The main problem here with birds and squirrels eating fruits is that they are ill-mannered eaters.
If they would completely consume individual fruits, the losses would be minimal. One peck, and the blackberry is on the ground, and they do not pursue it there. Squirrels chew into fruits looking for the core nut. If no nut, you just end up with unconsumed, shredded fruit–and they never learn to tell the fruits from the husked nuts.
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No real problems with my (THORNED) blackberries or raspberries… which is why i prefer thorned.
But the birds wore out my thornless ouachita blackberries and they do hit my blueberries hard too.
Flash tape helps a little for a while… but does not seem to continue to be effective… they get used to it.
Organza bags over clusters of berries helps.
I think the larger and more productive your blueberries get… the less you will notice the missing berries. That is happening with mine now.
There is a tipping point where you and the birds both are happy with harvest.
My goumi berries are like that now… the birds get all they want and we do too.
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Not saying that at all. I am anti (and worse words) deer…because i have so much pressure.
I have so much deer pressure because the mountain lion and grey wolf are non existant here. Bounties were paid to eradicate them. The last recorded wolf to live here was 1900.
Im not joking when i say that if not for my dogs and fences and alot of effort that the deer would not allow me to eat anything i dont think. Even with all that they still get me from time to time.
I will admit that i have planted alot of things that i dont eat…for the birds and wildlife. Red mulberry, wild raspberry, wild blackberry, wild black raspberry…and they are really spreading autumn olive and wineberry without my help.
Without birds there would be over 500 million tons of insects to deal with each year…
With declining bird populations… The future lies in humans eating insects.
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We have a lot of wild berries, crabapples, etc., unfortunately a bunch of privet, and I find the birds don’t go too crazy on our cultivated crops with plentiful “wildlife food.”
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Predators work in open areas where they don’t eat too many people, your deer are urban dwellers. Trust me, you don’t want apex predators running around at night in the neighborhood snatching deer and if they can find one pets and children. Promote hunting and you can have a healthy deer population we can coexist with in a sustainable environment.
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Same here, perhaps with red raspberries behind the cherries. They have a strong blueberry preference.
Every winter I feed the birds with the left over apples which became to soft. Sometimes they waiting on the fence to get some food. 
They don‘t touch the raspberry or blackberries here but they are crazy about mulberries and grapes and if I don‘t harvest the kiwis they eat them all later in the winter
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Birds descend on my black raspberries like the plague. It’s a battle to harvest any of them myself. Blackberries are almost as bad, I get barely any blackberries unless I net them.
Red and yellow raspberries get very little pressure though. They’re the only berry I have that I don’t net and still get a decent harvest.
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Even with all philosophical talk. I understand how annoying can it be.
I can‘t plant Macca or Passiflora Incarnata here the young leafs get eaten by slugs all the time.
Ones I planted watermelons and the slugs ate all the young fruits expected for one…
Out of curiosity does the birds eat the blackberries regularly every year or only on some years?
Here the Amelanchier berries get eaten in one week on other years the birds don’t touch them at all.
This was my first year with prime arch Freedom blackberry and saw no activity. My other blackberries were in the same place and were eaten every year. The birds would just camp out and wait for the berries.
Interesting, I hope not but maybe the birds are carful and have to learn that the new blackberry is edible.
I think the birds are not interested in Blackberries here because Blackberries grows wild everywhere here.
The birds here rarely eat strawberries or raspberries, only it was a dry summer and other fruit supplies went short.
I guess they prefer fruits with more sugar.
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The birds that always went after my blackberries were magpies. I think others may have been right were it is certain birds that go after certain things. On this forum I remember there was a thread on pests and someone said the same line I saw in a movie only slightly altered. There was a movie where the line is build it and they will come only with gardening it is plant it and they will come. There is certain things that animals are not are likely to go after just because of the amount of something planted but they may still go after it. Deer virtually disregard my apples, plums, figs and pears but will destroy paw paw, peaches, mulberry and cherry over night. My uncle lives in Missouri and deer ate all of his apple tree to nothing over night. In my neighborhood we have a million apple trees that are much bigger than my tree, I have seen pear trees in people’s yards here and not sure about plums here (CSU does recommend growing plums in CO so there could be some people just don’t know about around here). I think because they have ample to eat from those who literally just waste the food by letting it rot animals don’t target those as much. For whatever reason animals and insects don’t target figs so much that not only have I not seen damage but One Green World talks about it on their website on their fig listings.
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Wow thank you for the detailed information.
I assume it would be a liftetime study to figure out why the animals behave that way and so different.
Sorry my English is not good enough to write my question and thought down.
Intelligence, instincts( which is sometimes a superior form of intelligence), peer pressure, does the animals “think” if human’s ignoring it at can’t be good, or is it all…?
The magpies here steal our dog food. But they do it only when they feel safe.
They are very smart and carful.
Saw this advertised in a NARBA article…
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I need some of that for my blueberries.
Squirrels got several tomatoes this year… i bet that might work on squirrels too.
Found it on amazoon… mixed reviews… some say it works… others say the birds ignore it, land on it.
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I need that too. Not for scaring the birds but it sounds cool. Like an Didgeridoo possessed by evil or some high power electric generator or so.
If it works it is a perfect invention, it is easy, “effective?” and don’t kills birds
They make the same kind of things for Mice and rats too. From my understanding those things work at first but they stop working over time at least with the rats. Poison is still considered the best rat and mouse control even though we have that sound thing for them. I have found the same issue with many things for scaring off animals. You put out scare tape, owls, coyotes, sound emitting devices and spend all this money and it ends up not being as affective as just netting in the case of brambles or strawberries or just getting a tree that grows over 6 feet high for deer and taking some loss with big trees and just planting more. Netting and planting will likely save you more than these alternatives in the long run I would assume.
I think too netting is the best way.
I have a mole problem. I don‘t care about the piles but they always digging the roots free of my recently planted trees.
The sound devices never worked
Snails are my second worse garden enemy. But sometimes they surprise me.
This is a ninja snail hanging on the own slime
Or this pictures taken in my garden
i think thats why i dont get much bird damage even though there are tons around. im surrounded with highbush cranberry, mountain ash berry and chokecherry. last summer though the crows discovered my haskap so this spring Ill finally have to net as i have alot of them just starting to produce.
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