How to identify and deal with Birds

Birds

Aves

also called Pigeons, Bullfinches, Blackbirds

Pigeons strip brassica leaves; other birds take fruit, buds, and seedlings. Netting fixed taut over hoops is the only reliable protection.

Bird Bird or mammal Serious SpringSummerAutumnWinter

How to know it

Wood pigeons work brassicas in flocks in winter, leaving leaves shredded to the ribs. Bullfinches strip fruit buds in late winter, blackbirds and starlings take soft fruit and cherries, and sparrows shred crocus and polyanthus flowers for no reason anyone has satisfactorily explained.

What you'll see

Brassica leaves torn back to the midribs and stalks, with droppings among the plants.
Rows of seedlings pulled out and left lying, or pea and bean shoots grazed off.
Soft fruit and cherries pecked open or gone entirely the week they ripened.
Fruit buds stripped from gooseberries, plums and pears over winter, leaving bare wood.
Yellow crocus and primrose flowers shredded and scattered on the ground.

Where it comes from

Not a pest with a life cycle so much as a permanent resident population that turns to the garden when wild food runs short. Pressure peaks in hard winter weather for pigeons and bullfinches, and at the exact moment fruit ripens in summer for everything else.

Hard winters, snow cover and open unprotected beds bring pigeons in. Fruit damage peaks in dry summers when natural food and water are scarce, and rural gardens next to woodland see the most bullfinch damage.

Dealing with it

Net properly: fine mesh, held taut and clear of the foliage over hoops, sealed at the ground.
Use a walk-in fruit cage for soft fruit — it is the only thing that reliably works, and it pays for itself.
Cover seedling rows with mesh, cloches or fleece until the plants are past the vulnerable stage.
Keep netting taut and inspect it daily so nothing gets caught in it — slack netting traps birds.
Accept that scarers, humming line and old CDs work for about a fortnight before the birds learn.

Keeping it out

Put netting on before the damage starts — by the time you notice, the buds are gone.
Grow brassicas under mesh from planting through the winter.
Provide water and a bird feeder well away from the fruit, which does genuinely divert some pressure.
Choose later-ripening fruit varieties in gardens under heavy pressure.
Remember the same birds take slugs, caterpillars and aphids all year — the balance is not one-sided.

What it goes for

LeavesSeedlingsFruit & podsFlowers

Brassicas, peas, lettuce and seedlings; cherries, currants, raspberries, strawberries and blueberries; fruit buds on gooseberries, plums and pears.

and 36 more in the catalog