Five pigeons might have been poisoned to death in Fort Lauderdale, and wildlife officials are concerned more will die soon.
The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission office in Miami plans to investigate, but the culprit likely could be a legal means of pigeon control.
A product called Avitrol, which has been banned in New York City, could be to blame, said Diane Watchinski, director of development at the Wildlife Care Center in Fort Lauderdale.
The bird poison, which some shopping center and restaurant owners place on roofs and elsewhere to get rid of pigeons, causes the birds to have seizures and die.
Since Saturday, five dead or dying pigeons have been found along Fort Lauderdale beach, near Sunrise and Las Olas boulevards, Watchinski said.
“Someone in the area has probably dispensed Avitrol for pigeon control,” she said. “It’s legal if you have a permit [from the Commission]. We can expect to see more [pigeon deaths] in the coming days.”
A half dozen times a year, the center sees pigeons who have ingested the poison, which is placed on kernels of corn.
An operator in Oklahoma who fields Avitrol questions declined to comment.
According to the Avitrol Web site, the idea behind Avitrol is to frighten a flock because the pigeons that eat it emit loud distress noises. While the poison is toxic to birds that ingest it, death is “rare” for other animals that come into contact with the birds, according to the Web site for the national company Critter Control.
“It is possible that if an animal were to eat undigested bait from a bird’s digestive tract that it might be affected,” according to the Avitrol Web site.
The site further says that Avitrol “is toxic to all vertebrate species that eat the chemical,” but says it has never seen that occur in field tests.
New York City banned the use of Avitrol after it was suspected in the deaths of other animals, such as red-tailed hawks that feed on pigeons.
Such deaths of other animals or humans, though, is unlikely unless they ingest large amounts of affected birds, said Ralph Rizo, a poison specialist with the Florida Poison Information Center in Miami. The substance comes in several forms, but its active ingredient, 4-aminopyridine, can be toxic to humans if ingested.
On Sunday, Fort Lauderdale resident Audrey Edwards said she was sitting on the beach wall near Las Olas Boulevard when her husband noticed a pigeon across the street “looking stunned.”
“His little body was shaking,” she said.
She said she picked up the bird and after a while, released it. The bird flew around but then began shaking again, so she brought it to the Wildlife Care Center, she said.
Watchinski said she sees 35 to 50 such cases each year.
“Most of the birds just go off and die so nobody finds them,” she said. “There are a lot of alternatives that can be used where no birds have to die.”
Those include placing fake owls with bobbing heads near the pigeons or playing recordings of pigeons’ predators, she said.
“Why kill them? They’re just trying to find a place to roost and have babies,” Watchinski said.
Jodie Needle can be reached at or 954-385-7908.
