Scaring away a bird?

May 22, 2006 12:21 PM

In the past two weeks a bird (let's call him Stan) has developed a weird attachment to the rear view mirrors on our car. (The car is parked outside.) At all hours of the day Stan can be found sitting on the side of one of the mirrors pecking furiously. He seems to prefer one side mirror more than the other but doesn't really care too much. I'd really like to discourage little Stan from his behavior because he might scratch up the mirror and he's pooping all over the doors.

I have no desire to hurt this bird - I just want him to stop. I tried covering the mirrors with paper or foil but he just pecked on them until they fell off.

Stan's a small, generic-looking brown bird. There are a gazillion of them in our neighborhood but (I THINK) it's just one bird behaving this way.

Any suggestions??

posted by mpemulis to Pets & Animals (11 answers total)

Have you tried double sided tape? This is a technique used to keep cats off of things, but it may just work for birds.

Of course I would caution you that the tape may leave sticky residue on there and be a bitch to clean off, so I'd try a little piece, perhaps on the underside where it can't be seen, and make sure.
posted by twiggy at 12:24 PM on May 22, 2006

Previously asked.
posted by jasper411 at 12:25 PM on May 22, 2006

Also, it'll stop soon, once the bird breeds and the family nests. Btw, foil seems like it would still reflect an image; try plastic grocery bags or something.
posted by mediareport at 12:32 PM on May 22, 2006

Rubber snake.
posted by frogan at 12:49 PM on May 22, 2006

Seconding the rubber snake. This happened to me in high school, and a rubber snake wrapped around the stem of the rear-view mirror did the trick.
posted by lucyleaf at 12:53 PM on May 22, 2006

Probably a male cardinal.

photo of same:

www.absolutestockphoto.com/ photo_27589.html

They are aggressive this time of the year and will endlessly attack their reflections in just about anything. They'll quit when / if they find something to do. I don't think the males are involved in raising of the baby birds, but I might be wrong. Try bags over the mirrors and see if he goes away, but he might just move to another reflective surface.
posted by FauxScot at 12:54 PM on May 22, 2006

tube socks. keep a pair on the seat. when you get out, put a sock over the mirror. Birds are dumb and try to interact with their reflection in a mirror
posted by cosmicbandito at 12:55 PM on May 22, 2006

They'll quit when / if they find something to do.

They'll quit once they breed and their hormones that make them ultra-territorial take a nose-dive. And I doubt it's a male cardinal if it's a brown bird. Also, male cardinals definitely take part in feeding the family.
posted by mediareport at 1:13 PM on May 22, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks for all the responses. I think I'll try the tubesock method first, as it's the easiest.

Although the rubber snake trick has a certain allure to it, I have to admit.

And for for the dup post. I SWEAR I searched.
posted by mpemulis at 1:53 PM on May 22, 2006

I've read of people putting a silhouette of a common predator bird in their window or garden to keep away birds.
posted by overanxious ducksqueezer at 4:00 PM on May 22, 2006

The birds that caused me problems last month are still around and while they've decreased their shitting on my car, it still hasn't gone to zero. They also created a nest in our roof eaves so the house roof and siding is starting to show bird shit everywhere.
posted by mathowie at 8:37 PM on May 22, 2006