# Forum Home Renovation Roofing  Colorbond roof and birds nests!!

## sticks1977

I have only noticed recently that some native birds in our area have been making nests underneath our colorbond roof, mainly in the corners... 
I only noticed this as I heard some babies chirping the other day and went up the man-hole in the cieling to investigate, sure enough saw the mother bird coming in and giving them a feed! 
Part of me can understand that they are looking for nests anywhere they can as there are not many mature areas in our area (in a new-ish estate, about 4-5 years old), but it is damn annoying that they are making under my roof their home! 
Is there anything that you can recommend I put in the guttering to deter them getting back in? I want to also make sure that there are no baby birds or anything in there at the time when I seal it up, to prevent bird deaths and subsequent rats or mice feeding on them up in my roof - not all that yummy I would think... 
I have previously put some gutter guard in (that plastic meshy stuff from Bunnings) but had no luck with that as they mainly trampled on it until they could get back in again... The other problem I have is that in the corners of the colorbond sheeting there are no roof screws. It is secured by the capping, but you can probably lift the corner pieces up by an inch or two - enough for a birdie to sneak in. 
Have seen another product in Bunnings for guttering, it is a long black wired brush type setup, looks damn similar to a duster or something (it's in cylinder form)... I am wondering whether to use these to jam into the corners - but don't want to go ahead and spend plenty of money on these (would probably need 12 of them to cover all the corners on the roof) if the birds are merely going to try and rip these out to gain access again... 
Any help would be appreciated, sometimes they sound like fiesty little buggers... chirping away and I can hear em walking around in the guttering - might need to buy a cat hey? 
Regards, Shaun (sticks1977)

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## 2x4

yeah I'm with ya. pesky wildlife. the cheek of them. no consideration at all. :Rolleyes:

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## zacnelson

Make sure before you cover it up that you allow time for the babies to mature enough to leave the nest, should only take 14 to 21 days

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## GraemeCook

Hi Shaun 
You can buy strips of rubbery stuff thats molded to fit the contours of colourbond from any hardware store.  The birds will move on before Christmas. 
With habitat destruction, our wildlife needs all the help we can give it.   And its nice having birds around.  You might consider putting a couple of nest boxes under you eaves for next year. 
Cheers 
Graeme

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## sticks1977

> You can buy strips of rubbery stuff thats molded to fit the contours of colourbond from any hardware store.  The birds will move on before Christmas. 
> With habitat destruction, our wildlife needs all the help we can give it.   And its nice having birds around.  You might consider putting a couple of nest boxes under you eaves for next year.

  Unfortunately the house we are in does not have any eaves, the guttering is pretty much bordering on the brickwork... these strips of rubber would be around the area where gutter guard and similar products are at Bunnings? 
Thanks for your reply, I am thinking of putting a bird bath or perhaps a feeding box on a pole somewhere in the backyard - just hope that our labrador dog doesn't catch any of the birds!

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## Halfie

We had a gutter guard installed by www.theleafman.com to keep leaves out but this product would definitely keep birds out as well.

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## Smurf

In most cases you'll find the nest abandoned in a few weeks anyway but the parent birds will come back to use it again in the future. So wait for it to be empty and then block up however they are getting in - that way you won't be killing any birds.  
I know they're a hassle in the roof but if you can put up with them for a few weeks until they move out then that's better than adding to the destruction of nature.

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## Make it work

Do you know what type of bird you are allowing to breed in your roof space? 
Some of them there crittures are real pests and are not native at all, could bring mites or bird lice too not to mention the mess they make with all the nesting material they bring in. 
You may find them returning season after season if you let them mature. 
I had some birds making nests above the electricity meters on my varandah so I put a couple of mouse traps there and it sacred the crap out of them, they never came back, it worked in the roof of my garage too.

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## barney118

It wouldnt suprise me if you have the Indian minor PESTS living in the roof (black with yellow). I found a few skeletons when I completed my reroof. I found the ridge capping was installed pretty ordinary on my old roof and when I installed my new rolltop capping I folded the ends under the colorbond so it was a tight fit and no bird has been back since. I also installed blanket (foil) before my roof went on so another layer the pests have to try and get through. The ends of the colorbond roll, you can fit a pieve pop rivet into the round section or some give it a crunch with a tyre lever to close the hole, I dont like the look of that but you look around and there is a lot of it.

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