Recording Pigeons – Good Old Tricks that still Work!

Last weekend, another sound guy and I set out to record the bells of the Basilique du Sacré-Coeur here in Paris. Once we were done, we thought we’d capture some pigeons, or at least the sound of them. Since they were all camping in the trees around, I decided to gather them all in one spot. Now, “how do you go about organizing a pigeon party?” I hear you say. Well, you have to know what pigeons want and give it to them, in one spot. I know what you’re thinking, but let me stop you right there : pigeons don’t like old ladies. No, they like old ladies with a bag of bread crumbs! We didn’t have an old lady, nor did we have bread crumbs, but this issue I rapidly fixed by walking into a bakery and asking them nicely for a few handfuls of it.

Later we discovered that these guys would sell old ladies to the devil if it could have them bread crumbs! What the heck, it makes for nice recordings after all!