Interested in knowing what fruit trees birds like to eat from. Also what fruit trees are ripening at this time of year?
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Birds live to destroy anything that brings you joy. This time of year most stone fruits (besides cherries which are probably all done by now; I’m not really a cherry person) and the earlier apples and pears are all ripe/starting to ripen.
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How big are your trees?
Most of them went in last year, so the tops of the tallest ones are ~9.’ I’m trying to keep them to ground reachable height.
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I used one of these for my cherry this year Amazon.com definitely did the trick for birds but its only necessary if the tree is decently big and tall enough say around 10ft.
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I stopped growing cherries because the birds got the vast majority of them or pecked the ones they did not eat. I have some issues with bird peck on peaches. Some of my apples , the really red ones, get some bird peck as well.
The fruit trees ripening at my place right now are Redhaven peach, Monark apple and soon the Contender peach. All three fruits are really red this year.
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Very interesting netting system. Thanks for the link. Looks like it takes a while to actually set it up. Of course if you want to save your fruit it could be worth it.
Nectarines, peaches, plums and apricots. Anything that develops any shade of color other than green. They are eating Flavor Grenade that’s 2 months away from harvest, and are very pale yellow!
Everything. In order of their priority – mulberries, blueberries, caneberries, goumi, figs, peaches. I can shoot them with a pellet gun, but there are dozens. Or I can net them. So far I have nets only on the blueberries and goumi but more are coming eventually.
I don’t have much bird damage on apples, pears, and persimmons…
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Yea it took around 30 mins first time but once you get the hang of it it’s easy. It’s lightweight and assembling is just inserting which is pretty convenient.
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That’s not bad and like you mentioned once you get the hang of it then it probably isn’t too bad to do. Better than losing all your fruit right when it is getting ripe. Thanks for the update.
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Yea they love the mulberries! I also put on one of those netting frames on my mulberry tree or else I would have nothing left.
I originally planted mulberries as a ‘trap crop’, to divert bird from the cherries we planted in the first wave of orchard development. But… everyone in the family prefers mulberries over cherries, so when the cherries died off, we did not replace them.
Mulberries finished way early this year, and the birds have taken every blueberry as soon as it began to show any color. With 30+ mature bushes, in the past, they could eat all they wanted and we could still pick 2-5 gallons every couple of days for weeks at at time… but not this year.
They’re also picking off every elderberry as soon as it goes from green to purple.
I’ve threatened to ban my wife from feeding the birds, but it seems that those stealing the berries - mockingbirds, brown thrashers, robins - are not the ones frequenting the sunflower seed feeders.
Got a cat in the backyard this year. The Bluejay don’t feed on insects anymore in the back, nor they hang out there. However, it couldn’t resist the nectarine and it was in short supply. In addition, I have a ton of loquats that I couldn’t finish, but the birds was late to show up and most of it dropped.
Birds are pecking on all my ripe peach trees.
how tall is your tree and what does it look like
They are about 12-15 ’ tall. Even the fruit at lower levels are getting bird pecks. They can have some and leave me the majority of the fruit. The birds peck them and then the wasps and bees enjoy those same fruits. So when I pick the peaches I just leave the pecked ones alone and leave them up on the tree rather than on the ground and not trying to sting me.
yea the pecking is annoying they just ruin all of it without finishing any completely. I’d net it, there’s a large model that’s 15 ft tall which I think would work for your peach tree
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I may just end up getting one. I have been wondering how to fix this problem with birds and raccoons. That net may solve those problems.Thanks for the suggestion.
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