13 Bothersome Birds That No One Wants in Their Yard
Although homeowners put out feeders, birdhouses, and birdbaths to attract birds to their yards, not all species are welcomed as feathered friends. Whether they make too much noise, engage in destructive behavior, or scare away preferred species, there are a number of problematic birds that many homeowners wish would fly away.
The birds people usually encourage to visit their yards include cute songbirds such as chickadees or beautiful hummingbirds that can hover in midair. Fewer people get excited about, say, a murder of crows cawing nonstop or destructive gulls tearing up their yards.
For various reasons, the following bothersome birds are the ones most American homeowners don’t want anywhere near their yards.
European Starling
The European starling is considered an invasive species in the United States. Blame a man named Eugene Schieffelin for releasing 60 European starlings in the U.S. around 1890 in a misguided effort to introduce birds mentioned in William Shakespeare’s works to America. All that glitters is not gold, Mr. Schieffelin.
Today, there are millions of European starlings living in the lower 48 states. The birds are notorious for destroying crops and outcompeting other native bird species for nesting spots and food. The aggressive birds will even peck holes in other birds’ eggs and destroy their nests.
House Sparrow
The house sparrow is yet another tiny avian invader from Europe. The birds were released in Brooklyn in the mid-1800s to combat the linden moth population. The house sparrows then spread across the country, living in close proximity to humans.
House sparrows despise native songbirds such as the chickadee and work overtime to beat them to nesting materials and food. The house sparrows will even kill native birds and are a threat to the very existence of bluebirds, purple martins, tree swallows, cliff swallows, and Baltimore orioles by disrupting their breeding cycles.
Pigeon
People have described pigeons as rats with wings. The much-maligned urban bird is a prolific breeder that nests on houses and commercial buildings. Even though neither you nor anyone you know has seen a baby pigeon, there are millions of them.
Not only are pigeon droppings messy and destructive, but the dirty birds carry mites, fleas, and ticks that are dangerous to humans and other animals. Dry pigeon droppings can also expose people to numerous airborne diseases, including salmonellosis. Once pigeons establish themselves near your home, they are difficult to remove and easily outcompete other bird species for food and resources.
Crow
Crows are intelligent black birds, a family of which can gobble up 40,000 grubs, caterpillars, and other bugs in a single season. The noisy birds roost in large numbers in urban areas.
Unless you are a dedicated goth or want to live inside an Edgar Allan Poe story, most people can’t handle the constant cawing crows make. The resourceful avian marauders are always on the hunt for an easy meal, especially unsecured trash, large bird feeders, compost, and pet food left outside. If you want to discourage a murder of crows from turning your yard into the setting of a horror movie, don’t give them something to caw about.
Canada Goose
The Canada goose is a large, migratory bird that has adapted to living alongside humans whether we like it or not — and most people don’t.
Canada geese are problematic, even if we’re talking about a small gaggle. Not only are the birds loud and aggressively territorial, but a single bird can produce two pounds of droppings in a single day. Their formidable excrement also contains a lot of nitrogen, which can cause algal blooms and reduce water quality in ponds and small lakes. If Canada geese take up residence in your yard, you’ll quickly learn that it is now their yard.
Gull
If you live near the ocean, chances are that gulls have visited your yard even if you life several miles inland. These ground-nesting, carnivorous birds eat crabs, mollusks, fish, and small birds but are not above swooping down from the sky to eat a french fry or piece of funnel cake out of someone’s hand.
It’s the gulls’ flexible, anything-goes diet that attracts them to residential yards and places where humans congregate. Gulls are noisy, aggressively fight each other over morsels of food, and splatter areas with droppings like some kind of avian Jackson Pollock, which makes them unwelcome birds in most yards.
Blue Jay
With their striking blue, white, gray, and black markings, blue jays look like an attractive addition to any yard, but don’t judge a bird by its colors.
Blue jays have a bad reputation for being feathered bullies that noisily take over bird feeders and scare smaller birds away. If the other birds don’t get the message, the blue jay imitates the calls of hawks and other birds of prey that feed on the smaller birds to ruffle their feathers. Although it’s not common, the most aggro blue jays will sometimes raid other birds’ nests to feed the eggs and hatchlings to their own chicks.
Wild Turkey
Nothing says “America” quite like wild turkeys, but that doesn’t mean that most Americans want this symbol of the first Thanksgiving in their yard.
If you have a wild turkey hanging around your house, it’s probably because it is gobbling up food left by someone in your home or a neighbor. Once a turkey decides that your yard is where it wants to stay, the territorial bird will chase people who come too close or even block entrances to your house or car.
The good news is that for all of their bravado, wild turkeys are, well, chicken. Any loud noise, whistle, or horn will scare them away. A dog or a well-aimed squirt from a water pistol will also send a turkey running into the woods.
Brown-Headed Cowbird
The brown-headed cowbird is a type of New World blackbird in which the male is black with a brown head and the female is gray. If your yard has a lot of open space or is big enough to have livestock, chances are that brown-headed cowbirds will consider it a swell place to start a family.
The problem with brown-headed cowbirds starting a family in your yard is their lousy parental strategy. These cowbirds will lay eggs in the nests of songbirds and abandon them. The cowbird egg will hatch before the other eggs in the nest, and the cowbird chick instinctively knows to kick the other eggs out of the nest so that it will get all the food from its unwitting adoptive parents.
This unique parenting strategy has contributed to the decline of several endangered species, including the Kirtland’s warbler and black-capped vireo.
Black Vulture
Black vultures play an important role in the food chain by eating carrion, but this doesn’t endear the scary-looking birds to homeowners.
If you have livestock on or near your property, black vultures are known to gruesomely pluck out the eyes and tongues of newborn and sick animals. The opportunistic eaters also cause extensive property damage by pecking at rubber seals, windshield wipers on parked vehicles, awnings, and rubber on rooftops.
Black-Billed Magpie
The black-billed magpie, or American magpie, has striking black-and-white coloring and is found in the American West. These intelligent birds can mimic human speech and work together in teams to collect food.
Considered a pest by some farmers and gardeners, black-billed magpies developed a bad reputation for stealing songbird eggs. Although they are guilty as charged, they do not eat other birds’ eggs as a primary source of food. If you had to pick any bothersome bird on this list to visit your yard, you could do much worse than the persecuted black-billed magpie.
Chimney Swift
Chimney swifts are found in the eastern half of the United States and spend most of their lives in the air. Unable to perch on tree branches like other birds, chimney swifts cling to vertical walls like those inside a chimney.
Although chimney swifts eat a wide variety of flying insect pests, these vocal birds are unbelievably loud. In addition, their tendency to roost and nest inside chimneys can disrupt or block your chimney’s airflow.
Wild Parrots
Although there are no native parrot species left in the United States, some cities such as Los Angeles have large flocks of wild parrots. The original parrots were either pets that escaped or were intentionally released. The red-crowned parrot — one of the largest parrots flying over Tinseltown — is actually thriving better there than in its native Mexico.
For being a nonnative bird, parrots do not disrupt the ecology enough to be considered an invasive species. Many people enjoy seeing the exotic birds flying free until a flock of them roosts in a tree in their yards. The parrots’ ear-shattering squawking belongs in an actual jungle, not an urban one.