How to Protect Your Fruit Trees From Birds
If you made it all the way through the years it took to grow fruit only to have birds devour your harvest, you’re not alone. Experienced gardener Sarah Jay has the low down on ways to protect your fruit trees and shrubs from birds.
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I waited for my apricot tree to develop fruit for years. Finally, in midsummer, fruit formed, and I checked daily to determine if it was ripe for the picking. Imagine my surprise when I came out one day to find the flesh had been ripped from all but a few!
While I am an avid birder, and I love to see multiple types of birds in my yard, and hear their calls throughout the day, I don’t want them to eat the fruit I took time and energy to grow. I only have one fruit tree, which makes the importance of preserving the harvest higher.
So, naturally, I’ve figured out strategies to help protect fruit trees from birds. Plenty of good sources out there helped me determine which birds are most common in my area and what to expect from them. The following year, I took a few extra steps that made the harvest mostly mine.
Thin Fruit
You might think that thinning a fruit tree or shrub isn’t a good way to protect them from birds, but it is! Firstly, it keeps parent birds from teaching their young that your established fruit-producing plants are a good place to feed in the height of harvest season. Fledglings and their parents seek food elsewhere if it’s not in overabundance in your yard.
If there aren’t a ton of deliciously ripe strawberries or bright red raspberries hanging out in your yard, the likelihood of birds seeing them is less. This isn’t a catch-all strategy, but when combined with others on this list, it’s effective. Thinning the plant keeps it healthy and reduces the risk of breakage or rotting that comes with overripe fruits.
Mesh Bags
The best deterrent for birds is simply blocking their access to the fruit. One way to do this is with mesh bags. You can find these at garden stores, online, and even at second-hand or craft outlets. They have string ties on their ends that make it easy to pop them over developing fruit and affix them.
This is a good solution for fruit trees, and especially small ones. While you can certainly put little baggies over every apple growing on your 20-foot apple tree, it’s not very practical. In this case, partial coverage is totally ok. You can leave the rest for the birds.
Similarly, it’s not a great solution for berry trees and shrubs that produce a ton of non-clustered fruits. It would take so much time to cover all of those, but again, you can cover the ones you want to harvest and leave the rest open to share.
Shiny Deterrents
Controlling bird feeding on your fruit is best done as a combined effort of multiple strategies. A good combination involves bird deterrents as well as protectants for fruit. Shiny objects are great deterrents. Birds are already wary of unfamiliar sights, and shiny objects present a puzzle that keeps them away.
Repurpose old CDs as ornaments you hang in the tree or near your shrubs. Or purchase nicer-looking options in bird repellent reflectors, holographic tape, and metallic pinwheels. Pick one that meets your budget, and fits the aesthetic of your garden. These aren’t a one-stop solution, but they help.
Owl Boxes
Berry and fruit-eating birds dislike birds that eat them for obvious reasons. It is in their nature to get away from birds of prey. In taller trees, install an owl box. This keeps the birds that eat the fruit away and installs a natural pest controller in your garden. If owls aren’t the predominant bird of prey in your area, most boxes will double as homes for hawks, kestrels, and falcons, too.
A second benefit of having an occupied owl or raptor box is rodent control. Any gardens that deal with mice, rats, and squirrels see reduced numbers of rodents when the birds of prey are at play.
Fake Birds of Prey
If you know for sure you don’t want big birds in your yard, or they aren’t in your area, install a fake one. Fake owls are available at most big-box stores. They even have cool rotating heads that simulate the actual movement of owls.
Just like shiny stuff and real owls, birds stay away from these guys. Choose an owl that looks similar to a real owl from your region. Set it on a high perch. Think about where the owl would be if it were actually an owl. Then find a couple of spots that work and move the owl around to prevent the effectiveness of its presence from wearing off.
Whole Tree Netting
If small mesh bags are not a realistic option for protecting your fruit tree, a sheet of netting is a good way to keep out the birds. Whole plant netting isn’t relegated to just trees. It works for shrubs, brambles, and even small strawberry plants as well.
Wait for the fruit to start developing, just after pollination and fruit set. Then cover the tree, shrub, or small plant with netting of some kind. You want the netting to have perforations that are small enough to keep birds out. Use hoops if you want something more uniform, or swap a whole net for a whole net for a critter cover. Critter covers are a better option for smaller plants.
Plant More Fruit
If you have this problem every year, and you like to share with local wildlife, your best bet is to plant more. Look for a cherry tree, strawberry, apricot – the world is your oyster! Find high-producing varieties that work for your region.
If you are already growing a tree of a particular type, pay attention to its pollination capacity. Will it cross-breed with the tree or plant already in your yard? If so, is that something you want? In an ideal situation, you find another exact copy of the type you’re already growing. If you find the birds come in droves and continue to steal your harvest, use one of the strategies above.
