How to Get Rid of Doves in the Trees in Your Yard

Limit or reduce the number of seed-producing plants around the trees and remove bird feeders from around the trees. Switch out the feeders you use for narrow, tubular feeders without perches, if you don’t want to remove the feeders entirely.

Keep the area beneath the trees cleared and maintained. Doves forage on the ground for seeds and keeping the area free of seed-producing plants can discourage flying down to feed and flying back into the tree to roost and digest. Likewise, a lack of shrubbery around the trees leaves the doves exposed during foraging, which they will avoid.

Remove any nests from the tree that have been built to discourage the doves from roosting there. Check the branches every couple of weeks for new nesting material and remove as necessary.

Drape nylon or plastic tree netting over your trees to prevent the birds from coming to them at all. This is especially useful for fruit trees if the doves are eating your potential crop. Also, place netting or porcupine wires around ledges near the tree to discourage the entire area.

Prune the trees to thin out damaged and dead limbs to make the tree less desirable for a group or pair of doves to rest over night.

Reduce the number of water sources by draining shallow areas that hold water such as ruts in the road, bowls for other animals, troughs or buckets. Move birdbaths to another area of the property. If you need to leave water out for pets, keep the level of the water low enough that a dove perching on the rim can’t reach the water.

Hang loud wind chimes on the branches of the trees to frighten the doves when they try to land for the evening. Stake pinwheels made from different materials around the lawn area near the trees to show movement and scare the ground foraging doves.

Place a fake owl figure outside where it can be seen from the trees or in the tree itself. If you don’t have a fake owl, you can use virtually any sign with bird eyes painted on it as the decoy.