Birds frequently consume garden plants, making this a common challenge for home gardeners. While many species are beneficial, primarily by controlling insect pests, their foraging habits can cause significant damage to cultivated crops and ornamental plants. Understanding the specific plants they target, the species involved, and their motivations is the first step toward effective mitigation. By combining this knowledge with targeted, non-lethal protection strategies, gardeners can coexist with their feathered neighbors without sacrificing their harvest.
Which Garden Plants Birds Target
Birds often target plants that offer soft textures, high sugar content, or nutritional density, especially during vulnerable growth stages. Soft fruits are a prime target, with species like blackbirds, starlings, and thrushes frequently stripping bushes of berries, cherries, and currants as they ripen. Damage to fruit is often characterized by scooped-out sections or small, deep holes created by the bird’s beak.
Tender new growth is also highly susceptible, particularly newly sown seeds and young seedlings. Seed-eaters like sparrows will raid freshly seeded lawns and vegetable beds. Larger birds may pull up seedlings, often leaving a clean cut just above the soil line as they search for the buried seed.
The damage is not limited to edible crops. Tits and sparrows will also peck at ornamental flower buds and shred the blooms of spring flowers like crocus and polyanthus. Leafy greens and brassicas, such as cabbage and broccoli, are another favored food source, particularly for wood pigeons and collared doves, who can quickly remove large portions of leaves.
Identifying the Common Avian Culprits
The specific type of damage often points toward the bird species responsible. The highly adaptable House Sparrow is a common pest, known for digging up small seedlings and shredding spring blossoms. Finches, including the American Goldfinch, often focus their attention on the buds and seeds of plants, making them a threat to flowering varieties and small fruits.
Larger species like Crows, Jays, and Wood Pigeons tend to be responsible for more substantial crop loss. Jays are known to eat peas and beans, while pigeons and doves are the primary culprits behind damage to large-leafed vegetables like kale and cabbage. Blackbirds, Starlings, and Robins are frequently cited for pulling up corn seedlings and soft fruits, though they also dig into lawns while hunting for soil-dwelling insects like grubs.
Understanding Why Birds Feed on Plants
The motivation for birds consuming plants is often more complex than simple hunger for the plant material itself. In dry periods, birds will target water-rich plants, such as ripe tomatoes, melons, and soft fruits, to supplement their water intake when natural sources are scarce. The resulting damage is a side effect of their search for moisture.
Another common behavior that damages seedlings is the need for grit, which is composed of tiny pieces of rock or gravel. Birds lack teeth, and they swallow this grit, stored in their gizzard, to help grind up hard-to-digest items like seeds. When a bird pulls up a small seedling, it is often trying to access the seed or the soil around it to find this necessary digestive aid. Furthermore, some destruction is collateral damage from birds foraging for insects, larvae, or spiders hidden on the plant foliage. Birds will also harvest plant fibers, twigs, and dried leaves for nesting materials in the spring, which may result in them pulling apart stems or plants.
Practical Strategies for Protecting Your Garden
The most effective method for long-term garden protection is physical exclusion, which involves creating a barrier between the bird and the plant. Bird netting is highly effective, but it must be installed correctly and pulled taut over a frame or cage to prevent birds from becoming entangled. For small birds like sparrows, a netting mesh size of 3/4 inch (15mm to 2cm) is recommended to provide an effective barrier. Row covers and crop cages, often built with lightweight PVC pipe or wood, can be draped with netting or garden fabric to protect vulnerable seedlings and soft fruits.
Visual and auditory deterrents offer a short-term solution by startling or confusing the birds. Reflective materials, such as metallic tape, aluminum pie tins, or mylar balloons with large “scare eyes,” use movement and light flashes to discourage approach. Motion-activated sprinklers or noise devices can also be effective, but their placement must be rotated every few days. Birds are intelligent and quickly become accustomed to any stationary or predictable deterrent, so frequent changes in location or device type are necessary.
Diversionary tactics can reduce pressure on cultivated plants by offering alternatives away from the target area. Providing a consistent, clean water source, such as a bird bath, can satisfy their need for moisture, reducing the likelihood they will peck at water-rich fruits. Placing bird feeders stocked with preferred seeds, suet, or mealworms away from the vegetable garden can offer an easier food source. Planting a sacrificial crop, like a patch of clover or inexpensive birdseed, can also draw attention away from high-value vegetables.