7 Tips for Keeping Birds Off Your Porch Lights

Birds may find your porch lights an ideal place where they can rest or build a nest, especially in springtime. Porchlight fixtures provide enough warmth to support their nests and the eggs that birds may lay in them. However, the presence of birds on porch lights is problematic because droppings, feathers, or even the twigs and branches that make up the nests can damage your lights, not to mention make your porch unsightly.

You should adhere to the following advice to drive away any birds if you notice they’ve become a problem. All of these tips are worth attempting because they can all work under the right circumstances and are all humane solutions. Birds are lovable, and most of the time they’re welcome in gardens and porches. It’s only when they unintentionally cause damage to our property and light fixtures with their nesting habits that you have to think of simple and effective ways to drive them away.

1. Place a Rough Object on Top of the Light Fixtures

Place a rough object on the light fixtures so that the surface is not flat anymore. Birds need a flat surface for their nests, and making this simple change means that your porch lights will no longer be an ideal nesting location for them.

2. Hang a Plastic Owl Near the Porch Light

Operating under the same kind of logic as a scarecrow in a field, birds can be frightened away from your porch if you hang a plastic owl somewhere near your light. Keep in mind that in order to successfully trick the birds, you must commit to the charade and move the owl around pretty often to give the illusion that an actual predator has taken up in the area. If you do not move the plastic owl, the birds will eventually discover that it is actually fake and innocuous, and they will continue to nest on your porch lights without fear.

3. Hang Wind Chimes Above the Lights

Hang a set of wind chimes above your porch light fixtures to obstruct the bird from reaching the porch lights. Both the presence of a physical obstruction and the noise from wind chimes can deter birds from settling in a spot.

4. Don’t Give Food to the Birds

Stop feeding the birds. You may enjoy feeding bread and seeds to birds, but that’s one clear reason that birds are flocking to your porch area. If you stop giving them food, the birds will eventually stop coming around and building nests on your porch and light fixtures will seem less and less appealing.

5. Install Appropriate Bird Spikes

Bird spikes are very effective if you want to keep birds away from your porch lights. Put the bird spikes on top of your light fixtures. Birds will never come to rest on them again, but be careful about what kind of birds you’re trying to avoid.

For example, if the bird spikes are intended for larger birds, smaller birds will keep coming and the spikes will not stop them. Make sure you purchase spikes of the appropriate size and function. Make sure that the website or store you're buying from is offering a spike size that will actually meet your specific needs.

6. Guard the Lights with Cats

Cats are the bird's worst enemy. You can get the help of one or two cats by leaving them on the porch to guard your lights against birds. If your bird problem really is that consistent, chances are a cat will notice soon enough and act as a living security system.

7. Catching the Birds in Traps

In case the birds are persistent and keep coming to rest on your porch lights, you can buy and prepare a set of bird traps for them. Once they get caught inside, take the traps somewhere far away from your house and release the birds there. They will hopefully find another location where they can rest.