Have they fixed the bird problem?

[hauntedmansion79]

When I was at Disney in 2001, the sea gulls were terrible!! You couldn't eat anywhere outside or you risked getting your food stolen. I actually saw a sea gull steal a hot dog right as a man was biting into it! The bird was all in his face!! So I was just wondering if it's improved, or if anyone else has experienced similar experiences?

 

[Chuck S]

I did not notice as many problem birds in december. I'm thinking the hurricanes may have temporarily solved that problem, but I expect there will be the same problems after the bird population has had a chance to rebound.

 

[risy]

Seagulls are nasty, viscious birds, as any Florida coastal resident is aware.
They are RATS with WINGS. Seagulls are like a plague.

The reason there's a problem is because PEOPLE FEED THEM!!!
This is especially troublesome in the MK area by the Turkey Leg stand.

For those of you who are less familiar with this bird, PLEASE DO NOT FEED THEM WHILE IN FLORIDA. This is not Venice. Warn others.

Getting down off of my enormous soap box now!
Risy

 

[Blueberry]

They were not bad in either September or December or maybe as you said the hurricanes affected the seagulls location....Very bad having them around, I am among the many who have been pooped on by them at WDW..

 

[Simba's Mom]

Fortunately, Disney seems to have wised up and many of the fish/bird feeding machines were covered up (you know, the ones where you put in a quarter and get a handful of food). But there were still people in Epcot feeding the birds popcorn. The bird problem did seem to be a little less last week, but, as the signs on the Boardwalk say, those birds are still rather aggessive.

 

[goofy4tink]

Last August we were in FrontierLand, right by the Turkey Leg stand and this poor man came out of a restaurant with a cardboard tray of food/drinks. Down swooped the gulls, his tray went flying!!! Very happy birds, not so happy man. A lot of poor little kids were terrified. But, you still see people feeding them around the parks!!!

And yes, another member of the bird pooped on club. My dh and dd knew all about the poop on my back but decided I couldn't do anything about it until it dried so didn't tell me for about an hour. Yuck!!!

A question for you Florida residents. What are those huge black birds? When we stayed at the CR they were all over the roof of the garden wing (north) on the lake side. Really big and nasty looking birds. Almost looked like vulures. Very scary.

 

[Brian Noble]

Well, you know that the jungle cruise skippers have their pistols back, right?


There's a reason.

 

[risy]

Thanks Brian for making me laugh!!!! :lol:

 

[Aquagirl]

Didn't see any seagulls in Sept., but I did see these big cranes. At Pecos Bill's there was this idiot family getting a kick out of feeding them Turkey legs. The birds kept eating them, even thought they were having diarrhea all over the tables. It was so GROSS!!! The family thought it was hilarious. We had to move our seats inside so we didn't totally lose our appetitites.

 

[rkmassa]

People were feeding te gulls at Cosmic Ray's in December. The gulls were happy, but you could tell some of the guests near those that were feeding them were not. It is just a bad idea to feed them.

 

[Aquagirl]

People don't understand that not all birds are omnivores. Some are vegetarians. It is not a good idea to feed them turkey and hotdogs. It can kinda mess up there system. I wouldn't want one flying over me.

 

[loriandmatt]

A question for you Florida residents. What are those huge black birds? When we stayed at the CR they were all over the roof of the garden wing (north) on the lake side. Really big and nasty looking birds. Almost looked like vulures. Very scary.

Well, i am not a florida resident, but since no one yet has replied to this one....on many of our visits to WDW (and several of our trips to FLA in general, when we have not visited WDW - gasp!!!! yes we actually do that) we noticed these birds and were told by our close friends (and florida natives) that they are in fact vultures. they sort of blended before, but now that we know what to look for, we spot them everywhere down there. On more than one trip thru KS at AK we have seen them. We even asked our "tour guide" and he told us (off mic) that yes, they are vultures, but no, they are not part of the disigned attractions of the safari. They just kind of show up and hang out in large quantities.

- lori

 

[DukeStreetKing]

A question for you Florida residents. What are those huge black birds? When we stayed at the CR they were all over the roof of the garden wing (north) on the lake side. Really big and nasty looking birds. Almost looked like vulures. Very scary.

They might have been turkey vultures.

 

[JRoglitz]

I just got back from Disney and there were definitely problems with the sea gulls. On our first day I went to get some muffins for everyone and bring them back to the room. I had a tray full of stuff and a sea gull landed on my head and stole one of the muffins. The whole muffin! I've never had that happen before. It scared me to death! We were staying at the Polynesian. Also, there were tons of them around the Splash Mountain area in Magic Kingdom. YUK! I watched my food very closely after that

 

[NMAmy]

They were terrible at Christmas time. DD is terrified of them and I can barely get her to walk through the World Showcase by Canada where all those vendors are.

 

[cmonroe]

Well, you know that the jungle cruise skippers have their pistols back, right?


There's a reason.

LOL. Not to get off topic. Aside from the joke, they didn't get their pistols back did they? It bothered my that they no longer had them on my last trip. Too PC for me.

Anyway as for the seagulls, they must have all moved from the CR to MK.
For years I have been staying with my family at CR. And each year we noted how many seagulls that were constantly around the building and up on top by the CG. This past trip in August, there wasn't one seagull. I was amazed as to what happened to them. I thought Disney deployed some kind of bird strategy. Sounds like the birds moved to the close-by MK instead.

 

[Ames]

Do you people have a different kind of seagull then they do in Wisconsin? lol I don't think I've ever seen a seagull at Disney unless those blackish brownish birds hovering near food areas is in fact a seagull.

 

[cmonroe]

Nah we're talking about the run-of-the-mill white ones.

 

[DianaPrincessofWales]

We had lunch at Pecos Bill's in Nov and sat towards the back by the doors. After we started lunch I thought maybe it wasn't a good idea to eat so close to the doors. There were birds there, not vultures or sea gulls (maybe black birds or grackles?)but they didn't come in. They just waited for us. We didn't feed them any leftovers but I'm surprised they didn't at least come in and sit on the trash cans and beg. I noticed at the french fry place by splash mountain people were being tormented for their fries. I would have kept walking with my snack. Those birds were being pretty pesky there.

 

[Ted and Holly]

The big ugly black birds are Black vultures. The little black ones that puff up when they steal your popcorn are Boat-tailed Grackles (males). The females are the same size but brownish.

I once saw a large group of Black vultures eating "something" on the side of the Osceola parkway near the AK entrance. Among them was a huge Bald eagle. Pretty neat.

The most common gull you will see are Herring gulls or Ring-billed gulls. You may see the larger Great Black backed gull, but those are more northern.

Ted