Christy -
I wish you luck in your search for a suitably cheap and harmless bird scarer
for your fruit trees, but I very much doubt that an imitation predator will
work, except possibly for a few days. Incidentally, you can forget the
'anti-crash hawk' silhouettes for windows - all they do is make the window
more of a visual barrier, something also effectively achieved by not
cleaning it too thoroughly.
If the rewards for the birds (in terms of the energy received for that
expended) are high, it will take more than a simulated predator to put them
off. People have tried all kinds of visual and aural deterrents (stuffed
eagle-owls with swivelling heads and flashing red eyes for feral pigeons,
broadcast alarm-calls and high-decibel ultrasonics for Silvereyes, for
example, while gamekeepers in the UK used to have prominent gibbets hung
with the corpses of what were considered noxious species) but none of them
are very effective. If there was such a simple solution, there would be no
demand from orchardists for permits to cull lorikeets, nor wheat farmers to
trap cockatoos. People with problem birds in their gardens, such as
Blackbirds or Mynas, could simply get a plastic goshawk from their nearest
garden centre.
Birds are neither as stupid nor as behaviourally constrained as some
purveyors of faux falcons would have you believe. Effective deterrents
require regular reinforcement. The higher the reward, the greater the
necessary reinforcement. Noises simulating shots or alarm-calls require
occasional actual shooting to maintain the level of fear among the birds.
Having a real predator such as a dog or cat loose in your garden might also
help. If you really want a bird-benign garden, you may have to choose
between netting and allowing the birds to take some toll of your fruit.
Regards, Hugo.
Hugo Phillipps,
Birds Australia Conservation & Liaison,
Australian Bird Research Centre,
415 Riversdale Road,
Hawthorn East, VIC 3123, Australia.
Tel: (03) 9882 2622. Fax: (03) 9882 2677.
o/s: +61 3 9882 2622. Fax: +61 3 9882 2677.
Email: <>
Web Homepage: http://www.vicnet.net.au/~birdsaus
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