[Happinow]

Thanks for your input. These birds don't sing they Were chasing each other screeching. It would be different if they sang or chirped. Must be mating season! We will put some owls up and hopefully it will keep the birds away. They ate all of our little bits of grapefruit and orange buds!!! We had trees full of little buds....the birds must be full!! Sadly, we will not have a crop of oranges or grapefruits. We will buy fruit tree nets for next season. Bless their little hearts.

[Barefoot]

Originally Posted by Happinow

Thanks for your input. These birds don't sing they Were chasing each other screeching. It would be different if they sang or chirped. Must be mating season! We will put some owls up and hopefully it will keep the birds away.

I hope the owls work for you. They put fake owls at our neighborhood pool so the ducks would stay away. Sometimes the ducks actually sit on top of the owls.

[Patty55]

I'm assuming that they are fake owls. We had them at the barn, they never fooled anyone.

[justjim]

Birds can be a real problem. For example, cities spend thousands of dollars to rid starlings from their perch as they cause a real health hazard. Mockingbird not such a problem but sometimes a real nuisance.

[jazzy48]

There is also a Florida catbird that resembles a mockingbird. They do not sing - they screech and are most protective when they have a nest to protect or babies on the ground. I don't remember them having the white on their wings, however. If my memory of them is correct, they are mostly gray, but many people mistake them for mockingbirds.

[perrjojo]

The Mockingbird is the Florida State Bird. If they nest on your property, they can be VERY aggressive. Hey, it's our state bird...learn to luv em!

[kittygilchrist]

Originally Posted by Happinow

Thanks for your input. These birds don't sing they Were chasing each other screeching. It would be different if they sang or chirped. Must be mating season! We will put some owls up and hopefully it will keep the birds away. They ate all of our little bits of grapefruit and orange buds!!! We had trees full of little buds....the birds must be full!! Sadly, we will not have a crop of oranges or grapefruits. We will buy fruit tree nets for next season. Bless their little hearts.

funny story about putting up owls. My brother tried it and got an enormous population of live owls responding.. just saying....

[Barefoot]

Originally Posted by pooh

I'm with Gracie....I'd say they are mockingbirds.
Had them near our CA house and the winged creatures would be up ALL NIGHT courting potential mates. The first year they did this, I thought it was cute, special, beautiful. After many years, their little voices started to sound like fingernails on a blackboard...

Oh gosh .. Initially when I read the posts on this thread I did not understand how anyone could not enjoy bird songs. Like Pooh, I thought they were cute, special, beautiful.

Well, our birds are up all night partying, singing and squawking. They are especially noisy around 4 AM. I like to sleep with the windows open, but these days I have to close the windows and wear ear plugs to shut out the sound of the courting birds. They better darn well mate soon and have a family and quit the partying!

[Bonanza]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

I imagine they are those cheeky mockingbirds.

Gracie -- that is exactly what I was going to suggest.

As their name implies, they mimic other birds.
Could the problem be a different bird -- the one they are mimicing?

Who knows? It's just a thought.

[Madelaine Amee]

Originally Posted by perrjojo

The Mockingbird is the Florida State Bird. If they nest on your property, they can be VERY aggressive. Hey, it's our state bird...learn to luv em!

The Mockingbird frequents my feeding station and they are very aggressive to other birds, including the really big black birds. BUT, as well as being annoying, they must taste pretty good because I have a resident hawk who comes by regularly to check out his next dinner and so far he has taken three Mockingbirds.

[Happinow]

Originally Posted by Barefoot

Oh gosh .. Initially when I read the posts on this thread I did not understand how anyone could not enjoy bird songs. Like Pooh, I thought they were cute, special, beautiful.

Well, our birds are up all night partying, singing and squawking. They are especially noisy around 4 AM. I like to sleep with the windows open, but these days I have to close the windows and wear ear plugs to shut out the sound of the courting birds. They better darn well mate soon and have a family and quit the partying!

You are so right barefoot. The birds like to party all night. We wanted to keep our windows open too but much too loud for us. Those big black birds are annoying as well. The make a racquet! We have palms in our yard and the birds just love it in there. Had I know they attracted so many birds I probably would have thought twice about putting them in. I know, there's worse things out there than chirping (squawking) birds.