My 2 Montmorency barely bloomed this year, not sure why, but my cherry experience is nill. I have a flock of Cedar Waxwings @ the orchard that just won’t move on and I’m not sure if they’re a threat to my young apple fruits.
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I have several kinds of birds. They have pecked small green apples, peaches, etc. Some of my cherries were gone when they were green. Now that they are turning red, they have quickly disappeared.
My cherry bush had 3 flowers one year then 0 the next as I was expecting more the next year. This year I had 40 fruit, I only ate one 
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i have them here too. they survive on the mountain ash fruit here in the winter and nest in my big spruces. so far the flash tape has kept them at bay. planted out some catnip to bring in the local felines as mine adopted my neighbors kids and is a indoor cat now. my monty only partially bloomed/ leafed out but shows no visible damage other wise. growth is mostly on the tips and closer down with blank spots in the middle. didnt like the z3 weather we got last january. grafted 2 z4 hardy sweet cherry scions and 1 black ice plum to it. all 3 took. i may continue to convert it to more sweet cherries if they do well. have too many sours as it is. anyone here know how sweets perform on monty? barely any info on this. ive read one of montys parents is a sweet. why its graft compatible.
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Wondering if others who spray have problems with nests in their trees. I did thin out a couple peach tree leaves to get more sun inside, but missed the bird nest inside my summer beaut. I don’t want to spray with birds there, but it causes a dilemma.
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wonder if you could somehow temporarily cover the nest while you spray?
I try and avoid the section the birds are in. One time I did cover the area with a cloth but went ahead and sprayed. I felt terribly guilty doing so though. I seem to have a lot of nests this time of year.
I think @thecityman , Kevin, had a bird nest in his tree before. Hope he will let us know how he handled the situation.
I was wondering this same thing until a hawk fixed the problem for me. Right outside my daughter’s bedroom window…
I would have preferred a different solution.
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Wish I had hawks here. We have so many bunnies, squirrels, chipmunks, etc.
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We have a small stand of mature coast redwoods growing adjacent to our orchard, and they host a variety of hawks and owls. These really do reliably keep the above-ground rodents under control. We even have an occasional great blue heron drop in for a bit of gopher-hunting. Wish they’d come more often - we have a lot of gophers to share.
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I’ve actually had several and have one right now! Honestly, since I spray with a wand I just kind of spray everything but the nest AND I actually do almost EXACTLY what @Rosdonald said she did- but instead of a cloth I use plastic grocery bags. I just lay them over the nest and then try not to spray it, then when things dry in a few minutes I remove the cover bag. Yes, I’m pretty sure I end up getting some drift on them, but I’ve probably had 8 bird nests since I’ve had my orchard and each and every one made it to adult hood. What makes no sense at all is 2 of them have been mockingbird nests which in my area are the ones who do the most damage to fruit, and I admit I’ve taken out some adults by themselves. Yet I just don’t have the heart to disrupt a nest so I go to a fair amount of trouble just to ensure the life of something I know will be a future problem! ha. Go figure. The sensible thing would be to tear the nest down and it wouldn’t even be THAT cruel if I did it in the egg stage…but I never can talk myself into it! 
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Kevin,
You have a heart after all
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Thanks for sharing your experience with this. I knew I was not alone in my struggle.
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same reason why my garage door had to be open for a month. robin made a nest in my deer antlers. i didnt have the heart to destroy it… i caught the last one that hatched resting on a window sill trying to get out and put it out in the spruce hedge all the while getting dive bombed by his mom. my wife would have freaked! lol!
That is great! I thought you were going to say something else that I was going to say “me too” to…when you said you had to leave your garage door open. My shop/storage building has the roll-up type garage doors like many house garage doors have. I actually left that roll up door open all weekend last weekend because I was around the house all weekend. Then I got ready to close it Sunday night and guess what!!! A bird had built a full nest right on the roll up door where the wheels of the door meet the track that house garages have on them. So now if I lower my door, it will destroy the nest which already has 4 eggs and a dutiful mom!!! So I can’t close it now! Watch me end up getting a $30,000 tractor stolen because I was trying to save some dumb birds! haha
I must confess the jury is still out on this one. I’ll likely try to move the nest to one of the nearby rafters or something and take my chances. Besides, they are just barn swallows which are among my least favorite birds anyway since the get in my barns and buildings and poop on things. But it sounds like me and your wife and you all have bigger hearts than brains! haha
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@JohnS
I meant to show you this pic of my sour cherries. It was the day after I put up bird scare tape. It does not help much esp. when there is no breeze to blow the tape around.
All the red cherries that were on the outside were gone. In the morning, when I went out, a few birds flew off the bush. Early birds get cherries or worms? These are cat birds (@mrsg47 has a strong feelings toward this bird), bluejays, robins to name a few.
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We have blue jays, robins, crows, etc. but they only eat one or two pie cherries here. I used to put a net over my pie cherry trees, but then I stopped because I realized I didn’t need it and it was a hassle. In your situation, I would definitely put one up. But that’s just what I would do. It makes me sad to think of all of the cherries that you grew but don’t get to eat.
John S
PDX OR
This year, we have been behind on every orchard task. Not sure why.
We lost all sweet cherries to birds. We were too busy to put together PVC frames. Using the frames makes putting bird net over the trees a lot easier and little to no damage to the trees.
Cherries, both sweet and sour, are goner this year. I will have to do something with squirrels and chipmunks that have already taken my green apples and pears. They will not leave peaches or any fruit in my yard alone. I have little to no sentimental left for groundhogs, bunnies, squirrels, chipmunks, birds, etc. They are too greedy and don’t share.
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I have seen those frames for the nets and I think they make a lot of sense. I know one guy who prefers sweet cherries and he used a Spanish bush system to keep the trees at about 7 feet tall. It’s like an espalier. Generally, on a full sized sweet cherry tree, I think you are growing them for the birds, unless you net them or something like that.
John S
PDX OR