How to Keep Birds from Pecking in Your Garden

Written and verified by the lawyer Francisco María García

Last update: 27 December, 2022

Are you trying to keep birds from pecking in your garden? Well, their role in the balance of the ecosystems is fundamental. However, their presence in gardens, orchards, and agricultural fields is often a real maintenance challenge and causes economic losses.

For this reason, we want to invite you to learn some tricks to prevent birds from pecking in your garden or urban orchard. What can you do to keep them away?

Tips for scaring birds away from small gardens or urban orchards

Fortunately, more and more people are choosing to have their own urban gardens to grow organic food. Many people choose the aesthetics and ambiance of their home with handmade flowers and plants, and without any chemical additives. It’s an excellent investment that can enhance your quality of life, as well as contributing to preserving the environment.

In practice, the maintenance of these green areas can be complicated when there’s a large population of pigeons or other birds. Continue reading for some tips to keep birds from pecking your garden.

Ultrasonic bird scaring devices

Currently, there are several devices to keep insects, birds, and mice away through the emission of ultrasound frequencies.

This method is imperceptible to human ears, although it’s usually effective in scaring away unwanted visitors. Note that such devices are safe for pets.

Visual bird repellents

There are ready-made visual repellents available on the market, but it’s possible to use homemade and inexpensive solutions to keep birds from pecking in your garden.

A simple and effective option is to hang one or two CDs in the surroundings of the green area in order to scare them away. This is because they reflect sunlight and give the impression of movement, thus scaring birds away from your plants.

Another strategy is to add an artificial owl as a visual “scarecrow” in your garden. There are some plastic or fabric ones in gardening stores that serve that purpose. In addition, these same stores also offer windmills and movable weather vanes that keep birds away.

You can also opt for the traditional scarecrows, to which you can add some CDs, windmills, or weather vanes to improve their effectiveness. However, these work better in agricultural fields or large orchards due to their large size.

A repellent gel can keep birds from pecking in your garden

There are bird repellent gels available in gardening stores and it’s a simple and effective product in many cases.

You can apply it to surfaces (such as cornices or balcony railings), but not to plants. Its effect isn’t toxic to birds, but it scares them away as they find contact with the gel unpleasant.

You must keep the gel away from pets or little children and make sure they don’t eat it. The product isn’t toxic to the touch but its consumption can be harmful to their health.

Bird repellent sachets

These are another relatively inexpensive option and you can hang them on branches in order to repel birds. Again, this isn’t a toxic or lethal product for birds. It simply uses unpleasant odors to keep them from coming to the garden.

Additional tips to keep birds from pecking in your garden

Some of the above methods may be difficult to apply for those who have large gardens or orchards,  although traditional scarecrows or giant owls are often effective in agricultural fields as well.

Here are some additional tips to preserve the integrity of your crops:

• Sometimes simply covering your plants is the best way to preserve their fruit and seeds. These protective nets are made with resistant materials to be able to withstand outdoor use and inclement weather.
• The scarecrow cannons make small detonations and work with gas. The user can choose the most appropriate volume and program the frequency of the detonations. You may have already guessed that the noise will scare the birds away and keep them away from your fruit and vegetables.

The purpose of this advice is to keep birds from pecking your garden and not to harm them in any way. For this reason, the methods mentioned above are non-toxic and won’t do any damage to them.