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Thread: For the Birds

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    New Jersey
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    1,295

    For the Birds

    Have a bird problem. Last year I had a stone front put on my house and had shutters installed by the windows. Now the shutters stand off some because or the irregular stones. This is normal. This spring I had a bird family build a nest behind the shutter. I was able to get to it the first time before he finished building the nest. The very next day he is back at it building a new one. Is there something I can do to scare them away for good??? How many times will they keep trying. Do not ask me what kind of bird. Have no idea but would think a sparrow. They usually build nests in the bushes in front of the house but this guy decided up close to the eave and on top and behind my shutter is a better place. Wakes me up every morning slamming into the window. Help.
    John T.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2018
    Location
    Piercefield, NY
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    1,659
    We have had robins a couple of times that will build a nest on the shelves right by the front door, and we will go out 5 or 6 times a day and throw the muddy mess out into the yard till they quit. Mostly they're smarter and will find a better spot by themselves, since they wouldn't be happy by the door anyway with people going in and out, but I suppose that even among birds some are more bird-brained than others. If you can wad up some screen or chicken wire and put it in the area the bird is using that might keep it out of that spot, but it might just pick out another shutter instead.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
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    McKean, PA
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    Your only solution is to block access to the space with screen or other material. They will build nest after nest as you tear them out.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
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    New Jersey
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    This does not sound like this will be fun.
    John T.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2019
    Location
    Fairbanks AK
    Posts
    1,566
    Get a cat.

  6. #6
    You could have hinges made that would put the shutters pretty flat on the house when open. I did that years ago just because I wanted to
    close them at night. Made a pattern out of bent and glued cardboard ,tested it and took it to a metal worker-black smith. With the rioting
    of today closing and latching from inside at night would be a good idea. I used to close ours every night.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Apr 2018
    Location
    Cambridge Vermont
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    2,282
    Have you thought about taking the shutters down for a few weeks? Not the best solution but it's easier that trying to keep pace with their building.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Location
    Lake Gaston, Henrico, NC
    Posts
    8,973
    Robins like to do that.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jun 2013
    Location
    Neither here nor there
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    38288D40-52E2-4196-95D6-CE75C423F791.jpg

    These birds have wintered on my porch every year since before I owned the house. Their offspring return to the same place to nest. They leave and head north during the summer. I have watched every year as they hatch babies and teach them to fly.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Collegeville PA (30 min west of Philly)
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    My dad has lots of bird issues to deal with at his property (backs up to a nature preserve... but the birds prefer his house instead).. He has had hit/miss luck with placing fake owls, and other such scare tactics, near to the nest area. I think it might be worth trying to fill the space behind the shutter with hardware cloth as suggested above too.

    At our place, we have robins that pick the same spot under our pool deck each year. Now, we even provide a bit of protection from the splashing to help them along. Each year the kids take pics of the process until one day the birds all disappear for a year and we then remove the nest.
    - Bob R.
    Collegeville PA (30 minutes west of Philly)

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Location
    Putney, Vermont
    Posts
    1,042
    I had to tie bird netting to my rain gutters and then put a couple of brads into the frame of my large picture window and attached the ntting to the brads. This kept them from flying into the window.
    Maybe if you have a rain gutter above the shutters you could run the netting from there to the bottom of the shutters.
    You cannot see the netting from a few feet away as it is light and blends in, but the birds fly into it and then learn to stay away.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    New Jersey
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    Well third time I dismantled the nest this morning. Every year I have multiple family of birds build nests in the bushes in front of my house but this is a first for behind the shutters because this is the first year they have been up there. Had these installed last year. These shutters can never sit flat on the stone so there is a flat stone behind them that stands them off the irregular stone. It makes a great ledge for the birds to sit now. I think I will try putting some mothballs up there and see what happens. Works for cats nesting under the stoop.
    John T.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Location
    Marshall, Michigan
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    Rubber snakes seem to work well. I have birds landing on the mirrors of my cars and fighting with there own images and of course leaving skid marks all down the doors. Curling a rubber snake on the mirror works well. Another way would be to use steel wool like material made from brass I think that Terminex used to plug all the gaps in my siding to keep insects and mice from entering.

  14. #14
    Dollar store pinwheels...
    pinwheel.jpg
    Just put one wherever you don't want birds-
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  15. #15
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    The Hartland of Michigan
    Posts
    7,628
    My wife had some hanging plants several years ago that some Sparrows kept building a nest in. We'd take the nest out, they built it again, and again.
    One day we look in the plant, and there are the eggs laying on the dirt. No nest.
    Never, under any circumstances, consume a laxative and sleeping pill, on the same night

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