Birds
Robins, starlings, and their friends — the fruit disappears exactly at ripeness, cherries and berries first, often with pecked half-eaten evidence left on the ground. Charming everywhere else in the yard.
Pest checklist
Four things to look for. If most of them match what you are holding, you are in the right place.
What gets rid of them
Gentlest option first. For most backyard cases the first one is enough, so try these in order and stop as soon as it works. If you do spray something, the product label tells you how — please read the notice further down.
1Netting before color turns
The only control that reliably works. Net the tree or row BEFORE fruit blushes and seal the bottom, or they walk in from below.
bird netting garden fruit treesTry this first2Reflective scare tape
Buys a week or two on small plantings; birds acclimate, so hang it late and move it often.
bird scare reflective tape3Plant enough to share
A mulberry across the yard is the cheapest decoy there is — they prefer it to almost everything.
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Which plants get birds
Every plant we cover that gets birds, grouped by type — tap any one to open its page. A note beside a plant came from that plant’s own entry, because the same pest can be a minor nuisance on one plant and a serious problem on another. Plenty of plants we do not cover get it too.
shrubs5
perennial1
Plant families hit hardest
Related plants often share the same problems, so if one plant in a family has it, check the others. The largest group here is Rosaceae, with 3 of the 8 affected plants.
- Rosaceae3 plants
- Moraceae2 plants
When to treat
Net the plant before the fruit colours. Once they have found it, they come back every day.
On specific plants
- Growing
- Netting for Birds (Essential). Mildew: occasional fungicide if needed.
Timing only — the label is the law
This page tells you when to watch for birds and when treating is worth considering. It is not a recommendation to apply any particular product. Read and follow the product label before you spray — under federal law the label is the legal instruction, and using a pesticide against it is illegal.
- Check the pre-harvest interval. Every product that’s cleared for an edible crop sets a minimum number of days between spraying and picking. Find it on the label before you spray anything you intend to eat.
- Check the re-entry interval before you or anyone else works in the treated area again, and use the protective equipment the label names.
- Confirm the product is registered for your crop in your state. This page groups many different crops together, and a product legal on one of them is not legal on all of them — state registrations differ too. Your state pesticide agency or local extension office can confirm both.
- Rates and mixing instructions come from the label, never from us. We don’t publish them because they differ by product and formulation.
Other problems on the same plants
If a plant gets birds, these are the problems it most often gets as well, so they are worth checking for while you are out there. They tend to appear together; one does not cause another.