This is my door.
This is the bird.
This is the poop that the bird leaves on my door everyday as it graciously awakens me at 4am peck peck peck peck peck peck pecking at the glass on my door.
These are the bags under my eyes that have formed after many sleepless mornings of this bird attacking my house.
This is now my brain, on birds.
This is me amidst the piles of work that are not getting done because of the bird.
This is my plan.
I googled “scare bird” and came up with that image of an “owl.” It’s a balloon you can buy, but since my only problem is the damn bird pecking on the glass on my door, I figured I could probably print that sucker out and tape it to the glass. I’m hoping it scares the bird away, but I will accept it literally scaring the shit out of the bird as long as it stops pecking on the glass.
Tomorrow morning will be day #1 of my attempts to fight back against the bird…
Update: Jan 15
I was so sleep deprived last night, I applied for a job at the CAJA when I meant to only sign up for an online account. I don’t even know how that happened and didn’t even realize it until I got an email from them thanking me for my application. :/
Progress: The bird did not peck at 4am.
Setbacks: He did show up at 6am. He did not peck the door very much, but he did move over to the gigantic window.
Plan: I am going to print more pictures of owls, cats, and maybe even some dogs (I really don’t like cats), and spray gold spray paint on something and hang that up. I’m also going to talk to my neighbor about setting up a pedestal in the yard for our fruit trash. Maybe he will go peck at that…
Update: Jan 24
I got lazy, maybe from sleep deprivation, and did not do jack until the other day. …to my credit, I have also been at the beach for the majority of last week. I hung up a gold chain and set some CDs on the door and that worked for a few days until this morning when the bird figured out he could throw the CDs to the ground. He is more intelligent than I thought.
My next move will be to get some fishing line and hang the CDs up around my porch so they move and twirl with the wind. I might tape those suckers there on the door, too. Never mind the fact that I am going to look like one of those crazy people that collects shiny things to hang all over the house and yard.
I live here and I have seen this sort of behavior before. Someone has been feeding this bird from this house before you arrived. If the owl like face doesn’t work, print out a photo of a real owl and try that. If that does not work, try to find a plastic owl that some garden places sell.
Good luck.
I know how annoying that can be.
Thanks for the feedback. Do you know if these birds eat papaya skins? I used to put all the fruit trash out on a pedestal in another house I lived in. It had several glass walls, but was never attacked by the birds. Maybe I should set out my fruit trash…
Woman I wish you the best night sleep in too long!
🙂
Erin,
That bird is in the tyrant flycatcher family, notice tyrant in the name : ). The eat anything but most importantly for you is that they fight a lot with other males. If you owl doesn’t work try putting windchimes on your front door with one of those over the cabinet door hangy things.
Good Luck. Sometimes I curse their cousin the Great Kiskadee for not shutting the hell up in the mornings.
hmmmm maybe the tyrant is trying to fight himself in the reflection in the glass.
Hey Erin,
When I lived in Japan, the farmers used long strips of shiny silver mylar to scare away the birds. They would string it from tree to tree and give it a little twist so that is would appear to move when the wind blew. The shiny material would flash in the sunlight and scare away the birds. I hang strips of caution tape from the tops of the doors in my shop to discourage birds from coming in and making nests and pooping on everything.
Tio Potlick
I have gold spray paint… I’d love to put caution tape over my door, that would be hilarious. I think I might try making a caution tape with gold edges – craft time!!!
No idea how to solve the bird problem, but I love the self portrait of you in the door !
haha thanks 🙂
We have a similar problem with a crow that’s in love with himself. He sits on the window bars and taps on the windows, then he sits on the fence some 2 meters away to preen and strut his stuff. He starts about 5:30 AM and taps on all 4 windows when not prancing up and down the fence. This goes on for most of the day. Fortunately for us, the poop is landing in the field on the other side of the fence. I may have to try some of the tips in the previous comments.
OMGZZZ what is going on with these birds?! They are all crazy. I’m posting up pics I cut out of magazines tonight. I was too lazy… I mean busy, to search for and print out internet photos.
Erin, once birds decide where they are going to live, no matter what you do, they are going to live there. I think you ought to hang the strips of anything shiny you can get and then maybe attach something on the bottom that makes enuf noise to scare the bird. The only other way is to trap is and take it far, far away and set it free.
I just unearthed a bunch of old CDs the other day while cleaning up and thought they might be useful in this situation. I’ll have to try it… thanks!!
My wife and I are cracking up here. A few years back in Texas I had a problem with mud swallows nesting under my carport. So imagine clumps of mud stuck everywhere in addition to the poop. After what seemed like several hundred attempts to scare them away, including a mixture of hot peppers, mustard, and rotten onions, I finally stumbled upon something that worked. I tied up several plastic grocery bags and set up an oscillating fan. It wasn’t pretty but it did the trick. After a few days they finally built a nest somewhere else and had a bunch of babies that returned the following year. Don’t stop trying.
“…and had a bunch of babies that returned the following year.” Returned to your carport??!! Hahahahahaha that’s terrible.
It’s mean and it will kill the bird but if it eats an Alka Seltzer tablet (maybe wrapped with peanut butter) he will die. This would drive me insane! Maybe hang those cd’s on mylar strips? Good Luck! Please continue this so we can know what happens! Sorry but it really is hilarious!
Yeah I’m not going to kill it. Although I have to admit I have definitely daydreamed about shooting it with a BB gun. My current strategy has shifted to trying to befriend it. I am feeding it away from my porch, hoping it stops pecking as long as it has food. Tomorrow I go to buy the fishing line to hang those CDs. I actually have probably 20 or so CDs that are useless now and I’m not afraid to use them if I have to!!!
Hi Erin, what about some fishing net, or something like it. You can still see through it. They won’t be able to land on it and stay there.
I’ve enjoyed reading your blog as we are taking a family trip this Easter. I’m now very afraid that 10 days will not be enough, but that is all the time we have.
Thx
Fishing net sounds like a good idea, but I bet the spiders would have a field day in it and then my whole porch would be surrounded in one giant spider web ewwwww. hmmmm my house keeper might be able to keep it web-free though. She is magic.
10 days is not enough, but hey, it’s better than no days!! 🙂
I’m having this exact problem now. For the past three mornings, a bird has taken upon itself to peck at the window closest to my bed. There are six windows in the bedroom and it’s chosen the one closest to me. No bueno.
Yikes sorry to hear that. You know, I finally solved it by covering the outside of the windows. I hung fabric over one and taped paper to another. ANd yeah, they love the windows closest to your head, don’t they? So you don’t need to keep the windows covered forever, just for a few days and the birds will go away. But keep your window covers because some other bird is going to start tapping one day.
Okay, the Tyrant is at my window – again! Cannot believe how this bird disrupts my life! I keep thinking someone is trying to break into my house. But alas, it is the bird.