Good for you Soni.  I have the same respect for the wildlife as you.  I freed a big old thrasher bird from my netting the other day.  If they just took a few figs I wouldn't mind.  But those birds seem to want them all.  Who can blame them?

I like most all wildlife and don't mind them getting fruit in fact I plant an abundance of everything so that they may prosper, however when they destroy a whole crop as they are want to do then they cross a line. They do not have any respect for others and are usually more destructive than their beauty is worth.

Take the Starling, an import from Europe. All together they are an attractive bird with their iridescent plumage and their gregarious behavior. As they scour a yard you can sit back and imagine them eating all your bugs that will surely attack your veggies later. So they are a great bird right?

NOPE!

Their favorite activity is invading our native songbirds nest and pecking the brains out of the baby birds. Not satisfied with killing the young they will also attack the adult birds and kill them too!

WHY?

They are lazy and why should they build a nest when they can have one already built. Slowly but surely the invaders are decimating the native birds of North America such as the Purple Martin and the Bluebirds. The English House Sparrow does the same. Those two birds should be annihilated with extreme prejudice. In MOST areas they are not protected by laws since they are not native birds.

If we could just teach the rest to not be wasteful and if you touch just eat it.

NO NORE PECKING!

Someone said here that the birds are looking for water when they attack the figs. They said that if you put water out for the birds then they will be less likely to go for the figs. I have no idea if this is true.

We shouldn't forget that the birds eat the insects in the orchard. I have seen netted fig trees have the fruit destroyed by insects. In some cases one problem could be traded for a bigger problem.

I have tried almost everything over the last 18 years. The only practical thing that has given me good results has been BirdGard.

Wet blanket here. Willing to share as soon as the wildlife learns to share. Eat one or two figs, not one peck or bite out out the whole tree.

The food chain is nature at work.

i don't mind them eating my figs. that's fine. however, i expect them to fly away when i'm out on deck getting my share. if they dive bomb me like they did last time, they will be fig stuff bird on my grill. 

i consider net for the birds and tanglefoot for the ants. but still haven't done them since i heard about how the birds can get stuck on the tanglefoot. ants are going to be nasty this yr. they know where my figs are and sending their scouts already. 

The people that invented firearms were intelligent........I go for that solution.  We are after all part of the food chain.  I don't condemn a wolf protecting it's territory and killing the foxes and coyotes because they compete with it for food.   If the wolf is allowed to protect it's food I am allowed to protect mine.  

That's funny Pete! We Have 2 ferel cats that we adopted, fixed and feed. They were here when we got here and they are great snake hunters. Last year we had over a dozen dead baby copperheads left as gifts for us :) But I digress, we also have resident mocking birds who this year decided to nest. They went after everything but me within a quarter of a mile, these birds were crazy. I was watering 2 weeks ago and one of them started doing divebombs at the cats. I told him it wasn't a good idea but apparently he didn't listen because his feathers were left scattered about my garden the next morning.

I went out a week later and there was another feather party where the last one had been and again the day before yesterday. These cats rarely get birds but I guess it was too easy when the birds came to them. I don't worry about my figs in the front yard because the cats keep the squirrels and the birds away. The backyard however is another matter altogether.

For me ferel cats have been a good solution, at least for the front yard.


LOVE IT Wills

Like Tami, my cat is one of my main solutions to keep the bird damage down.  I'm sure I would get a lot less fruit if it wasn't for him.  He doesn't catch very many but definitely deters them.  Otherwise it's netting on the small fig trees.  Once they get to a certain size hopefully they will produce enough figs that there will still be some left for me.

@Rewton  Hi,   Your cat probably keeps birds from nesting there.  That's good bird control. 

12 gauge, #8 shot

As long as you don't get pellets in the figs!

I don't mind sharing some fruits,nuts, and vegetables with the animals.The way that I see the situation with wildlife is sort of a mixture of Darwin's theory and me playing the part of the capitalist gardener who wants some pleasure and benefit for planting and nurturing a variety of fruits,nuts, and vegetables.

    Wildlife would have less to eat and a more difficult life if I chose not to provide water and cultivate my plot of earth to be more productive.So I plan to reap some tasty benefits from my labor,and generally the more that I labor,the more I am rewarded.

    WAG, I probably lose 10-35% of my produce to insects and animals.Darwin's theory of only the fittest survive can also apply to the animal that is smarter than the rest.It doesn't make a nuisance of itself by consuming or damaging all the produce that the capitalist gardener cultivates. The smart parasite doesn't kill the host or eliminate the host's behavior that is beneficial to the parasite.The smart bird doesn't hover over a single fig bush and consume or damage all the figs;it eats a fig and flies off to eat insects,seeds,and reproduce.The nuisance bird hovers over my figs and its genes are eliminated from the gene pool.

   Just yesterday, I had 32 one gallon pots with American Chestnuts in them get raided by chipmunks.We had a downpour of rain and I checked my garden about 30 minutes afterwards.I discovered that 25 of my nuts had been freshly dug up due to the fact that earth was still crumbly and piled around the holes.That chipmunk potentially wiped out 25 trees that could have provided an abundance of nuts for wildlife and people.

Cheese cloth, mosquito netting, organza gift bags all work well for birds.   Let them be!  They eat lots of insects that would attack your plants.  

On the pecking and wasting issue, I have been thinking.  Of course it's frustrating to see 5 fruits 1/5 eaten each and left to rot, and you think to yourself, "why couldn't they just have eaten 1 in its entirety?"  Then we all could have had more?  Believe me, I thought the same when this morning I took a look at my half-ripe 12 ounce Brandywine tomato I've been nurturing for weeks, and saw that something took a bite out of it, thereby ruining its chances of ripening. 

But, if you think about it, they have evolved over time to behave in this fashion (if you don't agree with the concept of evolution, then just substitute "designed by God" here.  I'm not looking to start any political debates).  What the bird leaves as half pecked, some other organism eats, whether it's an ant or a fungus or whatever.  This food chain was in place before humans came into being.  Nothing is truly wasted in nature. 

So, I encourage you to use all your whits and cleverness to outsmart any animal that is depriving you of your bounty.  Or if you feel the need to thin the ranks, I won't pass judgement, as long as it's humane.  But keep in mind they're most likely doing what they've always done, even if it doesn't make sense to us.  If they're behaving differently, then why?  Maybe it's because their habitat has been taken by human development.  Or maybe not.  Does it matter?  Don't let them deprive you of your peace and enjoyment for the activity you love, namely growing fruiting plants.  It's a joy, even if nature beats us to the spoil.  If you must view it as Us vs Them, then tip your hat, and vow to win the next battle. 

Otherwise it's just like Elmer Fudd and that "wascally wabbit." 

Humane, sure...

Just now, I saw a murder of crows eating my by now rotten figs.  Big crows.  Kindly crows too, one would peck the figs and feed a neighboring crow.

No, they don't leave any fruit beyond what gets knocked to the ground.

i think the topic of this thread is making some people, including me, to second guess at the response. when "humane" and "wildlife" are mentioned in same sentence, my first thought is how to dispatch the mentioned "wildlife" in most "humane" way. when i say "humane" i mean as to "retire" quickly as possible without causing any undue pain and suffering to the said "animal". however, to most people now days, terminating the life of an animal in "quick without undue pain and suffering" isn't really good enough. it has to be very "sanitized" so there will be no trace of any form of "violence".  for example.. no colored body fluid, most in red, no internal organs displayed in rorschach inkblot pattern, no recognizable body parts.. 

having said that, i think it would have helped if the topic was "how to share our figs with animal friends and still have some left over for ourselves" would have helped :) 

i'm just trying to have fun!!!

edit: hope i didn't offend anyone :) 

   I think you nailed the definition: 
 hu•mane (hyuˈmeɪn or, often, yu-)  adj.

SoniSoni, great post. I agree with you. I'm always surprised when people seem to think the wildlife is purposefully trying to ruin their day by eating their fruit. Wildlife is wired to take the easiest path to survival. Their is no ill intention, just an attempt to survive. First course of action should be to protect the figs. Second should be to trap and relocate. If deadly measures MUST be taken, it should be done in as humane a way as possible.

Sounds gross, but you can use coyote urine to repel raccoons and opossum. Can be bought in a bottle at many sporting goods stores.