How to keep birds away from my fruit trees?

High Powered Rifle should do the trick

You could get some bird netting (I don’t vouch for the company, it was just a link I found that explains the product). They’ll still be able to get the stuff closest to the netting, but it will protect most of the fruit. My friends use it to protect their berry bushes, and it works fantastically. I’m planning to get some next year so I can actually eat my strawberries.

I don’t know where you live, but they sell it at both Home Depot and Lowes, so I imagine similar stores would have it.

Play a recording of the sounds made by birds of prey.

Net bags over the fruit.

Try Raptor Fruit Protection Services.

There’s always pouring poison over them fruits so the birds will get sick and stop eating them. Remember to wash them before eating.

Try stringing aluminun pie pans in the tree. The shine and the noise will keep the birds away. You can put a fake owl in the tree too. Or a scarecrow near the tree.

You could build a light wooden frame slightly larger than the tree (assuming it’s a small tree) and throw the netting over that. It would keep the birds away from all of the fruit.

@bkcunningham do scarecrows really work? I’ve always wondered this. That pie pan idea sounds pretty good though.

@bobbinhood I tried looking for that netting, couldn’t find any made for this purpose but will goto the shops again to find generic one that I could use.

I hang aluminum pie pans from string in order to scare the flickers away when they rip into my cedar siding in order to eat the carpenter bee larvae.

The bees drill 3/8” holes vertically up in the cedar and then take a 90˚ turn. They leave piles of sawdust on the garage floor. The flickers rip out large, long splinter-shaped chunks of cedar in order to reach the bees’ nest.

The bees and birds always win, but the sound of the aluminum pans flapping in the breeze is not unpleasant.

My sister has peach, plum and pear trees. She has netted, successfully, her berry bushes, because that is doable.

Her solution for the trees is to have enough to go around. That means three trees of each species

She also picks the fruit when it is still hard and lets it ripen on her counter. The peaches are the most successful; the pears and plums usually taste like flavored rocks.

@Jellie; Netting comes in bolts like fabric; you cut it to suit your needs. If the piece is too large, it is cumbersome and apt to tangle, similar to long strips of Scotch tape.

Yes, netting and shiney streamers of foil help a lot.

I live in wine country and a lot of the vineyards use netting and streamers along with tall, deer proof fencing.

Reminds me of an incident a few years ago when Hawks were coming in to our local wildlife rescue with some, apparently, neurological issues that were mystifying the vets and rehabbers.

Turns out they were eating blackbirds that were drunk from feasting on the grape castings at harvest where one local winery had a mountain of grape castings.

The Hawks became drunk from the marinated Blackbirds and were dropping out of the sky like stones. LOL

@Jellie I found the netting on Gurneys website. Page three of the gardening aids. I’ll try to find a link. The web address is www.gurneys.com.

@Jellie My links to Home Depot and Lowe’s took you to product pages for netting, did you miss that? Both of those stores deliver if you don’t have one nearby. Lowe’s only had the one product, but Home Depot had several options. There are also a lot of options for bird netting on Amazon, many of which are eligible for free shipping.

@bobbinhood thanks but I live in a different country. Probably won’t deliver here either.

@Jellie Got it. I know Amazon ships to a whole bunch of different countries, but I have no idea how expensive that would be. I hope you’re able to figure out how to get some of your fruit. I know how frustrating it is when the birds take it all.

Amazon ships to: Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Portugal, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom (source)

Thanks @bobbinhood :)