How do I prevent parrots from snacking on my fruit trees?

Question

I live in a neighborhood in California that has a number of parrots that, presumably, escaped from captivity sometime ago and have since multiplied in number. They are all the same kind of parrot, these noisy little green guys.

Parrots!

In addition to the noise, these guys like to snack on my apple and persimmon trees. I've seen parrots sitting on the branches taking bites out of my apples and while I haven't seen them on my persimmon tree, now that the persimmons are starting to ripen I see bite marks in them that are identical to the bite marks in the apples.

How do I keep parrots off of my fruit trees? My first thought was to get a plastic owl but I'm uncertain if that would work. These parrots seem fearless and have skirmishes with much bigger crows all the time. (Now that is a fun scene to watch, a crow being attacked by a pack of parrots.)

I don't particularly like the idea, but in commercial orchards (at least for Cherries in NZ South Island), they use guns - unfortunately not only for making a noise [ The birds apparently got used to the noise ] — davidgo, Jul 11 '16 at 09:12
In the US we sure do love our guns, but in the city I live you can't fire one within city limits. :-) — Scott Mitchell, Jul 11 '16 at 22:21

score 8 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 06 '17 at 15:51

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That's a difficult question, I never saw someone with parrots problem... I think that this problem is solved with parrots as any other birds... so I would wrap the trees with a net (which could be expensive) or try to get them away with CDs acting as scarecrow.

I know that there are ecological repellents for pigeons, but I don't know if it works with parrots, and there are also some that are sound based, like one could find here: Bird Control Solutions for Today's Environment..

Hope I could help you. Good luck.

edited Jun 06 '17 at 15:51

Ken Graham

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answered Oct 07 '12 at 15:30

Hola Soy Edu Feliz Navidad

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Believe it or not, we have the same problem in London, particularly West London. The plum trees are stripped every year by the wild parakeets. Some people net the trees, but that's only possible on smaller trees, and the mesh on the net needs to be very fine and close. Net curtains work pretty well, I've discovered. – Bamboo Oct 08 '12 at 10:30
There's a less than cute flock at Kew Gardens, noisy critters. They may drown out the sound of the planes in the flight path above, but the native birds are quite scarce as a result – Mar 26 '16 at 12:20
@Bamboo netting does work on larger trees, it just become more challenging to net them. – Nic Mar 26 '16 at 18:12

score 5 · Answer 2 · edited Jul 01 '14 at 18:47

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We are also suffering from the same problem in India.

I am from Shimla and I have an apple orchard. Every year these parrots destroy around 1 ton of apples in my farm.

Some expert advised me to put balloons on the trees with birds' eyes painted on them. This will scare off the parrots.

I am trying ths method in the hope it might work.

edited Jul 01 '14 at 18:47

Niall C.

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answered Jul 01 '14 at 17:31

rajat condrolli

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score 5 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 07 '17 at 14:58

I'm in Southern California (San Gabriel Valley) suffering from hundreds of red crown green parrots in your pictures too. They eat our figs, persimmons (the worst damage since we get hundreds if not thousands of fruit but we can't enjoy them because majority are pecked by parrots), peaches, loquats, avocados. We can't net the trees since they're 2-stories tall. There are always about 30 parrots eating, yelling, pooping in our trees at any given time. Plus every house has large fruit trees attracting all kinds of birds. The crows even chase cats. Not to mention the darn squirrels.

Tried CDs in the tree, crows stole them. Parrots and pigeons got used to eagle eye balloons. Laws prohibits us from catching or hurting any bird (I looked it up).

My best solution so far is the motion activated water sprinkler.

Contech Scarcrow Motion-Activated Animal Deterrent

It worked great but our water bill doubled so I turned it off. Plus I got hosed. Good luck!

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 26 '16 at 12:15

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Would any of you have access to any birds of prey that need exercising on a regular basis? Some large stadia and public spaces in the uk regularly employ the services of a falconer to fly their birds around their areas. This stops pigeons roosting quiet effectively. Falconry is I guess not a cheap sport, but might be worth looking into for larger scale fruit production. A local school visit to the orchards when fruit is ripening along, with a falconry display might educate and get rid of albeit temporarily the problem pest at the same time.

answered Mar 26 '16 at 12:15

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Why haven't you voted this week? – Citizen Mar 26 '16 at 15:14
Oops I thought I had - time flies? But didn't know it was compulsory sorry – Mar 27 '16 at 08:40
It isn't compulsory :-) – Citizen Mar 27 '16 at 15:40
How did you know I hadn't? – Mar 27 '16 at 16:12
If you click on the users next to questions at the top of the page you can see who has voted and how many votes they have cast. – Citizen Mar 27 '16 at 16:12

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 03 '15 at 08:39

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You might consider trap crops. Basically, they're crops you plant to feed the pests and keep them eating the trap crop instead of what you want to harvest. I'm not sure what parrots prefer, or if trap crops are successful with them.

Example potential trap crop: Illinois Everbearing mulberry (Quoting the link: "An excellent protector tree. This variety is preferred by birds and squirrels over other fruits and berries, so it offers a great way to lure them away.")

answered Jun 03 '15 at 08:39

Brōtsyorfuzthrāx

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I'm not sure if a cracker tree exists but that might do the job..."Polly want a cracker?" – kevinskio Jun 03 '15 at 20:15
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This is a great idea! I've been looking for things like this, because I believe every living thing needs to eat! By the way, bunnies like pink impatiens-kept mine happy all last year and protected other crops, including my white impatiens. Sorry, I got off the subject at hand! – Sue Saddest Farewell TGO GL Jun 03 '15 at 21:20

How do I prevent parrots from snacking on my fruit trees?

5 Answers5