This one keeps coming back to my balcony even though I keep shooing it away

[u/Chloe_Sunrise_27]

I live on the fourth floor of an apartment building near a busy street, and for the last three weeks the same pigeon has been showing up on my balcony railing almost every morning around 7am. I know it's the same one because it has a weird patch of white feathers on its left wing and one foot that looks slightly bent, maybe from an old injury.

At first I thought it was just passing through, but it's clearly picked my balcony as a regular stop. It doesn't seem scared of me at all, just kind of watches me through the glass door while I make coffee. I haven't been feeding it on purpose, though I did spill some rice out there once about a month ago so maybe that's what started this whole thing.

Part of me wants to just let it keep doing its thing since it's not bothering anyone, but my downstairs neighbor mentioned pigeon droppings building up on her window ledge and I'm worried this is going to become a bigger mess if it starts thinking my balcony is home base. Anyone dealt with a single bird getting attached to one spot like this? I don't want to be cruel about discouraging it but I also don't want to end up with a permanent pigeon roommate and all that comes with it.

The bent foot thing does make me feel for it a little though. It gets around fine, just has a slight limp when it walks along the railing. Makes me wonder if that's part of why it picked my spot, maybe easier for it to land here than somewhere higher traffic.

[u/Life-Breadfruit-1426]

Emergency advice? lol.

Girl, it’s one pigeon. No one can reasonably complain about one pigeon. Typically that’s when a whole flock is roosting regularly. Like tell your neighbor to get real, birds are part of life in the outdoors, and if they can’t handle one spot of some droppings, maybe they don’t have what it takes to have a balcony.

Also if you stop putting rice out, eventually the pigeon will move on. Just give it some time, not like the bird is there all day, not like it brought friends, not like it created a nest on your balcony.