Birds damaging roof

bobobski

I'm at my wit's end and hoping you guys may have some advice for me!

This summer and last, we've been woken up at the crack of dawn on a near-daily basis by a banging sound on the roof.  We're 99% sure it's rooks but we've never been able to catch them in the act - although we know there's a big gang of rooks around, and we see and hear them in our garden almost every morning.  Our best guess is that they're pecking at the moss on the roof, or alternatively cracking walnuts up there (no joke - we keep finding walnut shells in our garden, and there's a walnut tree somewhere in our village).  Either way, the banging reverberates through the house, thanks to the attic below, and judging by the chunks of cement around the house they're causing some pretty serious damage up there.

Does anyone have any ideas about how we can solve this?  Options we can think of are:

• Stop feeding the birds: Done - it hasn't stopped the rooks coming to our house.
  

• Bird scarers: We've read that these only work for a day or two and then the birds get used to them (especially smarter birds like corvids), so they stop working really quickly.  We don't have easy access to our roof (we'd need "a man" to come and install the thing), so can't spend the next x years we live here going up and moving the scarer every couple of days.

• Bird netting on the roof: Not even sure if if this is possible - the idea being to stop them landing on the roof.  I am skeptical that it would do so, unless the netting was sufficiently raised off the surface (... how?).  Plus, danger of birds getting trapped under it and dying, which (a) we don't want and (b) isn't something we can easily deal with.
  

• Spikes: My partner is reluctant due to the eyesore.

• Roof cleaning: A quick Google suggests this is going to cost close to £1k, and it's a temporary fix (if it works at all, i.e. to get rid of the moss).  If it 100% would work we may have to accept the cost, but almost £1k on a gamble isn't particularly tempting...
  

• Ear plugs: Doesn't even nearly work.  I've also tried headphones/music to cover up the sound, but it couldn't make less of a difference...
  

It's hard enough to get a good night's sleep in summertime and these rooks really are driving us close to the edge.  Please help!!

Nearlyold

You would normally be able hear the birds walking about on the roof, we can hear the local pigeons on our roof quite easily when they walk about, do you hear them walking about or do you just hear the banging noise? 

It does seem odd that on "hearing the rooks" if you immediately go outside there's no sign of them - assuming that's what you mean by not being able to catch them in the act.

Do you hear the noise on overcast mornings or just on sunny ones?

Have you got plastic guttering?

chrisw

Could it be something in the attic like a rat or squirrel? 

Section62

bobobski said:

This summer and last, we've been woken up at the crack of dawn on a near-daily basis by a banging sound on the roof.  We're 99% sure it's rooks but we've never been able to catch them in the act - although we know there's a big gang of rooks around, and we see and hear them in our garden almost every morning.  Our best guess is that they're pecking at the moss on the roof, or alternatively cracking walnuts up there (no joke - we keep finding walnut shells in our garden, and there's a walnut tree somewhere in our village).

I'd be surprised if rooks were regularly collecting walnuts elsewhere and bringing them to your roof to break, if the tree was in your garden then that would be different.

On the other hand... squirrels like nuts.  Bringing them back to a nest to store or feed their young would better fit that pattern of behaviour.

twopenny

Indeed squirrels are at nuts as soon as they are available - as do rooks. I fight both of them for the walnuts in my town trees.
Getting the moss off should be no problem but cement shouldn't come out if it's sound. Perhaps it was already cracking or loosened? Has anyone been up to check?
What sort of roof is it? What are the tiles made from?
A photo would be helpful

stuart45

How Crows Use Rocks to Damage Your Property (safeguardpestcontrol.co.uk)

Ramouth

We managed to stop seagulls nesting on the roof below us by just running out to scare them every time we heard them (before they had really got going on their nest - wouldn’t have worked if they had eggs).  Took a while (at least 3 weeks) but did work.  

Not sure if it would work as well if you can’t get as close (our garden was at our neighbours roof level as we were on a steep hill) but worth a try - perhaps with a flag on a pole to wave about?

prowla

They need to be persuaded that yours is not a safe place for them to be.

Depending upon how close to other houses and public areas you are, you could try using a hose, a water gun, a nerf gun, a catapult (with soft projectiles), a tennis ball, a soft football, or whatever to scare them off.

Chloe_G

Share your pain.  We've got a flat roof and have always heard all manner of crashes and bumps up there and 'hammering' on the roof.  I'd love to have a CCTV camera up there but certain it's mainly magpies and squirrels (have seen them running vertically up and down the house to the roof).  Unfortunately now we have upwards of 30 feral pigeons as they are breeding under my next door neighbour's solar panels and they love them and are feeding them seed on the lawn several times a day.  
Could you try one of those hawk effigies to scare them off?

olgadapolga

Chloe_G said: 

Could you try one of those hawk effigies to scare them off?

The problem with the hawk effigies is that the birds get used to them and ignore them after a while - we were given some and despite moving them around the garden, the pigeons/magpies/rooks/seagulls just ignore them. 

Chloe_G said:

 Unfortunately now we have upwards of 30 feral pigeons as they are breeding under my next door neighbour's solar panels and they love them and are feeding them seed on the lawn several times a day.  

Our neighbours "feed" the birds as well. We are plagued by pigeons, seagulls, rooks and magpies. The neighbours feed them to a tight schedule which the birds have learned as they line up on the fence and nearby roofs waiting for the feast (several loaves of bread) to begin twice a day. The birds poo all over my garden, house and car and bring the bread into my garden to hide/eat their spoils. No idea what to do about it as my neighbours are lovely apart from this aspect.