More than a thousand pigeons “occupying” a house. The most iconic birds of Barcelona have taken over, like a post-apocalyptic panorama, the surroundings of Piquer street in the neighborhood of Poble-sec, where neighbors see how, for months and in the heat of an abandoned property, an increasingly large colony of pigeons has become strong and has begun to expand their nests in the area.
It is number 10 of Piquer street, a centenary building, owned by individuals with several properties in the city, has been abandoned for years. There, in addition to the pigeons (of which it is estimated that more than a thousand live in the building), a plague of rats and cockroaches has also flourished, which has exhausted the patience of neighbors and municipal authorities.
After years of neglect, the property was cleaned up last October by the property, following years of neighborhood complaints and fines from the city council totaling 8,000 euros. A net was also installed to prevent animals from accessing the vacant lot.
However, the neighbors now denounce in a report in El Periódico that the situation has not improved, but rather the opposite. The nests do not stop growing in the same property, or in the surroundings, and dead pigeons have been observed trapped in the net and others still manage to slip through cracks in the roof.
While the future of this area is a mystery, the truth is that it is not the only one in the city affected by the excess of birds. The Barcelona City Council estimates that the pigeon population in the city is five times what is recommended, with between 80,000 and 120,000 specimens according to the last census of 2017. The situation is worsened by the “superfeeders”, some 350 people who provide between 3 and 5 kilos of food daily to the pigeons, contributing to the overpopulation