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Davis Knowlton

My wife is being driven nuts by swarms of little, brown birds which descend on the lawn and garden every afternoon. I don't know exactly what they are, but they look like starlings (I am in the southern Philippines). They eat the orchids, shit all over the place, and are generally a pain. If you go outside and scream and bang pots together or whatever, they retreat to the garden wall and, once you have been back inside for a few minutes, they return. She has tried hanging flapping strips of cloth, to no avail. Does anyone have any thoughts. I don't want to put out poison because of the dogs, and I can't put the birdshot to them because of the neighbors. Any ideas would be most welcome. Thanks!

artist

Buy a cat

WujouMao

how long have they been there? years or months? have you added anything to the garden which is attracting them?

give us a butchers anyway. lets see what sort of problem you have. i'd rather have the birds than karaoke anyday

pity they are not yellow little mites. you could sell them to the kids for their very own live pet

Davis Knowlton

It's a new house. I just finished building it in May, and landscaped the garden about the same time. There is a lot of open land around, farmland and semi-jungle. They appear to live at night in two tall trees across the street and up the road a bit.

mellow

Read various articles which suggest putting out a decoy which resembles an owl, or another type of predatory bird. Never tried it myself, but they claimed that it worked.

Davis Knowlton

Worth a try, although these little bastards don't appear to be scared of much. Thanks.

kingwilly

I've got some kittens in need of a home.

Davis Knowlton

Thanks, but I think I'll pass. Already have dogs, turtles, fish and a snake named Slink.

spikebs4

get a piece of hose pipe / yellow or bright green .. approx 1 mtr long / leave on ground ... birds think its a snake ... worked for me .....

Davis Knowlton

Also worth a try. Thanks. Would use Slink the real snake, but he would take off. Will let you know if it works. Off to buy some hose pipe this afternoon.

Carnwadrick

Hang photos of your avatar

Davis Knowlton

^Would scare the dogs. ^^Wife is excited about the hose pipe idea. She has already headed off to the hardware store.

TizMe

I've also heard some old CDs strung up around the place can be effective as well, I don't know why.

Sdigit

Sounds like you'll soon be redundant mate

Davis Knowlton

Wow, was that a poor choice of words......

Norton

Suppose some bird feed laced with rat poison would do the trick but will have to keep the pets away from it and the dead birds.

paranha

Very easy to get rid of them actually :-)

Get a good sound recorder and mount the microphone in the garden.

When the birds come, turn it on. Go out and scare off the birds.
The birds will sing their warning cry when they see you.

Do some creative editing of the recording of the warning cry and make a loop of it that plays with regular intervals.
Mount some speakers in your garden and play it off randomly. Will not be a birdy in your garden after that ;-).

(tried and tested in the strawberry fields in norway to get rid of birds).

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Chairman Mao

Sprinkle bird food pellets on your neighbour's lawn. (one a few houses down)

Davis Knowlton

A number of good ideas. Thanks to all. Will start with the fake snake, and work from there.

Johnny Longprong

Good eatin them fellas.