Birds & Pigeons near you

In England the two general licences that come up in domestic situations are GL41 and GL42, and both are valid for one year from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2026. GL41 permits an authorised person to act in relation to certain wild birds for the purpose of preserving public health or public safety, and the species it names are the Canada goose, the feral pigeon, the jackdaw and the monk parakeet. GL42 covers preventing serious damage to livestock, foodstuffs for livestock, crops, vegetables, fruit, fisheries or inland waters, and names a longer list including the carrion crow, jackdaw, magpie, rook, woodpigeon, feral pigeon, Canada goose, Egyptian goose and the monk and ring-necked parakeets, with different purposes attached to different species.

Two things surprise people. First, house sparrow and starling are not on GL41, so the assumption that all the birds that nest in a soffit are treated alike is simply wrong. Second, an authorised person under GL42 means the owner or occupier of the land, or someone authorised by them — so being a householder does not exclude you, but it does not put you outside the licence conditions either.

Those conditions have teeth. Under both licences, before lethal control of certain species you must make reasonable endeavours to achieve the purpose using alternative lawful methods not covered by the licence, unless doing so would be impractical, ineffective or disproportionate in the circumstances — with non-lethal options such as audio-visual deterrents, exclusion netting and habitat management named. Birds killed under a licence must be killed in a quick and humane manner. GL42 also carries protected-sites restrictions: action on a site of special scientific interest requires Natural England's prior consent, and additional disturbance restrictions apply to specified species within buffer zones around special protection areas. And all of this is England only — Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland issue their own general licences through NatureScot, Natural Resources Wales and the Northern Ireland authorities, with their own species lists and conditions.

The visible problem is fouling, but the expensive problems are usually water and blockage. Nesting material in a gutter, a hopper head or a flat roof outlet causes overflow that soaks a wall and eventually the structure behind it, and the damage typically appears some distance from the nest. A chimney flue blocked by a jackdaw's nest is a different order of hazard again where the flue is in use, because it obstructs the products of combustion.

Accumulated droppings are a maintenance and access problem as well as an unpleasant one. They make roofs, walkways, fire escapes and flat roofs slippery, they hold moisture against surfaces, and clearing them properly means protective equipment and controlled disposal rather than a brush and a hose. This is the main reason a proofing quotation often includes a clean-down as a separate, priced item.

There is also the recurring cost of doing nothing. Birds excluded from one ledge move to the next one, so partial proofing tends to produce a sequence of small jobs over several years. Surveying the whole elevation and dealing with it as one scheme is usually cheaper than a ledge at a time, and it avoids the situation where the only remaining perch is the one above the front door.

Bird proofing is priced on access far more than on materials. The variables are the height and reach of the areas involved, whether the work can be done from ladders or needs a tower, scaffold or rope access, the length of ledge and the area of opening to be covered, which system suits each surface, how much cleaning and disinfection is needed first, whether roof repairs are part of the scheme, whether the building is listed or in a conservation area and therefore constrained in what can be fixed to it, and what guarantee is being offered.

LokalMatch makes the introduction and leaves the rest to you and the contractor. Describe the building once with your postcode — where the birds are, what they are doing and how high it is — and firms covering your area get in touch. Homeowners pay nothing for this and the pros pay for the requests they receive. LokalMatch does not do the work, does not set prices and does not vet, rank or recommend anyone, so checking what each quotation covers, and that nobody is proposing action outside a current licence, is your part of it.