Keeping Birds From Roosting on the Porch Light Fixture

Other areas of your home may also attract birds.

During springtime, when birds are actively make nests to house their eggs and young, the top of a porch light fixture is the ideal nesting location; birds are protected from the elements. Attempting to move a bird's nest from your porch can have disastrous consequences; the adult bird is unable to find the nest, and if there are young or eggs in the nest, they won't survive. Additionally, most bird species are protected under federal and state laws and harassing them and their nests is illegal. To keep your porch light fixture free from roosting birds, use humane measures to deter them.

Things You'll Need

• Bird houses
• Decoy animal predator
• Bird tape or CDs
• Bird spikes or slinky toy
• Mosquito screens or bird netting

Instructions

1. Place birdhouses at a distance from your home to offer birds an alternative nest. Instead of nesting on your porch light fixture, they may decide to set up shop in the birdhouse.

2. Set up a decoy animal predator near your porch. A decoy predator, such as a fox, hawk, snake or owl, looks real and may scare off nuisance birds. Move the decoy to a different location regularly and use it in conjunction with other scare methods. Some birds may not be scared by one particular method. In this case, another method you've incorporated may do the trick.

3. Attach reflective bird tape to your light fixture. The sheen of the material annoys birds, so they stay away it. As an alternative, use old CDs. Their reflection in the sun has a similar effect.

4. Adjust the flat surface of your porch light fixture so birds cannot roost on it. Attach bird spikes to the top of the light fixture. Bird spikes are steel prongs that stick out in all directions. As an alternative, stretch a slinky toy over the flat surface of the light fixture. The rolled-up coil wire makes landing on the fixture impossible.

5. Screen in your porch to keep birds away from your porch light fixtures. Use mosquito screens or bird netting to keep birds out.

References

• Mass Audubon: Birds in Nesting Plants
• The Baltimore Bird Club: Backyard Bird Problems
• Iowa State University; Managing Iowa Wildlife; Georgia Bryan