Keeping birds out the house 24 July 2022 at 6:11PM in Greenfingered MoneySaving 7 replies 184 views

longwalks1

We’ve just opened up the kitchen rear wall to fit bifolding doors (opening is only 2.7m wide) this week, and in the last 4 days we’ve already had 3 sparrows fly in and around the kitchen (currently a building site). 

We do feed the garden birds, and I get through 25kg of feed every 2 months so the garden is always busy.

is there any way of keeping the birds from flying into the opening?  Other than keeping the new doors closed?  

Thank you everyone in advance! 

RAS

Get those insect netting divided curtains, maybe with some bright coloured motifs sown on. They need to learn to avoid. It also sounds like a couple of stick-on hawk profiles might be needed later to stop birds flying into the bi-folds?

twopenny

A,string curtain - a net curtain - wind chimes 
I have net and string curtains on a tension rod so I can take it down, put it up at will so it's not permanent.
But don't the tv designers say "bring the garden into the house?" 
I'm thinking though that at the moment they are just a bit confused and once it's a room this shouldn't happen. It's not something I've heard any one say.

Mojisola

twopenny said:

A,string curtain - a net curtain - wind chimes

If you have neighbours, wind chimes aren't a good idea - very anti-social!

Woolsery

I  laugh when I see humungous bifolds in country properties featured in the glossy mags. The dream of a 'seamless transition' from home to the great outdoors is wonderful in theory, but it ignores the ability of the inhabitants of that other world to move in the opposite direction.

Twopenny's string curtains work in a small gap, but the expanse of a bi-fold was never designed for those, and what's the point if they ruin that view and unimpeded 'transition?' Also, for every bird you'll get many more insects.

2.7m isn't huge; it's under 9' in old money, so some sort of strung-across temporary barrier that indicates it's not a free fly zone will help to educate the birds that visit regularly. As for the insects, you don't have to open them fully in high summer - even if that's when you might like them open most - and there are times in the spring when insect numbers are much lower.

Wind chimes? I once bought a cow bell to hang high in a tree when a neighbour's barking dogs annoyed me, but that was the nuclear option and I never actually deployed it!

sheramber

My dog used to bark at my neighbour's wind chimes as she thought somebody was at the door.

We had double patio door in the last house.

We got birds flying in if they were open, particularly robins.

We had a beautiful imprint of an owl in flight on the glass one morning.

We did have stickers on the them but that didn't stop the birds trying to fly through them.

longwalks1

Thanks all - last summer we suffered load from flies (we are surrounded by farms, farmland and horse fields so its inevitable) but bought a couple of The Buzz fly catchers and haven't had a single fly in the house since, even with back door and windows open all day. its a plastic jar with one way lid that you hang up with a sachet of powder in, it attracts them and then you dispose of the full container (need a strong stomach or peg on your nose) but we hang one up each side of the garden and they fill up in a few days. 
I'll try a temporary net when the doors are opened as an education for the birds and hope they learn.  The occasional sparrow isnt an issue but we get a long of ring necked parakeets around our way so dont fancy chasing those out!

Woolsery

Thanks for the tip about  fly catchers. My old jam jar with a hole in the lid and some watery jam also gets quite a few of them, as do the swallows and house martins.