How To Make A Bird Scarer - Zacs Garden

How To Make A Bird Scarer

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If you are wondering how to make a bird scarer yourself, then your not alone. Bird scarers sold on the internet and at hardware stores have become quite a large industry over the last ten years. For a long time there was only scare crows, but now there seems to be many different ways you can scare birds from your property.

The good news is these bird scarers are always not as hard as they seem to make yourself. Making a bird scarer is mostly an arts and craft exercise which can be a fun Sunday afternoon task. The most important thing to know before you make a bird scarer is to know what birds respond to. Because what scares birds and what people think scares birds can be two different things. Some store bought bird scarers don’t work so why spend your time making a scarer that doesn’t work either? 

Depending on the bird scarer you want will depend on how complicated your task becomes.

If you want to make a fake predator bird like a owl or falcon then that is relatively simple. You can simply make fake birds out of styrofoam, plastic bottles, milk cartons, even foil wrapped in masking/duct tape. If you look at the shape of the head of the owl or falcon, that is what scares birds, so make sure you get this right.

Solar rotating head owl

The eyes also are glass which is used to make the fake predator birds look more real, you could use leftover buttons or glossy plastic. Even though you are making it yourself, if you are using light to surprise and scare birds, then using a reflective ribbon is a cheap way to go, if you don’t have anything else lying around.

You can make an old CD mobile (CD’s tied on a string) if you want to soley rely on reflective light to scare birds away. All you need to do is tie some string to some CD’s and hang them up around the area which has birds. Some CD mobiles I have seen have holes drilled in the top of them to run the string, this is just to make it easier to hang.

This is a cheap option but is not very effective in my opinion, and doesn’t work in many conditions, such as low light, overcast, raining. If you want more information on this method, you can look at my previous CD Mobile bird scaring post.

If you are trying to create a kite like imitation predator, then you will need to decide how to keep it up in the air. I suggest not using string because it will eventually break. I used PVC pipe which held up quite well in windy weather. You could use pine stud also, anything solid is good.

Bird kites are actually quite simple, the bought one I own is just a plastic mold, it would be easy to make one out of plywood or plastic. (Although I did buy one, you could make something similar yourself if you wanted.)

You could also make a physical barriers, something you can find from the hardware store or around the house that works like a spike strip. You could put glue down and broken glass, glue and tacks, or anything else that you can find that would make an uncomfortable seat for a bird.

If you are good at electronics then you could use sensors and create a noise scarer, or even a motion activated sprinkler something like this, but this requires some investment in time and effort on your part, if you don’t have the expertise.

If you have any comments, feedback or experience that you would like to share, please contact us.

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