Most garden owners enjoy the various animals that, as guests or as permanent residents, really turn a garden into a natural paradise. Sometimes birds can attack your own berry bushes in such large numbers that there is hardly anything left for the harvest.
How to protect berry bushes from birds?
To protect berry bushes from birds, you can use a bird protection net that is stretched with a frame made of bamboo sticks (€51.00 on Amazon) or rabbit wire at a distance from the branches and fruits. Alternatives are defensive kites or targeted starling colonization with an incubator.
Birds can be a problem - but often they aren't
First of all, it must be said that all fruit plants in the garden certainly do not have to be covered with protective nets and grids as a standard preventive measure. It depends on many different factors whether or not a garden becomes a destination for migrating flocks of birds. The problem of birds eating the berry bushes in the garden is largely determined by the following factors:
- Garden location and food availability in the neighborhood
- Food alternatives in the same garden
- Located along the migration routes of flocks of birds
- Riping time of the different types of berries in the garden
Protect berry bushes from birds with nets
So that berry bushes such as currants and gooseberries can be effectively protected from thieving starlings and other birds, the net should be installed promptly before the harvest season begins. Please note, however, that these thin plastic nets can be virtually ineffective if they allow birds to reach the fruit from the ground or rest directly on the branches. It has therefore proven to be particularly advantageous to surround berry bushes planted in rows or potted plants placed next to each other with a frame made of bamboo sticks (€51.00 on Amazon) or rabbit wire, over which the actual bird protection net is then stretched at a distance from the branches and fruits.
Alternatives to bird protection nets
Since there are always tragic deaths of animals entangled in bird nets, its use in private horticulture is controversial. The so-called defensive kites can sometimes serve as an alternative. These are metal bird of prey silhouettes that have a deterrent effect on some bird species such as starlings. It can also be worthwhile to use a suitable bird incubator to specifically encourage a family of starlings to settle. Since starlings defend their “brood tree” against other starlings, this can keep bird predation to a minimum. It also helps to offer the birds food alternatives that are less interesting to humans, such as elderberry, privet, ivy and rowan.
Tip
If you protect your berry bushes in the garden from birds with special nets, then you should definitely tie their loose ends and tips so that they do not become a deadly trap for curious birds. Bird protection nets should not hang down to the ground, otherwise they can become fatal to toads and other amphibians.
