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| Dealing with pests in your garden and nestboxes
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This information sheet covers:
Introduced Birds
Removal of Feral birds from nest boxes
Removal of bees from nestboxes
Aggressive native birds
Cats
Introduced birds
Introduced birds such as Blackbirds, Starlings, Sparrows and Indian Mynahs were introduced to Australia over 150 years ago and are now common in suburban backyards.
Blackbirds were introduced from Europe and Asia and were first released in Victoria in 1864. They were later released in South Australia, Tasmania and NSW. They are still only found in these states.
Starlings were also introduced to Australia in the 1860s and are now a major pest. They are robust competitors with our native birds for food and nesting hollows and have spread throughout the eastern states (Tas., NSW, Vic, Qld.SA and ACT).
Indian Mynahs have also spread throughout eastern Australia. They were introduced to control insect pests in the late 1800s. These birds will eat insects, meat, berries and seeds and most other things!. They are extremely aggressive towards native birds.
House Sparrows were introduced in the 1860s and are also a pest species. They compete with native birds for nesting hollows and crevices. They are spread over much of Eastern Australia including eastern parts of the Northern Territory.
Typical English gardens with open lawns tend to favour Blackbirds, Indian Mynas, Sparrows and Starlings. It's not an easy task to discourage these birds, but the following tips will help:
- Grow lots of native plants including trees, shrubs and grasses and fewer non-native plants particularly trees.
- Have smaller areas of lawn and more ground cover plants and mulch.
- Don't feed birds bread or large amounts of seed.
You may not get rid of all the introduced birds, but you can quickly make your garden less friendly for them.
Removal of feral birds from nestboxes
Sparrows, starlings and mynahs will drive native birds away from nest boxes and may even build nests over eggs or young. Any nest building by these species should be discouraged and nests and eggs should be removed.
Removal of bees from nest boxes
Hives of introduced honey bees can occupy large percentages of hollows in any area. Bee Keepers will often remove them at very reasonable price -just look in the Yellow pages or local directory.
Aggressive native birds
Some of the larger native birds such as Wattlebirds can be very aggressive to smaller birds. If you want to discourage bullying in your backyard, plant lots of thick, prickly shrubs such as Bursaria, Acacias and Hakeas. This provides shelter (as well as a source of berries, insects and seeds) and enables the little guys to escape. Planting several thickets in the garden is best. Make sure you avoid putting bird food out as this also encourages the aggressive birds to stay around longer.
Cats
In some gardens, these unwanted intruders are a constant irritation and many cats harass and kill small birds and reptiles. In fact attracting native mammals and birds to breed in a backyard inhabited by a cat is creating a tragedy.
There is little that can be done to stop a cat entering your garden other than squirting it with a hose and visiting the owner to ask that the cat be kept indoors. Some cat owners place bells around their cat's neck - however this will not always warn unsuspecting birds as cats can slowly stalk their prey without even a tinkle from the bell.
Planting thickets of prickly shrubs provides birds and lizards with places to escape. If you have bird baths, or lizard sunning spots in your garden, make sure they near these thickets so that animals can't be ambushed and can make a quick escape.
Credit:
This is an abridged version of an information sheet prepared by the Gould League of Victoria for the Flora for Fauna website.
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