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Many property owners adorn their backyards with birdhouses and bird baths to attract songbirds and support local wildlife. Unfortunately, these common landscape features also tend to attract raccoons. Unlike bird feeders, birdhouses and bird baths draw raccoons for reasons other than food.
If you're wondering how to keep raccoons away while still attracting songbirds, understanding why they visit is the first step.
In addition to residential yards, birdhouses or bird bath can also be found here:
- Parks
- Botanical gardens
- Retirement homes
- Office campuses
- Nature centres
- Hotels with landscaped grounds
Why Raccoons Are Attracted to Birdhouses and Bird Baths
Birdhouses Can Become Easy Food Sources
By providing a nesting place for birds, we may inadvertently invite raccoons to raid them and consume eggs, nestlings, and recently hatched birds. Sadly for bird lovers, raccoons eating bird eggs and hatchlings and destroying entire nests, especially during breeding season, is a reality they must contend with. Raccoons are smart and opportunistic omnivores that readily prey on accessible nests.
Birdhouses Provide Shelter
Raccoons are known for snoozing the day away and an empty birdhouse may be a safe place to do so.
Bird Baths Provide Reliable Water Sources
Raccoons are very dependent on water for these reasons:
- Drinking water
- Washing food
- Cooling during hot summer months
- Water availability during dry periods
Trees and Landscaping Offer Easy Access
Raccoons are excellent climbers and are often found up high. They frequently travel while making use of:
- Mature trees
- Fence lines
- Shrubs providing cover
Signs You Need Raccoon Control For Birdhouses
Since they are most active at night, you may not actually observe raccoons around birdhouses or near your bird bath. However, there are some signs that can indicate raccoon activity, including the following:
- Damaged birdhouses
- Missing eggs or nestlings
- Birdhouses knocked loose
- Paw prints around bird baths
- Water frequently disturbed overnight
- Birds suddenly abandoning nest boxes
How to Keep Raccoons Away from Birdhouses and Bird Baths
Location, location, location! Here are some tips on birdhouse and bird bath placement that an help reduce raccoon activity:
Birdhouse Placement
- Install birdhouses away from easy climbing routes
- Avoid mounting near roofs or overhanging branches
- Choose locations out in the open with good visibility
Bird Bath Placement
The following placement strategies can also help get rid of raccoons around bird baths by making the area less attractive and accessible.
- Avoid dense shrubs
- Keep bird baths away from fence lines
- Position them in more open areas
- Maintain visibility around water features
Protect Birdhouses from Climbing Raccoons
Keeping raccoons out of birdhouse areas often requires more than simply relocating the birdhouse:
- Pole-mounted birdhouses
- Predator guards
- Smooth mounting poles
- Limiting access points
Regular Birdhouse and Bird Bath Maintenance
Regular maintenance of the birdhouse and bird bath area is an important part of raccoon prevention, as it can help reduce recurring wildlife activity.
Birdhouse Maintenance:
- Inspect mounting hardware
- Remove damaged nesting material after the season
- Repair loose components
- Monitor for repeated wildlife activity
Bird Bath Maintenance:
- Empty bird bath nightly
- Remove organic debris
- Keep surrounding areas clean
- Inspect for signs of wildlife use
Bird-Friendly Features That Encourage Recurring Raccoon Activity
Unfortunately, what makes for a great wild bird habitat, also attracts other wildlife like raccoons.
- Mature trees
- Nearby natural areas
- Ravines and greenbelts
- Water features
- Older neighbourhoods with established wildlife populations
Why DIY Raccoon Control Around Birdhouses Often Fails
Because raccoons are so agile, determined and opportunistic, DIY control methods are not likely to succeed. Effective backyard wildlife control requires addressing the source of recurring raccoon activity rather than relying solely on temporary deterrents.
Protecting birdhouses by installing barriers or removing natural access routes does not remove the raccoon and a persistent animal will almost certainly return. Particularly during nesting season, females with offspring will continue visiting your yard for an easy meal.
Larger wildlife problems require more than habitat adjustments, exclusion, or a temporary deterrents. When it comes to recurring raccoon issues, a professional, experienced wildlife removal company like Hawkeye Bird & Animal Control is your best bet for a long-term solution.
Hawkeye's Permanent Raccoon Removal
Hawkeye's permanent raccoon removal approach is designed to prevent the same problem raccoon from returning, thus protecting birdhouses, bird baths, and landscaped properties from recurring wildlife damage.
Professional, property-specific, customized raccoon removal doesn't just temporarily relocate the raccoon but ends the never ending cycle of trap and release and disrupts the breeding cycle. It addresses nearby dens and family groups and the exploding raccoon overpopulation in the GTA.
Call In The Professionals: Hawkeye Bird & Animal Control
Birdhouses and bird baths can unintentionally attract raccoons to your yard. Once raccoons begin targeting nesting birds or repeatedly visiting water sources, the problem often becomes recurring. Proper placement, maintenance, and monitoring can help reduce risks of property damage and health hazards for you and your family.
Professional raccoon control and permanent raccoon removal offers long-term protection for bird-friendly landscapes across residential, commercial, and institutional properties in the GTA.
Hawkeye's raccoon removal services are available all across Southern Ontario, including Toronto, Scarborough, Brampton, Vaughan, Markham, Ajax, Pickering, Newmarket, Etobicoke, Oshawa, and Mississauga.
