Pigeon Green Poop: Not Eating or Ill? Causes and What to Do

Green pigeon poop most often means the bird hasn’t been eating, so its droppings are mostly bile. It can also be a sign of illness, such as paramyxovirus, chlamydiosis, paratyphoid (salmonella) or liver disease, so a pigeon with green droppings that is fluffed up, not eating or losing weight needs an avian vet. For other colours, see our pigeon droppings guide and pigeon yellow poop.

Please note: this article is general information and is not a substitute for advice from an avian vet or a licensed wildlife rehabilitator. If you have found an injured or sick bird, contact a vet or your local rescue (see our list of pigeon-friendly rescue centres).

Possible Causes for Green Pigeon Poop

There’s no way of knowing the specific reason why this is a symptom that your birds are showing unless you consult an avian veterinarian or a person specialized in pigeon pathology.

Therefore, the best piece of advice that we have for you is to collect some of the feces and send it out to the lab or at least give your vet a call so that they can instruct you.

Green poop in a pigeon that hasn’t eaten

When a pigeon stops eating, there is no food left to colour its droppings brown, and what comes out is mostly bile, which is green. These “starvation droppings” are small, watery and bright or dark green, as the Australian Pigeon Company (opens in new tab) describes. You often see them in a rescued pigeon that has been grounded for a day or two. Once it eats again, the droppings usually turn back to brown with a white cap within a day or so.

Don’t force food or water into a weak pigeon’s beak. Palomacy (opens in new tab), a US pigeon rescue, advises warming the bird first and offering water before food.

1. Chlamydiosis

Avian chlamydiosis is one of the most common diseases that can affect pigeons.

It is also quite common in other species, such as pet birds like budgies, cockatiels, or lorikeets.

The infection can also pass to people, where it is called psittacosis, and it is a serious risk for the entire pigeon population.

It can quickly be passed on from one bird to the next, and in no time, all of your pigeons might have developed worrying clinical signs or might become asymptomatic carriers that can infect other members of their flock.

Since chlamydiosis is a bacterial disease, it can be treated with antibiotics.

However, the vet needs to perform a bacterial smear analysis and an antibiogram to find out just what medications your birds might respond to.

The reason green poop is a classic symptom of this condition is that the bacterium affects a variety of your pigeons’ internal organs, specifically the liver.

And when the liver is affected, it is the bile it produces that most influences the color of your birds’ droppings.

When the liver and bile flow do not function properly, there could be a variety of color changes you might notice in your pigeons’ poop.

2. Colibacillosis

This is merely a fancy name for an Escherichia coli infection.

While E. coli infections (opens in new tab) don’t necessarily cause green poop, it can still be a sign of this disease if the birds’ liver or bile flow suffers any amount of damage whatsoever.

Besides hepatic failure, this disease can cause severe dehydration, which is why death can occur in a record amount of time.

It is more commonly encountered in young pigeons, and that’s also the category where it can do the most damage.

Because young birds aren’t equipped with the same capable immune system compared to their adult counterparts, they risk losing their life much faster.

3. Paratyphoid

Paratyphoid, also known as salmonellosis, is another bacterial disease that can ravage pigeon populations.

The worst thing about the disease is that it can also lead to asymptomatic carriers.

Therefore, if your birds come in contact with such a pigeon carrier outdoors, they might catch paratyphoid and infect the rest of the flock.

Diarrhea caused by this bacterial condition is also green.

The droppings are watery and happen time and again, leading to severe dehydration in most of the birds.

Besides this symptom, many of the pigeons will have ruffled feathers and exhibit a variety of clinical respiratory signs, mostly in the form of eye and nasal discharge.

Salmonellosis can only be treated with the right antibiotics, so it needs to first be diagnosed properly.

4. Coccidiosis

Coccidiosis is another common condition that can affect pigeons.

It is somewhat different compared to those that we have previously mentioned in that it is caused by a parasite, not a bacterium.

But the parasite isn’t even visible to the naked eye, which is why you might not suspect a parasitic disease when your birds start having watery and green droppings.

Along with the green feces, some of the pigeons might also show tremors, depression, a significant loss of appetite, skin discoloration, and overall lameness.

There are asymptomatic forms of coccidiosis, where some birds might not show any signs at all.

A vet can usually find coccidia by looking at a fresh droppings sample under a microscope.

5. Adenovirus type I

This is a viral disease that can severely affect your pigeon’s health status.

It can cause hepatic necrosis, meaning serious liver damage, which is the main reason affected birds die (liver necrosis is most typical of type 2, described below).

There are two main types of Adenovirus that tend to affect this species.

While type 2 can affect birds of all ages and can produce the same amount of liver damage, type 1 mostly affects pigeons that are younger than 1 year of age.

Along with green feces, some other symptoms that you might notice in your pigeon population if they have this condition are an increased appetite for water, weight loss, and discharge in the form of expelling the matter that they have eaten.

Vomiting is very uncommon in birds, so it should be a sign that convinces you to consult your avian veterinarian.

6. Liver diseases

Your birds can develop hepatic disease without necessarily coming in contact with a pathogen.

In fact, some foods can be contaminated with toxins, whether from fungi or other substances that the grains might have been treated with.

All of these ingredients can lead to your pigeons developing a liver condition.

In some cases, especially if their health isn’t really excellent, they might even develop liver failure and lose their life in a matter of several days.

In liver damage, most birds tend to have green droppings, but their urine might also become more ‘compact’ in the sense that you might actually notice calculi or solidified urate in the feces.

7. Poor nutrition and stress

While these two possible causes are perhaps less common, they can still be at the root of the green feces situation you are now facing.

Some links on this page go to Pharma Pigeon Products. If you buy through them we may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you.

A good seed mix with grit and a mineral supplement (opens in new tab) prevents most deficiencies. Only add vitamins to the water if a vet advises it, as water with additives goes off quickly.

If you have recently made significant changes in your birds’ living space or you’ve moved them to a new home altogether, they could have watery, green droppings for several days without showing any other signs.

Making sure that you thoroughly clean their enclosure during that time can prevent them from suffering from a complicated condition.

Light green vs. dark green poop in pigeons

Bright, watery green droppings with little solid matter are typical of a bird that hasn’t eaten for a day or more. Lime-green droppings with yellow or green urates (the white part) are more worrying, as they can point to liver disease or infection.

Dark green, slimy droppings can also come from a bird that has stopped eating, or from stress, but they can be a sign of liver problems too. The colour alone can’t tell you the cause.

Should you be worried about your pigeon’s green poop?

Birds tend to have fairly watery droppings in general, and that’s because they release a mix of urine and feces altogether.

However, strange colors such as green should always alarm you a bit and should convince you to call your avian vet.

The reason for this is that time is of the essence when it comes to diagnosing and treating any digestive condition of pigeons.

If they begin to have profuse diarrhea and they lose a lot of water from their bodies in that way, the condition could be fatal.

Diagnosing pigeon disease in itself can take at least a couple of days because the vet needs to know just what type of treatment they need to recommend.

So, whenever you see a worrying sign such as green poop, collect a sample and take it to the vet right away.

What to do now

Keep the pigeon in a box or cage somewhere warm, quiet and away from other birds.
Offer water in a deep dish and a little seed or thawed frozen peas.
Put a fresh dropping in a sealed bag or pot for the vet. It helps them test for parasites and infection.
Wear gloves or wash your hands well after handling the bird or its droppings.
Go to a vet or rescue the same day if the bird is fluffed up, weak, twisting its neck, or the droppings are bloody. See sick pigeon symptoms.

Treatment of Green Poop in Pigeons

First of all, there is no universal treatment that you can give to your birds and get them healthy.

Every therapy needs to be appropriate, meaning made specifically for whichever condition your pigeons are actually suffering from.

Viral diseases such as Adenovirus don’t really have any treatment.

All you can do in case your birds have it is to make their life quality as best as possible by cleaning their environment and separating the sick birds from the apparently healthy ones.

There are a variety of medications that can be used for coccidiosis, such as amprolium, folic acid antagonists, and others.

All of the bacterial diseases that we have mentioned in this article need to be specific as per the pathogen.

Some medications work for several different diseases at the same time, such as coccidiosis, salmonellosis, and E. coli.

Broad-spectrum antibiotics such as amoxicillin can be effective against both respiratory and digestive conditions, so they tend to work against both paratyphoid and E. coli.

Your veterinarian will select the right treatment for your birds. Do not give pigeons medications in the absence of a vet’s guidance.

Drugs can have heaps of side effects, and many can cause liver damage, especially when given in large doses.

Giving medicine without a vet’s advice means the real disease goes untreated, and the wrong drug could make your birds sicker.

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This guide is general information. If a bird is injured or seriously ill, contact an avian vet or a wildlife rescue as soon as you can.

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Last updated 1 November 2026 · Health