How do I stop black birds "eating" my shutters?

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John58
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How do I stop black birds "eating" my shutters?

Post by John58 »

Can anyone suggest a humane way of stopping black birds eating away at my shutters when they are closed and I am away?

(Shooting them is not an option!)

Thanks,

John
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blackduff
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Post by blackduff »

John
Check first but wasn't the owl the main menace of these crows. If so, get some reflected owls, at least one for each shutter, and maybe you can get the crows go to the neighbors shutters.

If the crows are not afraid of the owls, get some old CDs and hang them from ribbons. That should help.

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Phipplebert

Post by Phipplebert »

Feeding them close by so they eat food instead? Maybe a few hanging bird feeders, although t depends how long you are away for or if you have a friendly neighbour, who could top up the feeders when they are low.

You can also get sound deterrents, for different species of birds.

Bird spikes to stop them finding a place to land, although this isn't the best looking option but more practical than mesh/netting...it depends how much damage they are doing.

A visual scarer, I.e. Hanging so cloth which would flap in the wind or a decoy like a plastic hawk, similar to those you get to put heron off coming down to a pond.

Finally, you can get things that look like hawk eyes, which can scare birds. We always used to use an old CD or DVD (a cheaper solution than buying ready made bird eye scarers) hanging on string in our pheasant pens; the big 'eyes' are very off putting to small birds, who thing they could be eaten by a hawk / eagle / owl.
Last edited by Phipplebert on Wed 04 Dec 2013 15:58, edited 1 time in total.
Phipplebert

Post by Phipplebert »

Cross posted with you blackduff....
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blackduff
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Post by blackduff »

My neighbor has about 2,000 sq. meters of grapes and he put CDs around the vines. This was for the last month before the vedange. Seemed to have worked, this year. Over the last six years he had (1) the sangliers ate all of the grapes~two night for eating them all: (2) the mountain cows came into the vineyard and ate the leaves. This was a double problem~eating the leaves stops the the reaching of the sap higher into the vines. The second part was that the cows and bulls lean against the vines and break them; (3) the birds fly into the vineyard and eat the grapes before the vedange.

First there was a electrical fence kept the sangliers away and the cows/bulls went elsewhere for eating.

So far, the CDs were working.

Blackduff
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rogb
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Post by rogb »

A flock of sparrows ate the putty round the panes in one of our windows.
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