NUISANCE BIRD NESTS

Are you annoyed by the antics of a certain nesting bird at your home or office?  Maybe it’s a swallow with its mud nest under your porch and the adults keep swooping at you.  Do you feel like calling the authorities to rid you of this nuisance nesting bird?  Or maybe there’s a nesting colony of herons and egrets at your private lake and you don’t like the noise and mess they make.  No local, state, or federal agency will come catch and remove any native species of bird that’s nesting on your property because it’s in violation of the law.  If you want to take matters into your own hands, you can but you must proceed carefully, making sure you know state and federal laws.

The swallows and herons mentioned earlier are state and federally protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.  It is illegal for any person to destroy their nest or eggs without a permit.  Active nests with eggs or chicks inside may not be touched or destroyed so you have to let that nesting cycle finish.  An inactive or empty nest does not require a permit to destroy.  Investigate things that you can do in the non-nesting season to discourage the birds so they won’t return next spring and summer.  For more information on the laws, please visit www.fws.gov/story/bird-nests

Those swallows are eating pesky insects around your home, so they’re good to have around.  Earlier I mentioned adult birds swooping at you near their nest – these are birds being good protective parents.  Remember that we have neighbors all around us, even the feathered kind, that need space and time to raise their family, too.  Give them that opportunity, it will just be for a short time.  Do it for the owls.

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