Wild birds are the bane of many a chicken keeper’s life, descending in large numbers upon the coop, stealing food and potentially transmitting parasites and disease.
The only surefire way to keep wild birds out of a chicken coop is to build a fully enclosed run with hardware cloth small enough to keep out the tiniest finch.
If your birds free range, avoiding contact with wild birds poses more of a challenge, but there are still things you can do to minimize interaction.
Your chicken’s food is the drawcard, so the most effective measures are ones that prevent wild birds accessing feeders (especially ones that contain grains which are much more attractive than pellets).
How To Keep Wild Birds Out Of Your Chicken Coop
There are many ways to make your chickens less attractive to wild birds.
Measures range from the highly effective to ones with variable success rates.
A combination of things will probably deliver best results, but the most important part of any effort to deter wild birds is denying them access to food.
Actions aimed at scaring birds them off without effectively cutting off the food source will likely be an exercise in frustration.
We’ve arranged our list in order —suggestions nearer the top are likely to be either most effective and/or most realistic for the average chicken keeper to implement.
To deter wild birds from your coop and run you can:
- Enclose your coop and run, including overhead mesh with small apertures
- Feed your chickens inside an enclosure impenetrable to wild birds
- Use treadle feeders
- Prevent and diligently clean up spilled food
- Switch from grains to pellets
- Feed twice a day in 15 minute windows and remove leftovers immediately
- Keep a trained livestock guardian dog with your flock
- Get a coop cat or several
- Drape bird netting overhead in the run
- Hang bird tape or reflective objects like CDS from coop and nearby trees
- Scare away birds in person or with a sonic canon
- Trap birds where legally permissible
Keep reading to find out how to successfully implement each of these measures so that they actually work.
1. Fully Enclose Your Coop And Run
Enclosed runs are the gold standard in chicken keeping when it comes to biosecurity and preventing contact between poultry and wild birds.
They may be workable if you keep just a few chickens.
You don’t have to have a very large flock, though, before it becomes too expensive to enclose the amount of space your chickens require to avoid overcrowding.
Besides, most chicken keepers don’t want to keep their birds so cooped up.
Even if you start out with an enclosed run, you may soon find yourself surrounding it with an electric fence so that your ever-growing flock can free range outside of it.
The moment you leave a door to your enclosed run open, your enclosed coop is no longer secure as far as wild birds are concerned.
It’s a matter of time before they discover they can walk right in for a free feed.
The other chink in the armor of an enclosed run is the size of the holes in the hardware cloth/rigid mesh.
Some finches can hope right through mesh with larger apertures.
Which is when you probably need to institute other measures …
2. Feed Your Chickens Inside An Enclosure That Wild Birds Can’t Get Inside
Even if your chickens spend most of the day free ranging outside of their enclosure, you can feed them within it twice a day, before the doors to the outside are opened, and then remove the food before you turn them out.
Wild birds may be able to spot the feed, but once they discover they can’t get their beaks on it, there won’t be much reason to hang around.
Another version of this may be to install the feeders inside the roost, where they’re not visible to wild birds.
There are sizeable disadvantages to feeding inside the roost, though:
- You may successfully deter wild birds but end up attracting rodents if you leave the feeders out at night or via spillages.
- Your chickens will spend more time inside during the day, leading to heavier soiling of bedding that would stay cleaner much longer if the flock is outside all day and only goes inside to sleep and to nest (especially if you’re using droppings boards to catch nighttime manure)
3. Use Treadle Feeders That Wild Birds Can’t Operate
Treadle feeders are perhaps the number one suggestion for those in search of a wild bird proof chicken feeder.
Chickens must stand on a step, using their own bodyweight to open a lid.
The lid closes when they’re done eating and step off.
Do Treadle Feeders Stop Wild Birds?
Many people report success with these feeders, as they avoid open access to feed all day long.
Certainly they will fix problems with small birds like sparrows and finches that are too light to trigger the mechanism.
While the feeding drawer often has a grill across it, it doesn’t always stop chickens digging through feed to find the tastiest morsels, dumping the rest out on the ground…defeating the whole purpose.
This is where it may be necessary to switch from whole grain mixes to plain old pellets.
More on this shortly.
Can Wild Birds Use Treadle Feeders?
Highly intelligent, it’s not impossible for parrots to learn how to operate treadle feeders, but it’s considerably less inviting than a bowl of feed in plain view, or pipe style feeders that are constantly open.
When first teaching chickens to use treadle feeders, the lid is propped open with a weight.
This is a risky period, as if the wild birds realize that food comes from the metal box, they’re likely to investigate it, alight upon it and test it.
Heavier birds may well end up triggering the lid to open and then it’s game over.
4. Clean Up Spilled Food
Chickens are messy.
Spilled food is a major part of the wild bird problem.
You need to either prevent your chickens spilling or digging out food in the first place, or be absolutely scrupulous in cleaning it up —immediately.
Some poultry feeding troughs come with grills designed to prevent chickens scratching out the food.
It may be trial and error to determine if these actually work with your flock.
Grain mixes are a major cause of chickens digging through feed — they’re looking for their favorite bits, usually the sunflower seeds.
Here again is why switching to pellets can be a game changer.
5. Switch From Grains To Pellets
Many of us like to feed our chickens mixes including whole grains because they clearly prefer them.
Just like kibble for dogs, pellets bear little resemblance to a chicken’s natural diet.
There comes a point, though, where it may be necessary to combat a serious wild bird problem where nothing else has worked.
Do Pellets Stop Wild Birds Eating Chicken Feed?
Can wild birds each layer pellets?
Sure, they’ll give it a try.
But wild birds are much more attracted to grains —especially sunflower seeds —than to pellets.
Pellets may just boring enough to become less interesting to wild birds than the grains and seeds they can find for themselves.
Job done.
Switching to pellets doesn’t have to mean your chickens never get whole grains.
You can hand feed these as treats or when you can be on hand to monitor.
Your chickens may well initially refuse to eat pellets if they’re used to whole grains.
If they know grains are coming, they may hold out until then.
Less nutrition can affect egg production, so it’s best to make dietary changes outside of breeding season so there’s time to adjust.
6. Livestock Guardian Dog
A good livestock guardian dog will transform the life of your flock.
Keep in mind that some LGDs are effective against aerial predators like eagles but will completely ignore parrots and other species.
Or they might chase off foxes and other ground predators they can smell, but ignore the sky entirely.
It all depends on the individual dog and how they’ve been trained.
You may have a pet dog that’s brilliant at running off birds that land in the chicken run.
The success of this strategy will depend on whether the dog is able to maintain an all-day presence at the coop.
If he’s there in the morning but asleep inside the house later, wild birds will just wait it out.
7. Coop Cat
A cat around the coop can be enough to convince wild birds not to land, at least initially.
Whether the deterrent effect is lasting is the question.
Will A Cat Deter Wild Birds From Chickens?
A clearly visible cat may deter wild birds from landing in that spot at that moment, but an hour later that same cat may be snoozing in a nesting box.
So, while the presence of a barn cat can’t hurt —and cats will certainly catch at least the odd mouse —much will depend on the cat itself and how it behaves at the times when the wild birds are most active.
Notwithstanding the genuine menace that feral or poorly managed cats can pose to wildlife, a pet cat that reveals itself to be afraid of large flocks of raucous parrots will add no deterrent value whatsoever!
Here is more information about whether cats can make chickens sick or vice versa.
8. Feed Twice A Day In Set Windows
Most backyard chicken keepers like to free feed, making food available to their flock all day long.
Disadvantages to feeding in set windows include:
- Drop in egg production
- Flock dynamics may mean less dominant birds may not get enough to eat if they only have 15 minutes to eat, during which time the bullies are also at the feeders
- More labor intensive i.e. requires the chicken keeper to be available twice a day, every day for 15 minutes. This can balloon if you keep several flocks in non-adjacent locations
- Doesn’t work when you have chicks and growing birds that require constant access to food
9. Bird Netting
Some chicken keepers drape bird netting over run areas, particularly where the feeders are installed.
Bird netting protects fruit trees from wild birds, but only if there are no gaps where the birds can get beneath the net.
As a loose canopy above a chicken run, bird net makes a pretty porous barrier.
The wild birds are likely to just adapt to the obstacle, landing beside the net and walking in beneath it.
If you have some spare net on hand it could be worth a try in certain situations.
But, bird netting can be pricey and you may want to skip this measure in favor of others more likely to succeed.
10. Bird Tape Or Reflective Hanging Objects
Stringing up reflective tape or hanging shiny objects like old CDs is another approach that’s a bit hit and miss.
Wild birds may well just get used to reflections thrown by the shiny material.
There’s also the question of whether you want to be creating unsettling tricks of light at the coop: if it bothers wild birds, what about your chickens?
11. Scare Birds Away (In Person Or With A Device)
One community initiative to deter crows from an area recruited a “scare squad” of residents who took it in turns to harass the crows.
A week of blaring noisemakers at dusk was all it took for the crows to decide to relocate to a more peaceful spot.
The experience of many chicken keepers would suggest parrots, sparrows and other birds that commonly frequent chicken coops can be harder to displace.
The harassment approach may work best before a bird population has become ensconced.
Given wild bird populations tend to surge cyclically, with the seasons, a well-timed scare campaign may convince the birds to keep looking for a more hospitable place to settle in.
This approach is highly labor intensive and depends on absolute consistency.
If you shoo away the birds for half an hour each morning, then go to work, the birds will just wait you out and then have their way with your chicken feed once you’re gone.
There are a couple of automatic options:
- Bird scare canons that emit sonic blasts are what orchardists sometimes use to deter wild birds from their crops. Probably not an option if you live in a residential area, but may be worth a try for homesteaders
- Inflatable dancing men — If you can put up with the noise of the fan that powers them and if your wild birds don’t just adapt after a while
🐓 See more articles about
Do Roosters Scare Away Wild Birds?
With their spurs and their aggression, roosters are certainly capable of running off wild birds.
Roosters —and even hens —will occasionally do so.
Sadly the norm is for chickens and wild birds to happily share spaces.
Why Don’t Chickens Scare Away Wild Birds?
Unfortunately chickens tend to defer to wild birds and even be scared away by them from their own food troughs.
As for the wild birds?
Like chickens, they can distinguish between birds of prey like hawks and eagles and other species.
They know chickens are themselves prey animals, and pose no threat to them.
12. Trapping Wild Birds
Under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act it’s an offence to hunt, capture, kill or transport any migratory bird native to the US or its territories.
Check local laws where you are, but virtually all birds are protected by federal law, with a few exceptions:
- House sparrows
- European starlings
- Feral pigeons (Columba Iivia)
Deemed invasive species, these birds can be more aggressively (but humanely) dealt with by trapping.
Is It Legal To Shoot Wild Birds?
As above, most birds are protected.
For pest species, trapping followed by humane euthanasia is the recommended method of control.
Things That Don’t Work To Deter Wild Birds From Chickens
The list of useless measures for deterring wild birds from chickens is long.
Depending on who you talk to, it may include some of the ideas mentioned above, as different chicken keepers are contending with different local bird species.
What works for one chicken keeper in one location may not for another in a different place.
Things that don’t work against wild birds anywhere include:
- Chili in food —It deters rodents, not birds which can’t perceive spiciness in foods
- Fake owls
- Hanging replica crows upside down over the coop and run area
The last two ideas may do something temporarily, or they may not.
As a long term strategy though, anecdotal accounts suggest they are probably a waste of time.
Even with sound strategies, whether a tactic succeeds or fails will depend on how well it’s executed.
So, just because someone else had no success with twice-a-day feeding or switching to pellets doesn’t mean you can’t make it work.
Diseases Chickens Can Get From Wild Birds
All wild birds carry diseases that can pose a danger to backyard chickens, and via them, to humans.
Health risks posed to chickens by wild birds include:
- External parasites including mites —especially scaly leg mite —and lice
- Internal parasites like intestinal worms
- Salmonella
- Mycoplasma
- Newcastle disease virus
- Avian influenza
To make matters worse, disease transmission flows both ways i.e. wild birds can pick up diseases from backyard chickens, threatening wild bird populations and transmitting sickness between backyard flocks as they roam the landscape, carrying problems across property boundaries.
Of course, chickens that free range, as most backyard chickens do to some degree, are exposed to wild birds and their droppings anyway as they forage within a shared environment.
But having wild birds invade the coop introduces another level of interaction between chickens and wild birds, amplifying the exposures.
Which Wild Birds Pose A Threat To Chickens?
Unfortunately chicken coops with their feed and water are a magnet to just about every wild bird there is.
Chicken feed is particularly appealing to grain and seed-eating species, but insectivores can also be drawn, probably because insects themselves are attracted to chicken feed.
A study conducted in Georgia in 2022 and published in the journal Epidemiology and Infection identified no less than 72 species of wild birds entering backyard chicken coops to eat chicken feed.
14 of those species were considered high risk for pathogen transmission.
Keeping in mind the study was conducted in Georgia, the four most commonly detected species entering coops were:
- Tufted titmice
- Northern cardinals
- Carolina chickadees
- Carolina wrens
Which species bother your coop will depend where you live.
If you keep chickens somewhere like Australia, for instance, co*ckatoos and galahs may be your main feathered pests.
Can Sparrows Make Chickens Sick?
Sparrows, finches and other small wild birds can be especially challenging to exclude from even an enclosed chicken run, because they are often tiny enough to fit through wire.
Hardware cloth needs to have the smallest of squares to exclude these avian pests.
What To Do About Wild Birds Around Chickens (If You Can’t Get Rid Of Them)
The major threat posed by wild birds, other than feed consumption, is the mites, lice, internal parasites and other diseases they can bring to your chickens.
For free ranging flocks, as well as those visited by wild birds, it’s important to build resistance to disease, since exposure cannot be entirely prevented.
You can help combat the risks associated with wild birds by:
- Bolstering flock health with quality feed and good animal husbandry. Many health issues including parasites only explode once the bird becomes run down either by illness, stress etc
- Including in your flock’s regular diet natural foods known to have a deterrent effect on parasites, internal and external e.g. red pepper flakes, garlic, pumpkin seeds, apple cider vinegar in drinking water
- Installing sulfur bags in your coop to dust your chickens with mite-deterrent powder
- Keeping stock densities low. Overcrowding causes stress and stress makes chickens more vulnerable to disease
- Breeding for resistance — Exposed to the same wild birds, some chickens will fall ill while others appear more adapted to local pests and diseases. Select the latter as brood fowl so they can pass their resistance to the next generation, gradually increasing the fitness of your flock for your particular environment, including its wild birds
Conclusion
Wild birds can be one of the most aggravating and difficult to manage aspects of chicken keeping.
But, most wild birds have no reason to alight near a chicken unless there’s food available.
It’s essential to deny wild birds access to your chickens’ food, whether by feeding inside an enclosed run and cleaning up spills or feeding at set times of day and offering pellets that wild birds don’t like —or ideally some combination of tactics.
Chicken coops provide a water source too.
Nipple drinkers may be worth considering if you’ve taken all the other measures and still have wild birds frequenting your chickens’ domain.
References
Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica, Free-range Chickens Are More Prone To Disease, ScienceDaily, 2009
Ayala, AJ et al, A Review of Pathogen Transmission at the Backyard Chicken–Wild Bird Interface, Frontiers in Veterinary Science, Vol 7, 2020
Ayala, A., Haas, L., Williams, B., Fink, S., Yabsley, M., & Hernandez, S, Risky business in Georgia’s wild birds: Contact rates between wild birds and backyard chickens is influenced by supplemental feed.Epidemiology & Infection,150, E102, 2022
Doyle, Stephen E, 3 non-native birds that are not federally protected, Ehrlich Pest Control 2013
Hadidian, John, Wild Neighbors: The Humane Approach to Living with Wildlife, The Humane Society of the United States, 2nd Edition, Humane Society Press, Washington DC, 1997
Medical News Today, Birds and their droppings can carry over 60 diseases, Downloaded May 2023
