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Pests and Predators

© Terrie Murray

It happens all too often: one day you're watching with great pleasure the progress of a young family nesting in a bird house in your yard. The chicks have hatched, the parents are busy with around-the-clock feedings. The next day you look out and the nest has been completely destroyed and the chicks have vanished. A few feathers linger around the opening. Or maybe you're watching the birds at your backyard feeders, only to watch with horror as the neighbor's cat rushes out from under a bush to grab an unwary sparrow which was feeding on the ground. Instances like these make us question whether we are doing the birds any favors by providing them with food and housing, or if we're simply providing predators with an easy target.

Predators and prey are basic to the natural world. There are some things that, despite your best efforts, you can't prevent from happening. There are, however, some things that you can easily do to avoid inadvertently aiding and abetting the predators.

Domestic cats cause millions of bird deaths every year, and home owners often feel powerless to do anything about it. Most cats are allowed to roam freely from yard to yard, and yards with bird feeders are a favorite stopping place. If you own a cat (and I do, so please don't label me a cat-hater), please keep them indoors during the nesting season. If that is absolutely impossible, please have your cat wear a bell. Educate your neighbors, and ask them to bell their outdoor cats. Patch up or block off any holes which cats may be using under or around your fences. If nothing else works, equip your kids with squirt guns. Cats hate to be wet. If they get squirted often enough, they'll start looking for another yard where the owners are less hostile.

The easiest way to discourage predators from bothering your bird house or feeder is to mount them (the houses and feeders, not the predators!) on metal poles. Tree-mounted bird houses and feeders can be protected by skirting the tree with a sleeve of aluminum sheeting. If they can't "get a grip" on the trunk, animals will leave your trees alone.

Protect your bird houses from cats, squirrels, raccoons and opossums by adding a predator guard. A predator guard is simply a tube that small birds can easily crawl through, but the wider paws of predators cannot reach past. Predator guards can be purchased at any back yard bird supply shop. Using a small diameter hole (maximum of one-and-a-half inches) for the nest will also discourage less desirable birds, like House Sparrows and Starlings, from taking up residence in your bird house. Don't use a birdhouse with a perch below the entrance hole, the perch is just as useful for predator birds as it is for the residents. One birder friend of mine suggests planting Rue underneath your feeders. He says cats hate the smell of it and will avoid going near it. I haven't tried it, but I'm considering it for next year when we do some "naturescaping" improvements in our yard.