[secondcoming]

The only thing that seemed to work for me was putting a thread across the railing where they used to land. I glued some cheap hooks to the wall either side of the railing and ran a thread over and back.

I’m not sure why it worked. They either can see the thread and get put off, or they don’t see it and freak out when they land on it. I’ve tried both black and white thread and both seem effective. It did snap once probably due to a pigeon being caught out but that’s not a problem.

It doesn’t getin my way either as the thread is loose enough for me to rest my arm on the handrail without it breaking.

My balcony has been crap free for about a year now and it cost like £2 to do.

[em500]

I did pretty much the same thing, after I observed that they'd always land on the railing first before hopping into the balcony. A thread worked very well as a deterrent. I guess they're just picking someone else's balcony now.