PIGEON TRAPPING

lay down covered by a sheet with bread or some other bait on top of the sheet, when one lands on you to eat the bread, snag that fucker.
 
I remember reading about a way to make an unmanned pigeon trap with just a cardboard box and fishing line.
How it works is to put holes all around the top of the box, then run the fishing line through the holes and across the opening of the box forming a grid like pattern(there is a certain size that the square spaces between the lines is supposed to be, but I forget how many inches, you'll have to experiment.) Put bait in the bottom of the box.
The concept of the trap is supposed to be that the pigeons really can't see the fishing lines, despite bumping into them on flying into the box they still manage to pass through(size of the spaces crucial here) after the food, but when they go to fly out they can't manuver well enough from take off and are thus trapped by the fishing lines.

I have never tried this trap and now wish I had the magazine that I saw it in.
 
I've only really ever gone for pigeons with a catapult, but I know a few good ways of trapping pheasants that might be adapted.
One is to peg out some gill net at approximately the height of the bird's back and then scatter some corn or breadcrumbs under it, the birds have to raise their heads to swallow and they will get caught in the net.
The other way, my favourite, is to get a small amount of toffee and some bird seed. First make some little paper cones, then warm up the toffee in an old can on the fire. Coat the inside of each cone with a small amount of toffee and then pour in some seed. Make a few little holes and push the pointed ends of the cones into the ground so that the top is just above ground level, like a convenient feeding dish for your prey.
As the bird pecks at the seed it will get toffee in it's feathers eventually reaching the point where it's head is stuck in the cone. Now, birds aren't that bright, so, once the lights go out they assume it's night and go to sleep.
Hey presto...you come back and there are some docile birds sitting ready for the pot.

I come from a country where guns are illegal, all land is private and only rich people can afford to hunt, so we get quite good at poaching here. ;)