Pest: The Birds

Birds can be helpful to a garden by eating insects. However, in my experience, birds will do more harm than good. I've lost an entire set of transplants to some hungry birds. Anytime the garden has seedlings, either from a direct sowing or transplanting, I use wire hoops and wildlife netting to protect the plants. I will leave this netting in place until the plants reach the height of the netting. Usually, once the seedlings reach an adequate size, the birds will no longer clip leaves. This year is a bit different. My neighbor has a wonderful garden with lots of bird feeders. I truly appreciate all of the wildlife, however, several species have an affection for my small Swiss chard planting. I took these pictures to document my Swiss chard bird feeder. As the chard leaves increase in size, the stem gracefully arcs and provides an ideal perch for their snacking.