So how about :

No outside eating areas, including pool and snack bars
Having bird scarers go off every few seconds
Have waiting staff ready to pounce once diners have finished their plateful to remove them
Accept that there is a risk but it is statistically unlikely to have an effect on you and your party
Educating the birds

Unworkable/impossible/disappointed holidaymakers who want to eat out in all senses of the term!

what can be done about it? It's just one of those things I'm afraid. If you've got outdoor eating areas you are going to attract the birds.

It also doesn't help that these birds get fed regularly by... lets wait for it... holiday makers having their dinner!

Mark

I saw the programme on Thursday.
The hotel which had the 'bird problem' also had other problems according to the report.
Birds hopping on a table after crumbs - well you won't stop that anywhere, what they were concerned about was the birds that were 'feeding' in an area where the chef was working but didn't seem concerned to shoo them away?
Irene

I also saw the programme and it is a bit of a worry. Birds eating out of dishes of food inside the restaurants that holidaymakers are then going to eat from. A little bit different than the same type of birds we saw in Mexico eating from the plates on tables outside, that holidaymakers have left that was going to be binned!! If your buffet restaurant is open to the elements on all sides, how are you going to know whether they have been in your food that you are going to eat, if the restaurant staff are not vigilant and doing something about it. This comes from someone who loves all wildlife and must admit to feeding most things, not those birds now knowing the diseases they can spread.

I'm not going to pretend that I like birds and what annoys me is when you sit outside a café and the waiter brings those tit-bits/nibbles and you think to yourself, "nah, I'm not going to touch them because you don't know if they've been brought out before for another customer or who has had their hands on them"
And then you see a little sparrow begging for food, and you see someone on the next table throwing peanuts and crisps on the floor for this poor little sparrow, it's as though they are thinking " well, I don't want them, but I've paid for them, so I'll give this poor hungry sparrow some food" and then the next minute, half a dozen pigeons, sea gulls and vultures descend into the area.

Birds will keep coming back to the same place if there's a food supply, otherwise they will search elsewhere, this is why you should never start putting food out for birds and then suddenly stop because it can take a long time before the birds realise that there's no longer any food at what has been a regular source in the past, and it's considered cruel to do it during the winter months.
Me, I'd use a double barrel shotgun on the filthy things. (sorry bird lovers)

Campylobacter is the commonest cause of diarrhoea in Britain and it's found in the intestines of wild birds, on their claws, beaks and it's shed in their poo. Birds are known to spread diseases and where birds feed they defecate and contaminate food and water!
So, should we accept that they (hotels) can't follow hygiene rules and cover food up outside.? Would you find it acceptable to have flies and cockroaches crawling on food? No, and yet birds are just as filthy.

Here's the programme.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00t8s71/The_Secret_Tourist_Episode_1/

Me, I'd use a double barrel shotgun on the filthy things.

Not a bad solution, but I'd love to you how you plan to get that through airline security!!

As i work in a school , seeing the seagulls clearing the playground after playtimes and lunch hour , is amazing , watching the birds open packets, and getting the last out of that chocolate wrapper , walking past the school during holiday times its so different not a gull in sight , are they on their summer hols aswell.

I've seen a seagull rip open a Burger King ketchup sachet! Squirted all over it's head and then it flew round terrifying passers by!!

But going back to the Mexico question. You're in a warm country with less than adequate law enforcement and council services. What guarantee is there that the food wasn't full of bacteria and other nasties before the birds arrived????

Im not a big bird fan either. On holiday this year, one restaurant we used was inundated with sparrows flitting about whilst we were eating. It drove me to distraction. It didnt matter how many times we "shooed" them away, they kept coming back. It put us off so much, we didnt go back to that particular restaurant despite the food being lovely. I didnt think of the disease point of view, just how annoying it was, but I would certainly be very wary next time.

Im not a big bird fan either.

Me also.

Robby

Sanji -

and vultures descend into the area.

Bliddy hell Sanji...now that's worrying...where you been holidaying?

It seems if you want to eat outside, your going to get birds around. It's the bliddy cats I hate, flea ridden ferrols. I react really badly to flea bites and freak when they come congregate round your ankles under the table.

Oh, Sanji, how I agree with you. I have a terrible fear of cats rubbing against my ankles when eating out. I cannot believe how people can even lift them up, not knowing if they have fleas or not! My husband tells me not to make eye contact with them but they seem to know I don't like them and always come close up to me whereas he never gets bothered by them. What really turns my stomach is the thought that they might be walking across the work surfaces in the restaurants where food is being prepared. My only consolation is that if there are cats they will be keeping the mouse population down, and given the choice I'd rather a cat to a mouse. Sorry all you cat lovers!

digby - I agree with you. Hotels and restaurants have signs requesting guests not to feed the cats
as they are fed and looked after by them but still people buy tins of cat food or take food
from the dining rooms to feed them. They think they are being kind but they are being fed too much
so they probably wouldn't look twice or even get off of their sunbed(!) if a mouse scuttled by!
Also, it is very difficult for the staff as they need to do their job and shoo them away but that could
upset cat lovers so the hotels can't really win.
Birds, cats, mice and cockroaches are not my choice of holiday companions!

Feral cats don't bother me at all, I'm not saying that I like them rubbing up against my legs under the table and most ferals are frightened of humans, but at least they are there for a purpose to keep the numbers down of such things as cockroaches, rats and birds.! What purpose do pigeons have cooing and pooing around you, apart from being put into pigeon pie.?

A well fed fat cat won't go hunting for a rat if it can get a ham sandwich from some misguided people who think they are being kind feeding it food out of the restaurant because the following week it may get nothing from a hotel full of cat haters, and then it has to ‘polish up' and revert back to its hunting instincts. ...if you keep them lean, you keep them keen.!

Cazz"¦.I kid you not, there's some big birds of the feathered variety in the Costa del Sol and you don't have to go miles inland to see them.

Sanji

I don't dislike cats Sanji.......I really do react badly to flea bites...so try and keep well away. just in case