Bird deterrents act as a visual and physical barrier to deter small birds from perching on window ledges. Here’s how to make your own easily, cheaply and effectively.
At this time of year with nesting in full swing, your backyard feathered friends will be looking to settle down. Inevitably poop splashes will make their long term mark on paintwork due to its corrosive acidic nature. While ‘that’s life’ most of the time and is dealt with with house maintenance, you may wish to have strategic windows and window sills splatter-free – eg: outdoor eating areas or where children play.
I love the birdlife around our house. Daybreak is alive with the sound of bird song. We see swamp harriers circling above the wetlands, wild parakeets chatting in the tree tops, tui enjoying the cherry tree, fantails flittering in the air to catch the bugs, kingfisher staking their claim in the gum tree, starling nesting in the letterbox, swallows mesmerizing us with their merry mating dance…and sparrows, who love to nest in our guttering and talk about their day on our window ledges.
Cute and delightful as they are, the sparrows seem to be the culprits when it comes to leaving a mess. We have more than 500 trees on our section plus an acre of wetlands, numerous birdhouses, feeding stations and sheltered nooks. We are bird-lovers, just not in key areas where regular cleaning is hard to reach.
It’s important to note that bird spikes don’t hurt the birds. They are a visual deterrent (and a physical one too should they try to chance their luck) to land and settle in said problematic areas. The birds will happily fly on by to their next landing pad!
You may be familiar with long spikes often seen on church buildings to deter pigeons. This approach looks a bit alien but is there to deter larger birds such as pigeons and seagulls. It isn’t fool-proof however if you live in a rural area or have more concern with smaller birds such as sparrows and starlings. They are sneaky little critters and can actually perch on these longer spikes due to their nimbleness and little clawed feet.
There are commercially available options for bird spikes that will deter sparrows (we’ve seen them in brown plastic) and while they work, they are also a bit of an eye-sore, particularly against white windows.
….so, we came up with our own DIY solution for making bird spikes that is cheap, effective and easy on the eye.
Our DIY bird spikes are made from aviary netting but used in a different way that you’d expect. We used a galvanized aviary netting available in local hardware stores – lightweight, small 12mm square detail and comes in rolls of 5m and 10m. If you want to give this a go (I highly recommend it, it works) may I suggest you acquire some gardening gloves (otherwise you may be on the end of some spiking of your own) and a pair of tin snips or wire cutters.
How to make your own Bird Spikes to Deter Sparrows
- Measure the length of your window ledge and cut a strip of aviary netting to this length.
- Further trim down the netting length to a long 5 square wide strip (ie: 12mm squares x 5 wide). Note, this may be wider than the measured depth of your ledge.
- While 5 squares wide, turn your attention to the sides. Snip closely to the join to expose a short length of wire. Upturn these at a 90 degree angle so they stick up.
- You will be left with a centre row of 3 squares in tact. In the centre row, snip alternate joins – again, exposing a short length of wire that you will bend up. Be sure NOT to cut all the squares in the middle as it needs the occasional complete square to work as a crossbar for stability (otherwise it may be prone to twisting) so every 10 or so squares leave an uncut square.
- The finished strip of bird spikes will resemble a double row of long staples.
- Attach your newly made strip of spikes to each problematic window ledge with a small screw that overlaps the wire to secure to the wooden frame.
