I was talking about gardening last Sunday with a guy from church, and he shared something he had heard from a mutual friend who passed away last year. Sounds crazy, but make sense. He said our friend would start hanging red Christmas ornaments (the round, glass ones) on his tomato plants as soon as they were big enough to hold them, adding new ones as the plants grew. The birds would investigate, but by the time actual tomatoes were coming on, they had gotten tired of checking and didn’t bother the real fruit. If only they made little glass figs as Christmas decorations!

Perhaps hanging Blue C-10 bulbs for dark type figs?
As for the white type figs well let the birds have there say.

Ken,

The concept is more important than the color. The birds are attracted and investigate, eventually realizing that there is nothing to eat. I use x-mas ornamental balls and painted fishing bobbers on my peaches and it seems to help a lot. The key is to put them on weeks before the fruit ripens to get the birds used to them and give up.

I wish I had a lathe, I would be turning out fig decoys left and right. Thanks for the info. This might also work for less intelligent people pests!

sounds like you've got yourself a might fine eBay business idea there, Ken.  ;)

Good idea, Jason, but somebody beat me to it--and they're not cheap! Any kind of fake fruits you could ever hope for, from figs to durians & mangosteens:  http://www.amazingproduce.com/

Small cement filled balloons, that will ring their bells.

Maybe so--but it sounds like more work than I'm up for. Golf balls would be about the right size, and used ones are pretty cheap, but the shape probably wouldn't work. Martin's light bulb suggestion is probably the easiest way to get close to the shape, and they wouldn't be too hard to attach.

A string of bulbs would be much easier to put up, move around and have enough decoys on it to look like a good crop . I understand birds are very visual and notice changes so will probably investigate a few times again after the tree puts on another crop, real or fake.

Ken- I just googled Verdins to see if their beaks looked sensitive enough to be offended by a stone fig and I read that they really like nectar and drink from hummingbird feeders. You could try and put some out to distract them from your fruit. They will get a sugar rush and decide they really want some bugs for their main course. If not, their beaks are puny and one hopeful peck to a concrete fig would probably rock their worlds ;) I bet those little buggers would peck at Christmas lights just to practice for the real thing that they know is coming.

Ruben,
I like that idea.  Thanks for sharing.