highest-leverage interventions. The City of Lucerne reports that its Stadttauben Luzern project, running since 2001, has taken the population from around 7,000 birds in 2001 to about 2,500 today, and describes repeatedly reminding people not to feed pigeons as the project's most important measure, alongside two managed lofts.

Managed dovecotes with egg replacement

Birds are attracted to a supervised loft with clean nest sites and their eggs replaced with dummies. Tierpark Bern has managed the city's pigeons since 2011 and operates eight managed lofts, with controlled feeding, egg checks, microchipping and ringing, annual vaccination, and sterilisation of male birds.

Bern's published counts do not show a steady decline. The city runs an annual count and publishes the result: 683 (2015), 1,036 (2017), 707 (2018), 1,207 (2020), 1,440 (2021), 930 (2022), 849 (2023), 835 (2024) and 1,138 (2025). The figures are extrapolated, because not every bird can be sighted on the day. A managed-loft programme is not a one-way ratchet, and anyone citing Bern should cite the counts rather than a single headline figure.

Caveat: dovecotes work only where a large share of the flock breeds in them and uncontrolled feeding stops at the same time. Some of the literature is sceptical of dovecotes used in isolation, and egg removal alone can prompt re-laying.

Fertility control (nicarbazin)

Sold as Ovistop and reported as the only pigeon contraceptive authorised in Europe; treated maize is dispensed by automatic hopper feeders.

It is not available in the United Kingdom. No product containing nicarbazin appears on the Veterinary Medicines Directorate Product Information Database, which lists veterinary medicines authorised in Great Britain and Northern Ireland (checked 22 August 2026). The European programmes below describe a method that cannot currently be bought and used here.

Ixelles in Brussels has run automated nicarbazin feeders since 2021, at a reported €7,400 per installation per year including feed, maintenance and monitoring. The commune suspended the programme in 2025, saying it was following a recommendation from Brussels Environment; the association Les Plumes has since reported numbers rising again (BX1, July 2025). The method requires continuous operation.

Proofing and exclusion

Mesh, netting, anti-perch slopes and closing building gaps. Worth noting that netting carries its own welfare and liability burden: several of the TfL birds were shot because they had become trapped behind netting. Netting requires an inspection and maintenance regime to be safe.

Each method is set out for procurement — what it requires, what it costs to run and whether it can be bought in the UK — on the non-lethal alternatives page.

Send your own FOI request

No public body is required to report pigeon control carried out under GL41, so there is no national picture. The only way to build one is request by request. Adapt the text below for any council, transport authority, NHS trust, university or other public body.

Dear [Authority],

Freedom of Information Act 2000 — request for information

Please provide, for the period [1 January 2024] to [date of this request]:

1. The number of occasions on which lethal control of feral pigeons
   (Columba livia) was carried out on land or premises you own, operate
   or manage, whether by your own staff or by a contractor.
2. For each occasion: the date, the site, the method used, the number of
   birds killed, and the number of nests, eggs or dependent young
   removed or destroyed.
3. The name of any contractor engaged to carry out this work.
4. Copies of any job reports, completion records or contract
   specifications relating to that work.
5. Any written policy, risk assessment or standard operating procedure
   governing your use of general licence GL41.
6. The non-lethal measures considered or attempted before lethal control
   was used, and the reasons recorded for concluding they were not
   suitable.

I am content to receive this electronically. If any part of this request
is likely to exceed the cost limit, please advise which part and I will
narrow it accordingly.

Yours faithfully,
[Name]

Submitted responses can be added to the tracker. Send data, not opinions — the value of this dataset is that it is unarguable.