New problems here- birds are eating my squash blossoms. Both summer and winter squash. I’ve been growing both for years and never had this problem. I have flower gardens all around and right next to the edibles that the birds go to for food; they have always left my vegetable gardens alone. Only difference is that this year I put in a bunch of cattle panels. I have sweet peas growing on each one with winter squash slowly taking over. About 2 weeks ago, the birds decided they love the panels and LOVE pea leaves. I’ve also grown sweet peas for 7+ year and never had a single leaf eaten. Not the peas, just the leaves. So whatever, plants are still growing and producing. Flash tape deters them maybe 50% if it’s windy. But, this is now morphing to squash blossoms. Anyone had this problem? Nothing is getting pollinated with them destroying the flowers. No idea what can be done about it. Put up a bird feeder for a more desirable competing source of food?
Thank you for the new nightmares. 
So I take it this problem is unique to me…we took the bird feeder down to repaint it. Trying to get that done and back up ASAP as a distraction for them. My black-coated rescue dog has zero heat tolerance and has proved to be useless in the gardens! All the trashed baby fruit is frustrating.
I am sorry for the silly birds. If it makes you feel better, the same bird @Melon ‘s place is eating all my strawberries. I probably lost more than half my crop thanks to them. Never seen those birds around here either till this spring.
Oh that is frustrating! I’m sorry.
The robins and grackles here dig up my seedlings but dont take blossoms or leaves. I have to replant or replace seedling every few days. If they started taking blossoms, we are going to have beef.
That is strange to me. This year I setup cattle panels March/April and while they were empty of plants the birds were using them as perches often enough to leave noticeable droppings. I was planning on putting out more next year to bring in more birds but now your post does have me concerned about going that direction.
The birds tend not to perch on my wielded wire fencing bordering the garden or cages, I guess it is a bit too thin for comfort.
If you have any of those mesh (tulle?) bags people use to protect fruit you could put that over the buds as they appear, take them off to hand pollinate and then put them back on until the squashes get too big. This also has the benefit of guaranteeing your seed isn’t cross-pollinated as long as you are doing both the male and female buds.
If you are buying them, I prefer the green color since it seems to camouflage the fruit better and also fits in with the leaves so is a little more attractive. They are available in fairly large sizes, so you could probably get some that would fit until the zukes are almost full sized. And then you have them to protect other fruit, clusters of grapes, berries, etc.
Interesting idea! I have a bunch of organza bags and will resort to that next. I spent a while this morning hanging a LOT more flash tape. The trellises are insanely bedazzled and it’s offensive to my eye, so we’ll see.
How annoying. I didn’t know birds dug seedlings.
The internet says squash blossoms are known bird food. Who knew
Same here! 
i thought it was just me and my area… i haven’t seen the cute little brown chickadees in forever but a ton of new birds that i don’t ever remember being here…
The deer have figured me out as well and will watch until I’m inside then come by… I’m tempted to let my cousins take a few of them lol
Ozark touched on my question: Do the cattle panels provide a better perch for birds who do not exclusively ground-feed? In my garden, birds only bother the berries that are very near the top rail of the fence or the top rail of my trellis system.
It’s my first season with cattle panels, so I can’t speak to that broadly. I can only say that I never had noticeable bird involvement in my vegetable gardens before this year and now they’re all over the panel trellises whenever I’m not out there scaring them away.
We bagged all the flowers we could find since the birds aren’t letting up. They seem to preferentially eat the male flowers on both winter and summer squash. So much lost fruit. Hopefully, things turn around now and we will just avidly hand pollinate. I feel bad for the bees as they love the pumpkin flowers
Any tips on saving squash pollen? Just put it in a container? Store open on counter? In fridge?
I just discovered the birds are also eating my melon blossoms - male and female. About 75% gone this afternoon from all plants. I wanted to cry. I don’t know what’s going on with these birds! My new cattle panels are useless to me if I can’t grow things on them! I can’t net them. I’ve tried bagging flowers, but wow is it time consuming for the winter squash because they grow so fast between moving bags and checking them- it’s not sustainable. Melon blossoms are so little, I’m pretty sure I’ll break most trying to bag them. This is just insane.
Do any scare tactics work? Eagle sounds? Anything?
I had zero issues the last few years growing on the ground. Last year I added a trellis I made but it only went up about 3.5 feet. Nothing eaten.
Edited to add whats being eaten: various pumpkins, gourds, spaghetti squash, various cantaloupe style melons and galia melon. Cucumbers are the only thing not yet being affected and making fruit. It’s one of those ‘I want to cry’ gardening things. There’s got to be a way to deter them. Flash tape is useless - and it’s windy here and I put up so much it irritates me. I watch them sit next to it and eat. I put up and filled the bird feeder- they’re eating sunflower seeds (smashing them on the trellis…) but that’s not stopping them from devouring flowers. I have gardens all around with other things for them to eat. No help. I could try to wrap insect netting around parts of the trellises with clothes pins? Not sure if I’ll kill a bird. My little son was adamant I might hurt them. I don’t know what to do and would to hear if anyone else has worked through this problem
Have you tried a plastic owl?
Netting in the plants might be your only option.
I have been looking at eagle and owl statues- think it has a chance? I’ll get one for each trellis! I’m trying to find a motion sensor with the red tailed hawk screech. Or something I can record it to. I found something that looked decent from Vern, but after multiple blocks from my bank and conversations with the fraud department, I think that’s a scam site. Anyone have a half decent motion sensor sound device? Even if it worked a little it’s worth it.
I spent a really long time trying to net portions of the trellis- it was a mess. I still have sweet peas growing on all of them and while I planned to remove them soon, I’m afraid to do that since it’ll leave the melons and pumpkins even more exposed. I am purchasing more netting and going to try a single, wide piece over the entire thing from end to end with clips on one side. The problem is that they will just quickly grow through the netting - already were the following morning. Also, a bee was visiting the few remaining melon blossoms while I did this and when I was done, I watched the poor thing buzz around for 3 minutes unable to figure out how to end it. They just need to land in the netting and step in…I noticed the same problem when my raspberries and vegetable gardens were netting, but everything got pollinated so some clearly figured it out.
Also, trying smell deterrent for all the flowers and fruit not in bloom. I had a lot of stinky compost tea sludge left over this morning and sprayed/glopped it on everything. I know this will affect the pollinators, but I don’t have much left in the way of blooming (they’ve just destroyed everything), I’m just trying to protect the female and make flowers to get them big enough to bag. I noticed that bagging the tiny pumpkins causes them to rot with the daily rain. This time last year, everything was on my front lawn and I had countless pumpkins and cantaloupes growing.
If it’s not too gruesome, you could kill some birds and leave the bodies around for the others to see. People do that w crows.
If I leave rat snap traps out after sunrise everyone of them has a bird in them. Baited with peanut butter anyway. Maybe a day of snap traps would change your odds? Is it a pest bird or something less common no one wants you snap killing?
I would be going nuts in your shoes right now. Like a butterfly net and a machete.
FYI, hard to like those posts. Here’s and empathy heart instead. 