Hello, only my second question here, so apologies in advance if it’s daft.My husband wants to buy me a life sized little sculpture/statue of a male blackbird on a garden fork. It’s pretty lifelike (to me; maybe not a bird?) I realise a blackbird is not a predator (most advice is about plastic owls), but male blackbirds are regular visitors to my garden (two had a fight here about a fortnight ago while a third sneaked in and ate the food I think the other two were fighting over). I’m clueless but keen; I’ve tried hard to make my garden attractive to birds and don’t want to put them off. I’ve tried googling, but everything I read is about deliberately scaring birds away, while I want to do the opposite. Does anyone have advice? I don’t need aesthetic advice, however, thank you:). Clare
Hi Clare as far as I am aware blackbirds are territorial like you have already witnessed with the fighting so a life-size statue may result in another blackbird wasting energy thinking he has competition instead of Mating and raising his brood. Only my opinion but others shall advice you better am sure
(Pardon the Scottish Accent)
That’s what I was concerned about. Many thanks for such a prompt response, Linda.
Your welcome Clare
Hi Clare, we’ve had a charming fake magpie sat in a flowerbed for a few years now… I can’t remember why. I think it was a vain attempt to deter pigeons?
Anyway, I remember having the same fear of him scaring the other birds, but no harm was done. The blackbirds are still here all day, every day (along with their fledglings in the spring).
I’m guessing Mr Fake Magpie isn’t as scary as the sparrowhawk who occasionally swoops in! In fact, my blackbirds swoop at me when I come to fill the ground feeder in the morning (not sure if it’s a friendly swoop), so I think yours will be fine!