Topic: Do birds eat redcurrants?

[manicscousers]

Before I start investigating. Two of our members' redcurrants have been stripped from the bushes, they were next to blackcurrants which havent been touched. Never heard of birds eating them  ???
advice, please  :)

[shirlton]

We cover ours cos the birds do eat them but even though we covered them completely all the currants on the bottom of the strigg have gone. Its impossible for birds to get to the bush. I would have thought that the birds would have had the blackcurrants before the red

[goodlife]

yes they do..our daft birds are starting when they are still green and stop once they are ripe... ::)
I've got loads of beautifully red ones down hanging down..and they've left them alone.. ???
Good for me though.. ;D

[realfood]

Birds always attack red currants, black currants, but often leave whitecurrants in my experience. Always cover them with netting and then you can leave them to get really ripe.

[Robert_Brenchley]

The pigeons are always after mine, both red and black.

[artichoke]

This is the first year I have had significant redcurrant  harvest because  I threw some fleece over them. They have always disappeared in previous years. The strings outside the fleece were very sparse, but inside they were complete and dazzlingly red.

I have had totally vanishing gooseberries in the past, but this year I have not protected them, and have masses.  Are birds dying out, or have they too many other sources of food?

They don't seem to care much for blackcurrants, raspberries, loganberries or boysenberries.

[LesH]

   Yes blackbirds strip our redcurrants, the bushes have to be netted. the blackbirds also strip thr white currants and new for this year the jackdaws have been watched jumping up and down on the blackcurrant branches until they break and hang down. then the jackdaws stand on the ground and strip the branches. on our site the red currants are producing a good crop while the blackcurrants are fairly sparce

[mat]

yep, they start stripping mine, just as they turn a perfect red... (and black for the blackcurrants...)

[jennym]

The birds here seem to attack the redcurrants before anything else, they seem to be much more attracted by the red colour than the blackcurrants or whitecurrants. I think there are a few things that need to be thought about though.
I always have to net my redcurrants, which are in quite an open situation. A chap at the top end of the site has huge redcurrant bushes, never nets them, and the birds don't seem to bother them, but they are situated in a corner with thick bramble and hawthorn hedge on two sides. Also, his are a dessert variety, sweet, mine are a sharp cooking type.
This year though, the birds have attacked everything during that very dry 11 week period we had from early April, the creatures needed the moisture I bet.

[green lily]

Yep they eat anything with colour. Blackbirds and pigeons are the worst culprits. I cover everything but this is the first year I've ever had to cover blackcurrants. .. :oThat was pigeons. I've even had whitecurrants stripped where they poke thru the netting and blackbirds trying to crawl under for redcurrants.. AND I don't feed the little darlings in the winter but neither do I have a cat.. ::)

[manicscousers]

Thanks, everyone, getting down off my 'let's do something nasty to the thief' horse  ;D
I've let them know, theyre going to cover from next year  ;D

[saddad]

This year I have netted the gooseberries and redcurrants... so they have stripped the Jostaberries....  ::)

[Russell]

Different birds eat different things at different times and places.
I start off with the pigeons in April eating the gooseberries greengages cherries and plums. Then assisted by the collared doves they move on to the red and white currents.
As the red currents turn red the blackbirds join in, moving on to the raspberries, and finally to the cherries as they ripen.
The pigeons being large and clumsy birds are relatively easily netted off.
The collared doves are more determined and more agile.
It takes a very carefully set up net to keep off a blackbird, they will get in anywhere. Once a blackbird has found a cherry tree it stops eating raspberries. When the tree is netted off, the bird does go back to to the raspberries but its appetite is much less than it was before the cherries started.
I pick my raspberries each evening, that way there are not many for a blackbird's breakfast which I think must be its main meal.

[Crystalmoon]

This year the birds ate my redcurrants when they were still hard & green! Think it was because it was so very dry here in Kent 

[Digeroo]

Its blackbirds who eat the red currants here, can strip them in no time at all, though do tend to leave a few on the ground.    They tend to nibble at the ends of the bunches while still green but then wait until they are nice and red.   Used fleece so good effect a few years ago but they have lost the fear of that and go straight in.  I seem to have adopted a cat who has been very effective.

[Poppy Mole]

Friday morning I had enough gooseberries on my little bush for a mini crumble for todays lunch as I was away for the weekend, went out earlier to pick them & not even one left for me.

[willsy]

It as been a bumper year for currants this year. I have pick all that I want and I am leaving the rest for our feathered little friends. I am not making jams or jellies this year as still got a load from last year and hubbi is diabetic so there is only meeee who eats it.