want to see something amazing,put [6] six bags of sugar cane mulch down in the garden , then watch how quick the +++++ black bird rearranges all your good work. have tried music stuffed toys cut out b o prey. and to make it more grrr they aint Aussie.
The price of a black bird-free garden is eternal vigilance, george. Tomorrow morning I'll be destroying the fourth black bird nest on my property this season. Black bird numbers are slowly declining here. I'm hoping my strategy will eventually result in a black bird free zone.
How do you manage it, Woko? I get Blackbirds in my backyard and try and discourage them from nesting, but once they start, I can't bring myself to destroy the eggs/chicks?
Thankfully, I found the nest before they laid this year. But I suspect they've just gone somewhere else and visited the neighbours.
Lachlan, for me it's a question of values. I place a high value on Australian birds & no value on the introduced blackbird. I also place a high value on natural ecological systems in which the introduced black bird plays no part. Remaining firmly focussed on the benefits for Australian birds by eradicating black birds is also important. I try to get to the nests before the eggs hatch or even before they're laid. One part of being eternally vigilant is to check the sites of previously destroyed nests as a new nest can be built oh so quickly.
One problem that I had to overcome was being seduced by cuteness. There's probably an innate feeling of abhorrence among all but psychopaths about eradicating cuteness. However, by eradicating introduced cuteness I believe I'm contributing to native Australian cuteness & I'm clear about which form of cuteness I prefer. That's not everyone's preference but I believe that's one of the reasons we have such problems with the preservation of alien species & the decline & extinction of Australian species.
Awwwww, but aren't they so cuuuuuute...
Sorry, but at that point the logic fails on me... I just can't do it.
I'm not for a moment championing the cause of blackbirds, but they've never been a problem for me (when I lived in Melbourne and ACT - haven't seen any in Qld)) and I've never given them much thought. I had imagined they were fairly inoccuous and did a good job cleaning up pests in the veggie patch. By comparison with indian mynahs, starlings and sparrows they are well down on my list of despicable ferals. Perhaps it depends a lot on where one lives and how one is personally affected. Mynahs are top of my list because they are omnipresent and displace native birds. Starlings are next because they foul birdbaths really badly. Sparrows do also, but to a lesser extent. Perhaps if I'd had my own negative experience of blackbirds I would put them higher on the list.
Lachlan, is it time to take a deep breath & the broader perspective?
I agree, Night Parrot, that it depends a lot on one's own circumstances as to which birds are regarded as the biggest pests. Where I live on the s.e. slopes of the Mt Lofty Ranges in SA starlings & house sparrows are a minor pest now probably due to the provision of natural habitat for native birds enabling the latter to compete successfully. I also thing raptors are a factor in keeping numbers down & from recolonising the area.
Black birds on the other hand have benefitted from the clearance of native bushland in other parts of the Mt Lofty Ranges. They compete with the Bassian thrush for the same ecological niche with the black bird's persistence winning out. The Bassian thrush is now extinct in my neck of the woods hence I need to eradicate black birds if the Bassian thrush is to return to my locality.