Wild animals coming onto your property isn’t something that all people want, if you’re a duck enthusiast then ducks coming onto your property may be wonderful. If you aren’t, then ducks coming onto your property can be quite annoying
This article explores why ducks keep coming to your house.
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Why do ducks keep coming to my house?
As much as we enjoy our homes ducks aren’t really drawn to visit and live in human homes if there isn’t anything pulling the birds to your home.
But if something is pulling the birds to your home, then they may visit or even try to stay long-term. Here are reasons why ducks may be coming into your house:
Food:
Ducks love food and if these birds realize that there is food on your property, then these birds will happily come into your yard to eat and settle.
In the wild, ducks like to eat foods like insects, worms, seeds, pond weeds, and small animals like water snails. However, these birds can also eat any leftover human foods that may be laying around your waste bins.
What to do:
If you want to keep ducks from coming onto your property you’d need to get rid of any food sources that may be attracting these birds.
Remove any food waste that may be laying around on your property. Remove this food waste completely from your property by throwing it in landfills or sealing your garage bins so that ducks can’t get into them.
If you do this, and the birds try to get into your waste bins, keep failing, then they will stop coming to your house as there is no food for them to eat, they will look for food elsewhere, and stay away from your property.
Bodies of water:
Ducks love to swim, we know this, they also need bodies of water to drink out of and to clean their nares (nostrils) with. Ducks dunk their heads in water and blow bubbles as a way to clear their nares, the birds need to do this on a regular basis.
Ducks will live around water bodies, water bodies like rivers, streams, ponds, and even swimming pools and kiddie pools to do this.
If the ducks don’t have access to bodies of water elsewhere, and they realize that your property is the only source of water, then they will visit your property and even live there, if they can, in order to have constant access to the water body on your properly.
What to do:
Create a barrier that will ensure that the birds don’t get access to any bodies of water on your property.
You can do this by using a swimming pool cover over your pool so that the birds can’t get into the pool and are forced to swim elsewhere.
You can alternatively drain the bodies of water if you prefer doing this over using a pool net or a pool cover on your swimming pool.
You can also build a fence around your pool or a wall around it to keep ducks away from the water.
It’s a mother duck:
Ducks are very social animals, these birds will often be found together. However, if a mother duck is about to lay eggs, she will isolate herself from other ducks.
She will do this as a way to keep herself, her eggs, and her ducklings safe. This isolation may mean wandering into your property and staying there
If one duck keeps coming to one spot on your property this is likely a mother duck incubating her eggs
The mother duck may have chosen your property to lay and incubate her eggs at because it is the perfect location for hatching and incubating her eggs.
What to do:
The best thing you can do in this situation is to leave the bird alone if it is not bothering anyone. The mother bird has arrived on your property because it sees your property as a safe place to lay her eggs and start to raise her ducklings.
If the bird thinks that this is a great place to lay eggs then she likely can get food in the area, but if you want to feed the birds you can feed the birds vegetables chopped up into pieces.
Avoid giving the birds bread as bread has low nutritional value.
There are laws protecting birds that prohibit you from getting rid of mother birds and her ducklings.
You would need to contact your local wildlife council to ask whether or not you can have these birds and eggs removed from your property.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other duck related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Why Did My Duck Die?, Duck Imprinting On Dog, Duck Imprinting On Humans, How To Tell That A Duck Is Stressed, Do Ducks Know If Their Eggs Are Fertile?, How To Get Ducks To Lay Eggs In Winter