How to Keep Birds Off My Back Porch
Birds can be fun to watch. You may even choose to provide your fine feathered friends with bird baths and feeders. However, once a bird decides to roost or nest on your porch, it can become a nuisance. Birds can defecate on your porch, which is a health hazard and can destroy paint. They can also become aggressive toward you if they are nesting and feel threatened. Luckily, there are lots of things you can try at home to get rid of birds on your porch and keep them from returning.
Identify the species of bird. Utilize bird guides to determine what type of bird is visiting your porch. Knowing what type of bird you are dealing with will help you determine how to keep them away.
Contact your local wildlife official to determine what the laws are regarding the specific type of birds you are having problems with. Almost every known species of bird in the United States is protected by laws.
Use physical barriers. If the birds in question are roosting in your eaves, use a wire slinky to deter them. Stretch a slinky out across the rafters so that the coils are pointed upward. Attach it in place using a staple gun. The birds will not want to roost on the slinky.
Install noise deterrents. Use a needle to pass lengths of string through the ends of strips of aluminum foil. The strips should be about an inch in width. The length of string and aluminum foil depends on how much room you have in your eaves. You want the strips to hang and not touch anything but other strips of aluminum foil. Tie the strips up in the eaves close enough to one another so they will make noise when they touch. You will need a minimum for three or four strips in every place you intend to hang them.
Remove the nests. This is only OK to do if the bird in question is an English or house sparrow, pigeon or starling. If you are not dealing with one of these types of birds, do not touch the nest or eggs unless you are given approval by a wildlife official.
Place bird of prey silhouettes on your roof and around the property. These are wooden outlines that have been painted black to look like a bird of prey in flight. These are great deterrents for smaller birds that want to roost or nest in the eaves of your porch.
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