How to Keep Birds Out of The Garden - Friend or Foe?

Birds span the globe, with about six birds for every person alive today. This means that there are virtually no outdoor spaces where you can garden without birds. When birds are pecking at your ripening fruit, you may start wondering if the birds in your garden are a boon or a curse. Should you try hanging CDs to scare birds or use bird netting to protect your harvest?

In this post, I’ll answer those questions and share whether the benefits of birds outweigh the cost, the best bird for the vegetable garden, and how to keep birds out of the garden naturally.

The Golden Rule of Pest Control

Pest control in the organic garden is less about completely eliminating pesky critters in the garden and more about mitigating the damage pests have. There is a level of practicality we need to work with nature and not against it.

The golden rule is this: prepare your garden for a 10% loss to pests so that you can harvest 90% that is perfection. Whether you have squirrels in your garden, deer in your orchard, rabbits in your raised beds, or other pests, the priority should be maintaining a healthy ecosystem while using natural and safe methods to deter them.

Understanding The Role Of Birds In the Garden

Birds are often mistaken for garden pests when they are usually much more beneficial than harmful. Birds love gardens because they find plenty of food there, but the food they are after isn’t always your crops.

Birds play a critical role in the ecosystem. They facilitate plant reproduction and seed dispersal, and they bring balance to the ecosystem largely by eating insects and other organisms.

Depending on the species, one bird can eat hundreds or thousands of insects in a single day! This helps control insect populations that would otherwise run rampant, decimating crops, spreading disease, and causing other damage.

Birds play an important role in keeping bad bugs out of the garden, which reduces the need for pesticides and sprays. Without birds, there would be too many bugs in the garden, so much so that most plants wouldn't be able to grow!

Here are some of the ways that birds benefit a garden:

• Eat Insects - Birds will eat harmful insects like caterpillars (including tomato hornworms), beetles, grasshoppers, mosquitoes, earwigs, moths, and even aphids and whiteflies.

• Eat Rodents - Larger birds will eat mice and other rodents. Mice eat seeds, fruits, nuts, and other plants in your garden.

• Eat Weed Seed - Birds will eat weeds and their seeds which helps to keep weeds in check.

• Seed Dispersal - Birds naturally spread plants into new areas by dropping seeds.

• Pollination - Certain birds, like hummingbirds and doves, pollinate plants.

• Appeal - Many species of birds add beauty and life to the garden with their flashy colors, busy nature, and joyful songs.

You can attract beneficial birds to your garden by adding a birdbath, birdhouses, and bird feeders. This will encourage many wild birds to frequent your garden.

What Is the Best Bird For the Garden

Chickens, ducks, geese, and quail are all popular garden birds.

Chickens are the most popular garden birds, and for good reason (but they aren’t my first choice). They eat bugs and just about any garden waste, they make excellent organic fertilizer, can be used to till and work the soil, and regularly produce eggs.

The disadvantage of having chickens in the garden is that they will tear your crops up and disturb the soil by scratching in your beds. Chickens don’t care about your nice head of lettuce; they will shred it to smithereens and eat it.

The mourning dove is the unlikely bird with a bright future in sustainable agriculture! We have a resident flock of almost 20 mourning doves in our garden.

Mourning doves are docile and stay in one place once they lay eggs. They don’t tear your crops up while pecking around or disturb the soil like chickens do.

They are great garden birds if you want to enjoy all the benefits of chickens in the garden and harvest free-range eggs without the mess and crop damage that chickens cause.

Drawbacks of Birds in the Garden

Let’s face it, even with all the benefits of birds in the garden, it is frustrating when annoying birds eat my hard-labored crops!

Birds peck and eat ripening fruit, including strawberries, cherries, blueberries and more. They may also uproot seedlings, eat flowers, eat seeds, and even dig holes to find insects.

Signs of Bird Activity in The Garden

Here are some common signs of bird activity to look for:

• Bird Sightings - The easiest way to identify if you have birds in your garden is by seeing them.

• Bird Droppings - You will find droppings on plants or soil, especially beneath the bird’s favorite places to perch or eat.

• Bird Nests - You may notice birds building nests or nests in nearby trees or bushes.

• Damaged Plants or Flowers - Birds will leave large holes and partially eaten fruits and vegetables in the garden.

Using Bird Netting To Protect Fruit

Bird netting is used as a barrier draped around plants, raised beds, or fruit trees to keep birds or squirrels from eating the fruits.

A word of caution about using bird netting or squirrel netting: while it deters squirrels by creating a barrier they can’t get through, many birds get their wings or feet caught in it. Sadly, they usually get stuck and die once they are entangled in it.

Birds benefit the garden, and I don’t want to kill them inadvertently, so I would not personally recommend using bird netting.

Natural Ways to Keep Birds Out of the Garden

Besides bird netting, here are other bird control methods and deterrents and whether or not they work.

I hope this helps you in your garden. Working with nature takes effort, but it’s well worth it.