Who doesn’t enjoy the sounds and sight of birds? Apart from being cheerful chips, they’re an important part of the Eco-system. Their color and music as well as pollination duties are beneficial to gardeners.
They also eat bugs and pests thus being a welcome addition to our gardens. However, at times birds can be a nuisance especially when you have to battle with them for every tomato, berry or corn in your garden.
When they start treating your garden as a buffet, there are various ways on how to keep birds out of garden, but first.
Why Should You Keep Birds of Garden
- They might carry parasites and diseases that can harm your plants and also cause disease to human beings. In fact, they’re over 60 fatal human diseases associated with birds.
- High appetite for your seeds and crops. This negatively affects your yield.
- They can degrade your soil conditions.
- They can negatively affect the aesthetic value of your garden.
- Their droppings can deteriorate your structures and devalue your property.
- If you have a pond in your garden, birds like great blue heron can eat them.
- Some birds’ species such as Canada geese can damage your lawn by ravaging grass. They also leave pounds of droppings which can be unsightly in the garden.
Regardless of the amount of love you have for wildlife, if birds are a cause of financial or mental heartache in your garden, there’s every good reason to keep them at bay.
It’s senseless to invest in your garden, only for you to share its harvest with tormenting birds. So, here is how to send your garden’s bird in the out and keep the harvest to yourself.
Importantly, these approaches depend on your desires, budget and legal restrictions as well of those of the gardener.
How to Keep Birds Out of Garden?
1. Garden Netting
Casting a net barrier is arguably the most effective of deterring birds. It involves construction of inexpensive framework to cover the garden’s plants. We recommend use of bamboo poles or tall stakes then use of butterfly netting over them. Ensure the netting over the framework reaches the ground.
Anchor it with bent wires for protection against wind. By doing this you can rest assured of total protection of your crops from the hungry birds.
However, it allows for beneficial insects such as honeybees to enter and facilitate pollination. Be keen on the netting you use. A standard netting with holes over 1 cm can be dangerous to wildlife since they can get caught up while getting their head or neck through it.
2. Terror Eyes Balloon
This is a popular product that can highly scare the birds out of the garden. As the name suggests, a terror eye balloon is a large inflatable ball with ‘eyes’ printed on it.
You strategically hang it in your garden then the wind does the work of moving it.
The movement and the eyes create an impression that a predator is watching them, thus scaring away the birds. You can either buy a ready-made version or DIY one.
3. Toy Snakes and Plastic Predators
Mounting even the most unrealistic looking ones in the garden seems to scare away small prey birds such as sparrows, pigeons and blackbirds. Ensure you don’t mount them somewhere permanently since the birds become used to them thus having little intended effect.
Mark you birds are not stupid. For optimal results, move the decoy around your garden. This makes it look like a predator bird taking different strategic positions. If it can produce some sound, the better.
Laying the toy plastic snakes in your garden beds can scare away birds and yourself as well.
4. Use Scarecrows
Whether you are buying one from the store or using your DIY know-how to make your own, ensure you move them around frequently.
Scarecrows are effective in keeping birds on their toes only if they’re relocated regularly. Get more creative and clothe or decorate them with colors yellow and red-these colors are said to be flight triggers for birds.
Honestly, even if we don’t have any scientific prove for that, it won’t have some garish garden decorations.
5. Build a Crates Barrier
This is an effective method of keeping nibblers away from your vulnerable seedlings. Simply get some crates and invert them over the bird’s target seedlings.
Laying chicken wire over the seedbed and raising it as they grow can also protect planted tubers or your newly sown seeds.
Chicken wires on the ground not only deter birds but also your chickens from scratching the soil. When the plants get big enough, you can switch to garden netting technique described above.
6. Use of Bird Busters
This high-tech method scares away even the bravest birds. They make a sophisticated screech owl that most birds can’t withstand. When wind comes, the owl spins and the microchip insert emits a weird sound of an attacking hawk.
7. Create a Stick Jungle
This method involves creating twigs and sticks around your plants. They put off the birds in two ways. One, they ‘hide’ the plants from above.
A bird will look down and instead of seeing delicious seedlings, they’ll get welcomed with a mess of sticks with greens underneath. Secondly, on the ground the sticks prevent the birds from munching on your plants.
We recommend this method for young plants for young plants that need temporal protection.
8. Use of CDs & Mirrors
Birds are not only an enemy of sudden movements but also flashing lights. A simple DIY birdbath made with broken mirrors will not only look flashy but also go miles in keeping the birds out of the garden.
Tying old CDs in your fruit trees and bushes makes them move in the breeze sending rays of light that scares away the birds.
While you can move these from time to time to deter the birds from testing the waters, leaving them unmoved still works fine.
9. Wind chimes
These can be easily manipulated to produce varied tones and melodies. Wind chimes are arguably the most innocuous way to keep birds out of garden.
Their abrupt movements and sound can scare the birds out of the garden. Hang them over your seedlings and enjoy their pleasing music as the birds free your garden.
Needless to say, if you’re to use them ensure you put them in the garden rather than on the porch. If you can have those made of shiny metal, the more effective they’ll be.
10. Use of a Supervised Dog
Dogs are a real predator of birds. A supervised dog will cherish chasing away bird off on your behalf thus deterring them from dining on your garden’s yield.
An outdoor cat may also come in handy in chasing the birds but it might cause a couple of problems such as digging your plants while burying their poop.
13. Use of garden fleece
If you thought garden fleece protects your crops from frosts only, better know that it can also be used throughout the year to protect shorter crops variety from birds.
Simply drape it over your greenery to protect them from your local birds. Anchor the sides down with pegs or rocks and roll it back temporarily when harvesting.
13. Garden Spinners
Many gardeners use plastic bags and streamers to scare birds into flight. Sadly, these get blown in the wind and end up littering the garden.
As such, we would recommend sturdy garden spinners in their place. Garden spinners don’t only look beautiful but can serve a purpose of scaring away birds out of garden.
Be keen to relocate them regularly around the garden to ensure the birds don’t recognize the decoys for fakes.
13.Taste Aversions
Use of food biodegradable spray of bitter and smelly Concord grapes can help keep off birds like Canada geese from your grass and make woodpeckers less attracted to your wood surfaces.
Such spray interferes with their sense of tastes and smells without harming your environment.
14. Use of Motion-Activated Sprinkler Systems
These ones use water’s motion and sound to repel birds. Unfortunately, as much a they’ll be effective at first, with time some birds get used to the water and keep on coming back despite getting sprayed.
15. Stakes and Flags
Hanging pieces of cloths on stakes may help keep birds off your garden for a week or two. Place them every 15 feet for more effectiveness.
16. Use of Chemical Deterrents
Chemicals such as naphthalene flakes between the rows of your seedlings can protect them from birds. Adding methyl anthracite also works fine. These chemicals not only deter the birds but also other animals from attacking your garden. Importantly, they don’t affect the quality of your plants nor their taste after harvest.
17. Use of Sacrificial Flowers
This involves providing the tormenting birds with something else to attract them far from your garden. You may plant some sunflowers away from your garden to capture their attention elsewhere.
Having bird feeders in your backyard can also protect your garden.
18. Sound Solution
Place a loud portable radio near the plants you want to protect against birds. Its sound will make them think twice before coming over. Additionally, play a sound of bird distress calls.
This convinces the oncoming birds that danger is near. Such devices can scare any bird species and their speakers can cover a large space.
19. Foil Birds with Foil
To prevent birds from wrecking havoc on your garden’s plants, spread strips of aluminum foil around the plants they’re bothering.
They dislike the reflection from the foil and the feeling of it under their beaks isn’t their cup of tea. As such, they’ll slowly leave your garden.
Final Thoughts
Birds aren’t dummies. As such, always consider switching things up in order to outwit them by keeping them guessing. When it’s all said and done, we learn best by trying and failing.
Also, there are many methods of skinning a cat. So, if one of the methods above doesn’t work, feel free to try another. A combination also won’t hurt. All the best in your bid to keep birds out of your garden.
