I need to build some sort of an electronic bird scarer that will drive away pigeons and myna birds. It needs to be as simple as possible and to be powered by AA cells. Any suggestions appreciated.

 

I use a 12 gauge.

No batteries needed.

 

http://www.bird-free.com/

 

http://www.bird-free.com/

That is interesting:


"Bird Free is formulated so that birds won’t go near it: birds see ultraviolet light so it appears to them as fire."


I never did see a bird try to land in any of my fires.

 

On a lighthouse preservation sight I volunteer at we use an electrified pair of wires to scare away the birds. They never land a second time!

Here is a system similar to the one we use, and the best part is it does not use replaceable batteries at all:

http://www.harborfreight.com/solar-fencer-47454.html

Drawback is you need to string wires over what you are protecting, simple for us as it is basically a fence rail. Don’t touch these, while not deadly it is not pleasant.

 

When I was a kid we would hang aluminum pie pans in our cherry trees. A little wind would make for a decent bird deterrent. You could come up with an electronic solution to "randomly" turn a pie plate and/or spin one of those tiny cellphone motors and make quite a racket.

But in my experience things that merely scare birds will soon be overlooked by those birds, if they are otherwise attracted to something. They'll simply grow use to the annoyance. In the case of cherry trees, if you scare the birds away then the squirrels move in!

 

On a lighthouse preservation sight I volunteer at we use an electrified pair of wires to scare away the birds. They never land a second time!

Here is a system similar to the one we use, and the best part is it does not use replaceable batteries at all:

http://www.harborfreight.com/solar-fencer-47454.html

Drawback is you need to string wires over what you are protecting, simple for us as it is basically a fence rail. Don’t touch these, while not deadly it is not pleasant.

I've owned/operated a garden since I was five years old.

Several locations, I used an electric fence, mostly for small mammals like rabbits.
Several mornings, I'd also see dead birds on the ground.
They must have been hopping along, looking for worms, minding their own business, and Bam!

On a farm, birds are some of the most destructive, and downright nasty cusses, alive.