Bird Control for HOAs, Apartments and Property Managers

Where do birds settle on multi-unit buildings?

The same few places on almost every property. Carport and breezeway framing gives pigeons an open rafter under a roof. Balconies stacked above one another put a sheltered corner over the neighbor's railing. Mail kiosks and clubhouse entries have small roofs with exposed beam ends. Shared roofs carry mechanical units, parapets and, more and more often, solar arrays with a sheltered gap beneath them.

Then there are the openings. Dryer and bathroom vent terminations repeat down every elevation, and one missing flap is enough for starlings or house sparrows. Our guides to birds in dryer and bathroom vents and pigeons under solar panels cover those two in detail.

Who is responsible, the association or the unit owner?

The governing documents decide, and they differ from one community to the next. In general terms, an association maintains common elements such as roofs, exterior walls, carports and clubhouses, and an owner maintains the unit. Balconies, patios and vents that serve a single unit often sit in a middle category that the declaration defines, sometimes as the owner's to keep clean and the association's to repair.

So read the declaration and any maintenance chart before assuming, and ask the association's attorney where the wording is unclear. This is not legal advice. What we can say from the field is that birds ignore the boundary. A pigeon roosting on a common roof fouls a private balcony, and a nest in one unit's vent stains the common siding below it. Whoever is responsible on paper, the fix has to be scoped for the whole elevation or the birds simply move one unit along.

For rental communities the question is simpler, since the owner controls the exterior, but the lease still matters for what tenants may keep or do on a balcony.

Can a community restrict bird feeding?

Feeding is the most common reason a manageable flock becomes an unmanageable one. The Internet Center for Wildlife Damage Management lists removing bird feeders and discouraging public feeding first among its measures for pigeons, and describes eliminating feeding, watering, roosting and nesting sites as important to long-term control.

There are public rules as well as private ones. The City of Missoula states that feeding wildlife is prohibited within city limits. Its page lists bird feeders that only birds and squirrels can reach as allowed, and feeders that bears, deer, raccoons, skunks and other wildlife can reach as prohibited, along with grain and other food that may attract wildlife. Montana's supplemental feeding statute exempts recreational bird feeding, unless a person who has been warned by the department keeps feeding in a way that attracts hoofed game, bears or wild turkeys.

Whether an association can go further and adopt its own feeding rule depends on its documents and its rule-making process. Where it can, a clear rule about scattering seed or bread on balconies and common ground is usually worth more than any device.

When can the work be scheduled around nesting?

This is where a board's calendar and the birds' calendar collide. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service states that it is illegal to destroy a nest that has eggs or chicks in it, or young still dependent on it, and that the usual requirement is to wait until the nest is inactive. It also says that destroying an empty nest is not itself prohibited, provided no birds or eggs are taken.

The Service gives the swallow breeding season as March through September, and the Montana Field Guide puts robin eggs statewide from mid-May into mid-August. For those birds, exclusion belongs in fall, winter or very early spring. Rock pigeons are on the Service's list of species the Migratory Bird Treaty Act does not apply to, and Penn State Extension notes pigeons can breed year-round, so pigeon work is not tied to a season in the same way.

The planning lesson is to approve bird work at the fall meeting, not in May when the complaints arrive. Our Montana bird nesting season calendar lays out the year, and which birds you can remove in Montana explains the rule.

What should a manager document?

Keep a dated log of complaints with the building and unit, photographs of each location before any work, the species identified and who identified it, and whether any nest was active on the day. Keep the contractor's scope and a set of photographs after installation. If a resident, a board member or an agency later asks why a nest was or was not removed, that file is the answer.

The same record makes the budget case. A year of cleaning invoices set beside a map of where the droppings keep returning shows a board exactly which three carports are the problem.

Is exclusion cheaper than repeated cleaning?

We do not publish prices, but the structure of the comparison is simple. Cleaning is an operating cost that recurs for as long as the roost exists. Exclusion is a one-time capital item with some maintenance, and once it is in, the cleaning line shrinks to almost nothing for that location. Associations that only ever fund the cleaning are choosing the recurring cost by default.

A sensible plan is phased. Rank the locations by complaints and by risk, such as droppings on stairs and walkways, then fund the worst elevations first and the rest over two or three budget years. Ask each bidder to price the locations separately so the phases can be compared.

Should maintenance staff clean up droppings themselves?

Light, fresh droppings on a railing are a routine wash-down. Heavy accumulations are different. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the fungus that causes histoplasmosis is typically found in soil and in bird or bat droppings in certain areas of the country, and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health lists disturbing large accumulations of bird or bat droppings among the work activities that carry risk.

That is why large cleanups should not be handed to a groundskeeper with a scraper and a leaf blower. Our bird dropping cleanup crews work wet, wear protective equipment and bag the waste. Anyone who feels unwell after a dusty cleanup should see a clinician and mention the exposure.

What a good scope of work looks like

It names the species, lists every location by building and elevation, states the method for each, such as netting and exclusion under carport framing or screening on vents, and says what happens if an active nest is found on the day. It also covers resident notice, access to balconies and parking, and color and fixing details so the result suits the building.

We start each property with a bird mitigation walk-through with the manager, and we are glad to present findings to a board. Further reading is in the Montana Bird Control Guide.

Call HJ Property Care & Tree Service at (406) 215-7319 or request a bird assessment and we will identify the species, the access points, and what will actually stop them.

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