Wild birds swooping in

[Joyfillednomads]

So Gorgeous Red Cardinals, Robin's, blue jays, Jay's, etc have been stealing feed. Pretty brave swooping in stealing sunflower seeds and grain.
Now we have baby bird nests everywhere. Sadly, I found an abandoned Robin's nest in my rose bush. There are nests in my gutters and every trees has nests. As lovely as they may be... THEY ARE LOUD and more vocal than our backyard bunch.
Not sure what is whistling at 5:00am, but I almost had my hubby cut an old oak tree down just to get it to leave... till I saw the nests.
My backyard flock is attracting all the wild birds from the conservation area...
Very tempted to remove at least 5 trees at the end of the birds' breeding seasons and put up a few different types of bird houses a ways away from my bedroom window.
We love seeing them, and will continue to house & feed them. Worried that the chicks will stay and next season we will overwhelmed.
We have reduced feed, removed feed at night. But since we pasture our chickens, there is enough wild & natural food for the wild birds.
We currently do not have a cat and I would not want it to wander off destroying native critters.
The birds could careless about the dogs. And the squirrels and chipmunks don't seem to give a hoot about the dogs either. The wild rabbits are a rare sight now.
Anyone else improve the habitat for their animals, to have wild and native animals try to take over?
I wouldn't be so worried, but the wild birds attract hawks and other birds of prey. And scared we won't be able to free range anymore.

 

[azygous]

I hear the desert is nice this time of year.

Yes, kidding aside, too much wildlife can be a royal pain, and drive you to want to flee the planet. I've experienced it with large mammals being a large nuisance, but birds can present all the problems you describe and then some, one being the increase of possibility of avian diseases.

Removing habitat will help. Switching to a different form of feed and feeders would help. Fermented feed would be far less likely to attract birds and other wildlife since it produce zero spillage and waste.

A covered run would help, and I highly recommend it. If there are avian diseases in the wild bird population where you live, and knowing your state would help is advise you, covered runs is a necessity unless you want to live with the risk of having the health department exterminate your flock to control an outbreak in your county.

 

[Joyfillednomads]

Yeah, as much as we LOVE nature...
We have to keep our flock healthy. Didn't even consider diseases. All the wild birds we have seen seem healthy.

 

[azygous]

That's 'cause the dead ones don't fly. Also, with bird viruses, birds can carry the disease and not be symptomatic. Pigeons can contaminate chicken water bowls and leave a protozoa in the water that can cause hideous lesions in the mouths of chickens. Wild birds can carry New Castle disease that can wipe out chicken flocks. This is happening in California. Other wild birds can spread avian influenza, and it can infect flocks and even humans.

These birds are normally not a huge problem, but when your wild bird populations are extremly high, it raises your chances of having one of these diseases affecting your flock. It's wise to take measures to reduce those populations by removing habitat, so it lowers the chances of your flock getting infected.

 

[Lady Clucks-a-Lot]

Oh wow, all our flock's food ( we mostly use plain chicken food, some leftovers, too) attracts are crows, rats, raccoons, ducks, wood birds, and a lot of geese.