Useful Ways To Attract and Deter Birds From Your Garden

Useful Ways To Attract and Deter Birds From Your Garden

Whether you have a favorite window or patio that looks out on a garden, or you merely enjoy the presence of birds, being able to attract and deter birds from your garden can seem like mission impossible. Birds are naturally curious creatures attracted by a variety of colors, scents, and sounds. Depending on where you live, you can look forward to different birds during the changing seasons as they migrate each year for nesting and food.

How and why you choose to make your garden a place for birds is up to you, as they can be both a welcome guest and a noisy pest. To aid you in your quest, here are some helpful ways to deter damaging birds, and attract helpful birds to your garden.

Bring on the Song Birds
For the budding naturalist, attracting song birds to your garden can be easy with the right equipment and can provide hours of entertainment, while helping your community wildlife and ecosystem. This does not have to be very time consuming or expensive. By adding a few simple elements to your garden, you can easily attract beautiful birds to your home garden, viewable by any window in your home.

Take the time to plant bird-friendly trees and shrubs around your garden, to encourage them to nest nearby. This also has the added benefit of providing shade for your family and home, which can make your yard friendlier for family activities and birds to find shelter. Include a few ornamental trees that also provide a food source, such as Crab Apple or Cherry trees. Roses and Hawthorne hedges are also a nice addition, which gives birds a safe place to nest.

There are also devices that emit electronic bird calls to attract songbirds or Purple Martins and can easily be placed in your backyard. Also, install a few bird feeders at varying heights around your garden, but out of main traffic areas. Place them so you can see them through your home’s windows. Include flowering plants near your bird feeders to attract song birds, butterflies, and hummingbirds.

Keeping Bird Pests Away
If you want to preserve the beauty of your garden and are encountering bothersome birds of the pest variety, such as crows, sparrows or pigeons, there are some helpful ways to keep them at bay. This is especially important if you are trying to keep a vegetable or fruit garden thriving. For the areas of your garden you want to protect, install a predator decoy which can be in the form of a perceived hunter such as an owl or a coyote.

When seedlings are vulnerable, you may also cover them with a plastic netting to make it impossible for pest birds to access them.

Remember, birds are great for keeping other kinds of household pests away, so you will want to encourage them to visit your yard and garden. By following the above tips, you can easily grow a beautiful garden and enjoy the sights and sounds of your favorite birds all year round from the comfort of your windows.