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This post was first written eleven years after we'd moved into our current house. We've now been here 20 years and I've perfected my method of keeping pigeons away from our pool ever since. The method I use now has been the best, most effective option for us. (Read through below and make sure not to miss my 2026 update towards the bottom. I'm still using pinwheels but in a whole new base!)
When we moved into our brand new house just outside of Phoenix, Arizona, we had our in-ground pool installed. We went big because we had three boys and they had friends and we wanted to enjoy the outdoors as much as we could.
The whole family spent most of every summer jumping in it, shooting basketballs at the hoop, playing volleyball and trying out various toys that float, shoot water, and travel underneath.
The one thing we haven't enjoyed? The messy disaster constantly left by the birds who stop by every few minutes to drink from the spillway between the hot tub and the pool itself.
I've been searching for how to keep pigeons away from our pool for YEARS - and FINALLY found a pretty solution that's cheap, quiet, and safe.
It took quite some time to get to this point, though. I'd try something, it wouldn't work, I'd try something else, it wouldn't work - and so on. In fact, I'd given up a couple of years ago and just become used to hosing off the patio surrounding the pool several times a week.
We did train our Chihuahua to run after the pigeons and bark to scare them off. He's not much of a barker but if you say "Go get the birds!" he's off and running and sharing his specific "get out of my yard" bark. That certainly wasn't 100% reliable as it only worked if the dog and an adult were on the patio.
Then new neighbors moved in behind us and hung a reflective owl from a chain attached to the peak of their roof. I work on my back patio most of the year (it's a pleasant at-home office - most of the time - I'll have to do a separate post on how I stay cool outside when temps reach 110+!).
I admired them giving it a shot but that owl hanging from the chain became annoying. It sounded like a loud, clinking, unpleasant wind chime. I began to detest that owl as it distracted me from my work whenever the slightest breeze blew. It did, though, seem to keep the pigeons away - for a bit.
Not too much later, we had a day with stronger winds and that owl blew up under the eaves, became stuck, and stopped doing its job as a pigeon deterrent.
It disappeared the next day and I can only assume the neighbors realized that was not going to work and probably also hated the clanging noise of the chain. Bye-bye owl.
Several people had suggested a plastic owl but, based on everything I'd read, most people see results like this person in the following video. It works a bit but either not for long or not 100%.
But the fact that the neighbor's owl was reflective got me thinking and I went back online to see why the reflective piece seemed so important. It seems that pigeons do not like things that are shiny and reflect sunlight.
I immediately whipped out a piece of tin foil and weighted it down with a rock across the spillway of the pool. Surprisingly, the pigeons would swoop in for water and then - like a plane that decides to divert their landing at the last minute - the bird would swoop up and away, never landing on the patio.
Unfortunately, a large chunk of tinfoil flailing about on the patio near the pool didn't seem a very attractive solution (and while I want the pigeons gone I wasn't ready to give up a nice looking patio!).
That led to some more research and a test of something surprisingly simple - and pretty! And SAFE!
I got some reflective kids' party pinwheels and some galvanized metal buckets that I thought were attractive enough for the patio. I put two pinwheels in each bucket and filled the bucket with rocks from the yard.
I wanted the two pinwheels to stay back-to-back but even with the rocks in place they shifted in the wind. I then taped the stems of the pinwheel wands together to hold them in place and that has done the trick.
The rocks keep the buckets weighted so they don't blow over in the wind - although hubby is waiting for the day a more severe wind comes along and dumps rocks and all right into the pool.
Either way - as long as the sun is shining on the pinwheels so they're reflective, the pigeons stay away. They still try - coming in for the swoop - but fly off without landing as soon as they catch a glimpse of the pinwheels.
In fact, they're not even landing on the neighbors' houses anymore which makes me think the only reason the neighbors had to worry about pigeon mess was our pool. I think I'll keep that little fact to myself....
What I particularly like about this effective method of keeping the birds away from our pool and patio is that it's such an attractive solution. I love the bright colors, the pinwheels move with even the slightest breeze, and they don't make any noise. No batteries to worry about, either, and it won't hurt the birds or our dog.
The one thing I'm going to try next, though, is to get a deep pot for planting succulents and put the pinwheels in the pots so I'll have an even prettier sight around the various edges of the patio and pool.
Supplies Needed
Set of Mylar Rainbow Pinwheels
Set of 3 Tapered French Style Galvanized Buckets
Small to medium sized rocks to weight the bucket
Tape to hold pinwheel wands together
Step by Step Instructions
This is so easy you don't really need instructions but here's what I did:1. Tape the wands of TWO pinwheels together so the pinwheels are back to back
2. Put 2 inches of rocks into the bottom of the metal buckets
3. Place the taped pinwheel wands into the bucket and hold them in place while you surround them with rocks
4. Place the bucket with the pinwheels near where the pigeons land most often
I did end up using all three of the metal buckets and I put one at each of the two spillways between the pool and the hot tub and one at the corner of the hot tub where it meets the pool.
The reviews of the buckets mentioned above said they were difficult to separate but I had no trouble at all - once I realized they were wrapped in a very thin, yet sturdy, plastic. I removed the plastic and had no issue separating the buckets. They're pretty and well made.
The pinwheels are GORGEOUS. They're a great size and the colors are rich and vibrant. They spin easily, the wands are sturdy, and the pinwheels catch the sun beautifully.
I'd love to do a whole row of these along the one edge of the pool just to have a field of these spinning color wheels to keep me entertained all day while I work.
If you're sick of cleaning up pigeon mess from your patio I encourage you to give this a try!
UPDATE October 7, 2026: This post was originally written in 2017 and I used the method described here for many years and it did a great job at keeping the birds away. BUT, in a strong wind - which we do get in Phoenix from time to time - my pinwheel containers would topple right into the pool.
As I was using rocks to keep them weighted I'd end up with the container, a bunch of rocks, and pinwheels that all needed to be pulled out of the pool and reassembled into my pigeon deterrents.
That got a little tiring. One day, I grabbed some new pinwheels, solar lights, colored glass beads, plastic cacti, resin seashells, and plastic punch bowls from Dollar Tree and then some cement mix from Home Depot. I already had some PVC on hand, too, from our various pool and drip system repairs we've made over the years.
This is my latest approach to putting the pinwheels by the pool:
Each bowl has 2 short pieces of PVC hot glued into the bottom. One is meant to hold the pinwheel. The other is the perfect size to hold the stake of a solar light.
I knew I wanted that approach because the pinwheels degrade over time and solar lights die out. I wanted to be able to replace either as needed.
Once the PVC was glued into place, I also placed an empty Cool Whip container in each bowl to take up some of the space so that I wouldn't have completely solid, unwieldy blocks of concrete that I couldn't move. You could do the same with any take-out food container you've saved or an old margarine container, etc.
I mixed the concrete and poured it into each punch bowl. I did have to keep an eye on the empty Cool Whip containers as they tended to want to float up but they eventually stayed in place.
While the concrete was still wet, I poured a mix of the colored glass onto the top of each bowl and pressed them into place so they were still visible but wouldn't come free. I then pressed some of the seashells and cactus plants into the top of each one, too.
I gave the concrete a full week to dry. Once a week had passed, I wrapped tin foil around the stem of a pinwheel and pressed it into one of the PVC openings and put a fresh solar light into the other.
I can't remember what size PVC I used but it was probably 1 inch. Whatever I used, the stem of those pathway solar lights you get at Dollar Tree or Walmart fit right into it and hold it in place perfectly. They've never blown out and neither have the pinwheels.
I have had to replace pinwheels and solar lights several times since moving to this concrete bowl approach and it's very easy. This completely fixed the issue of things falling into the pool as these have NEVER blown out of place at all. They're heavy enough to stay in place through anything and yet still light enough that I am able to move them when needed.
I've had lots of compliments on them and people asking how they were made so they could do the same. It did take me a few hours but was well worth the effort. These have held up for years now.
I initially intended to crack the plastic bowl off right away but I had used ones that were aqua blue and they looked so pretty by the dark blue pool tile that I left the plastic bowls on until our hot sun started to fade them. They pulled off easily at that point and now they're a smooth cement finish. They've held up through very strong rain and wind storms (even an haboob or two) and are still standing strong. I've never had a pinwheel or a solar light blow out of the PVC stakes.
Best of all, we've had absolutely no pigeons near the pool at all since using pinwheels. Smaller birds will still sometimes try to drink out of the pool but that's very rare these days, too.
Knowing that when we spontaneously decide to go jump in the pool that we're not going to first have to dodge or clean up any bird crap has made me love my pool all over again.
