How to Keep Crows Away From Bird Feeders and Yards

Crows are beautiful creatures, but they can also be extremely dangerous. If you have a bird feeder in your yard, you should take precautions to keep crows away from it. In this post, we will give you some pointers on how to do just that. Continue reading for more information!

Why Do Some People Want to Deter Crows From Visiting Their Backyard?

Crows are large, black birds that are extremely intelligent and can solve complex problems. These intelligent creatures are unique among bird species in their ability to learn and remember new information.

However, it is not surprising that many consider crows a nuisance due to their pesky nature and unruly behavior. These birds are known for their aggressive nature, and they have been known to attack humans and other animals in search of food. Moreover, the messy droppings they leave behind can spread disease.

Furthermore, crows can be extremely loud, frequently causing a ruckus that many people find annoying or disruptive. Moreover, these birds are considered a nuisance in some areas where laws have been enacted to keep them out.

Crows are large, aggressive birds that seriously threaten smaller birds, such as backyard birds. To protect their territories, these birds have been known to attack smaller birds, stealing their prey and destroying their nests.

Though crows are generally wary of humans, they are especially aggressive toward other birds, with little regard for the consequences of their actions.

Due to crow predation, many small songbirds must lay more eggs than usual to compensate for the loss of young or even entire broods. While some creatures have co-evolved with crows and learned to outwit them or avoid becoming a target, others have not been so fortunate.

Some sensitive bird species’ populations have plummeted to dangerously low levels, owing largely to predation by crows and other larger predators.

What Attracts Crows to Backyards and Feeders?

Crows are attracted to resources such as food scraps and other types of waste. These birds are scavengers at heart, looking for any opportunity to find and consume food. Crows are drawn to open compost piles or bins. These structures provide an easy source of rotting organic material, such as vegetable peels and rotten fruit.

Furthermore, pet food left near fences or other structures may attract crows, who see it as a potential food source. Crows are particularly attracted to bird feeders that contain bird seeds.

Seeds are high in fat, protein, and carbohydrates, all of which crows require to maintain their high metabolic rates. Many bird seeds have hard outer shells or protective coatings that help the seeds survive in harsh weather conditions.

Crows will prey on these small birds that frequently visit your backyard. These intelligent birds will scare birds away and prey on them, especially when they are busy feeding on seeds.

How to Keep Crows Away From Bird Feeders

For those who enjoy observing and feeding wild birds in their backyard, crows can be a major nuisance. Not only are these large, noisy birds aggressive and territorial, but they are also very clever, often figuring out how to manipulate traditional bird feeders to steal food.

Despite their reputation for being difficult to deter, there are several tried-and-true methods for keeping crows away from your bird feeder and backyard.

Clean Your Yard and Keep the Trash Out

The first step in keeping your backyard clean and trash-free is regularly removing any unwanted items, both large and small.

You can accomplish this by regularly taking out the trash, using bins or other containers to store materials that may attract crows, such as food waste and leftover food remnants, and generally adopting a tidiness attitude in your outdoor spaces.

Additionally, make sure to cover your trash can, trash bins and compost piles at all times. Any loose trash bags should be tied securely and placed inside proper receptacles. Any garbage should not be left out overnight.

Alternatively, you can use strong-smelling garbage bags which produce foul odors that discourage crows from diving in and getting their beaks into the waste.

You can also put fencing around your trash cans to keep crows out, which can be as simple as wire mesh wrapped around the trash cans or as a more permanent structure that surrounds your entire yard.

You should also dispose of dead animals in your yard. Adult and young crows are scavengers and they eat carrion.

Crow-Proof Your Bird Feeders

One of the safest ways to feed songbirds is to use small bird feeders. Small bird feeders surrounded by a hanging cable are designed to exclude large birds from accessing the foods inside.

For example, some circular feeders close automatically when a heavier bird perches, preventing the bird seeds inside or other food from falling through the feeding hole.

Another good option is a wire mesh feeder with a design that is too small for larger birds to fit through, effectively preventing food theft and only allowing access to small birds.

You can also enclose your bird feeder inside two domed wire hanging baskets. Doing so keeps larger crows and bigger birds from accessing bird food intended for your beloved pets. Remember that once one bird discovers your yard full of bird foods, more will follow.

Regardless of your bird feeder choice, using crow-proof bird feeders is an effective way to keep healthy bird populations in your backyard.

Always Clean Your Bird Feeder Station

There is no doubt that crows can be a nuisance in your backyard. These curious birds will often flock to bird feeders for tasty tidbits, such as leftover seeds and nuts from previous feeding sessions.

While feeding crows can be a lot of fun and provide great entertainment, it is important to keep your bird feeding areas clean at all times to discourage unwanted crow visitors.

Foods that attract songbirds and love birds will also attract crows. Regularly cleaning your yard and keeping your feeders free from excess food debris can form a powerful defense against those pesky crows. Leaving food lying around encourages crows to hang out in your yard, as it provides them with a constant food source.

Keep your bird feeding areas clean and free of uneaten dog or cat food. Not only does this help you avoid waste and spoiled food, but it also ensures that your feeding station stays fresh and unappealing to hungry crows.

Removing other potential crow feeders like fruit trees or vegetables will also eliminate another reason for crows to hang around.

Cover Your Garden and Crops With Bird Netting

Covering your crops and garden with bird netting can help keep crows away. This type of netting is made from a flexible mesh that keeps pesky birds out while still allowing smaller birds to pass through the openings. It can easily be found at most garden centers or hardware stores, so there’s no need to worry about where to get it or how much it will cost.

If you have crops or plants in your garden, chances are you also have insects. Crows eat insects so by covering your crops and plants with bird netting, these unwanted animals can’t gain access to one of their favorite foods.

Hang Shiny Objects

You can effectively deter pesky crows from damaging your garden and the surrounding ecosystem by simply hanging bright and shiny objects in your yard.

Crows are not fond of shiny objects. They associate this type of glimmering material with potentially dangerous weapons. This idea is deeply ingrained in their instinctual behavior, making them extremely uneasy, skittish and nervous around anything that resembles a glittering or metallic object.

Place a few small caches of shining items throughout your yard, such as CDs, party strings, wind chimes, aluminum pie tins or other reflective objects – you can effectively deter crows from coming too close.

Trim Nearby Trees

Yes, trimming your trees and removing dead branches can be an effective way to keep crows away from your yard. Crows tend to roost in tall trees where they can avoid predators.

By removing any tall and thick trees in your yard, you effectively remove their selected roosting spots, forcing these unwanted birds to relocate to other areas that may meet their needs.

Furthermore, tree trimmings can provide new nesting materials for crows, so reducing the material supply may encourage them to relocate.

If you’ve had crow problems in the past, pruning trees as a preventive measure is definitely worth considering. You can keep a crow-free yard that is safe and welcoming to all types of little birds and wildlife with a little effort and planning.

The key is to prune your trees at the right time so that any short-term inconveniences caused by fewer available roosting spots are offset by the long-term benefits of keeping crows at bay.

Bird Spikes

Whether you are trying to keep crows out of your yard or protect all the bird seeds from being eaten, installing bird spikes on fences and roof lines are effective techniques that can help.

Bird spikes are designed to keep nuisance birds from landing and roosting in the area, making them an ideal solution for deterring crows. They are also simple to build and can be installed on almost any surface, making them a convenient option for many homeowners.

Use Motion-Detector Sprinklers

Another way to get rid of crows is by using motion-detector sprinklers. The crow will be sprayed with water if it flies close to the motion detectors. Suddenly sprayed with water can be a traumatic experience for the crow, which will deter the bird from returning in the future. Furthermore, motion-detector sprinklers are precise and efficient, using little water while keeping pests at bay.

Use an Ultrasonic Pest Repeller

Using ultrasonic pest repellent is one effective way to keep crows away. Ultrasonic pest repellents use high-frequency sounds only a bird can hear to keep them away from potentially dangerous areas.

These intense vibrations may disrupt the birds’ normal activity patterns or even cause them physical pain, depending on the device and its location. In either case, this disturbance often convinces animals to leave the area without resorting to potentially harmful methods such as traps or poisons.

Furthermore, there are no negative side effects to using ultrasonic repellants. They are both quiet and safe for people and animals.

Use Loud Noises

One common method to scare crows away is broadcasting fireworks sounds, loud noises, recorded distress calls and predator sounds throughout the area where these birds hang out. However, this approach may only be effective initially and has several major drawbacks.

Crows are quite perceptive and intelligent animals, which means they will quickly recognize that these recorded calls are fake and do not represent real threats. As a result, they will ignore these recordings with ease.

Furthermore, repeated exposure to phony distress calls may desensitize crows to future recordings made using different techniques or other species entirely.

Use a Decoy or a Fake Crow

Using effigies of dead crows (not real crows) hung upside down with wings spread as crow deterrents can be an effective method to scare crows away. This strategy works by exploiting the threat that crows perceive from other members of their species, whether real or imagined.

You can effectively discourage more crows from visiting your property by giving the impression that other crows already occupy it. Alternatively, you can place a fake owl to drive crows away from your property.