How do you keep birds off your cherry trees?

Question

I live in Utah and have cherry trees..and love them. The problem is, so do the birds. Is there a way to keep them off?

All help welcome.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Short of netting the tree, there is no effective way.  Netting is a viable plan for some of the smaller fruit trees.  The problem I have with the netting is that birds can get caught in the nets, and birds have even twisted their feet off when they're caught.  So there's no very good way at all.

Answer 2

Truly an age old problem!  Netting is about the only thing I've found.  Hanging aluminium pie pans thru the trees works for about 10 minutes.  If someone tells you the birds won't eat them all.......laugh.

Answer 3

My neighbor shoots 'em.  Yes, really.  He has an 80 acre cherry orchard and doens't take kindly to birds eating his profits.

We have one tree only and we tied long strips of aluminum foil to some of the outer leaves.  That helped a lot.

Answer 4

My dad always said; plant one for us and one for the birds, if aluminum foil doesn't work, maybe we should share:)

Enough fun, back to reality:

Controlling Birds in Cherry Trees:

If you don't work to keep birds from getting to your cherry tree, you stand to lose a serious portion of the harvest. Here are some methods that other home gardeners have used:

Pest Netting - Smaller trees can be wrapped in netting. It is very effective until the tree grows so big that it becomes impractical to cover it.  

Aluminum Pie tins on a string - its an old favorite. But, it can be irritating to you and the neighbors.

Noise Makers- Anything that is loud and sporadic will startle the birds.

My favorite,

Fake Predators - Plastic and blow-up owls and snakes

Answer 5

My parents (live in Illinois) have a cherry tree and they hang disposable pie tins from the branches. I don't know if it is the sound of them or the reflection, but the birds don't eat the cherries!