I have never had a bird land on either Sky…deterrent or not. I just put the tape on to see how it weathered, and to see if it messed up the measurements. @weather34 swears by shiny objects to scare birds away in his urban area of Turkey, but our local USA birds stay far away from dwellings since I live in a heavily-wooded area…
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Hi @dsj,
These cockatoos used to destroy my spinning cup anemometer, they loved them. They would hang upside down on them and swing around in circles. In the right wind they would fly stationary beside it while it spun and peck the cups as they came around. They are very intelligent birds and are not scared of much, if anything. That is why the Sky is so much better to me. This bird sat on it and looked between the plates but couldnt find anything to chew. They really do love just destroying stuff with their beaks.
Of special interest is why the rain continued after it hopped over to its perch at 6:10pm. I looked at my watch at the time. But the brightness confirms the timing.
This is a cockatoo’s behaviour:
I dont care about 1.5mm of false rain when the cockatoo can not destroy my anemometer 
cheers Ian
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Wow that’s a great bit of data, Ian. Thanks! I’m not sure why the false rain continues after the bird leaves his perch… Have you noticed false rain with birds on that perch at other times (i.e., without direct contact of the SKY)?
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That is hardly a “Small” bird…
Glad to see someone/something else finds the SWS as entertaining as we do!
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Hi @dsj,
No I havnt been watching it. Well, I have seen a quiet bird on the perch which doesnt really count. Next year I might mount some webcams and may include a view that records when birds land. That requires more free time than I have right now.
cheers Ian 
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That is pretty hilarious.
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A simple 4 wire careful install using gorilla tape will prevent
most any bird from landing on Sky. Wire should be 4" or longer. We have a lot of gulls
and turns on the beach but none have found Sky even remotely interesting 
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Looks like I may have to install bird spikes after all. My watch received a “rain start” alert this morning, despite sun pouring through the back window. When I looked out, there was a woodpecker plopped right in the center of my mast-mounted Sky! Even more surprising, it didn’t move when I opened the back door to chase it away. So, I let Blizzard the 15-pound psycho weather dog go out and bark it away. Apparently, woodpeckers and terriers share a common dialect…
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Hardly a “small bird causing rain”… more like “large bird causing flooding” 
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In Australia, that apparently IS considered a small bird! 
I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want to get in a scrum with a Southern Cassowary. They are apparently big enough to wreck automobiles!
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Why don’t you put an acoustic horn or anything similar to the right pole to force the “small bird” to look for another place?
Hi @dsfg,
Thanks for the suggestion/question. I have lots of different animals that eat and destroy things or bite people which I find better to adapt to than battle with. Those Cockatoos are not scared of much at all. They will stay put even with people throwing things at them. They are very intelligent and are capable of learning to communicate in english and how to control people with speech. They are happy to destroy anything with their beak. You can see I put tape around where the solar fitting joins because it doesnt take much force to undo the fitting so if they were pushing onto or from the solar panel they might undo it. A horn would require a sensor to set it off and it would wake people up. It is something for them to chew. They love eating spinning cup anemometers and can even do it while flapping in a wind flying beside it stationary, and if it is a davis version with the arms spinning underneath the support arm they hang upside down from the cups and swing themselves around in circles playing. I reckon the firmware should learn to distinguish the difference between birds and rain. That is why I have left it as is and supply the evidence to weatherflow to smarten up the haptic sensor. Watching that video makes me realise that the alternate perch I installed needs to be bigger for their claws which extend completely across the Sky so my little perch would be difficult for them to stand on.
I had thought about installing a stainless steel large diameter spinning cup anemometer from the adjacent pole with its arms spinning across the top of the Sky so it would hit anything sitting on the Sky but is only an idea. My rain readings are not important to me. The purpose of doing my rain readings is simply to help weatherflow.
cheers Ian
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Or manually operated after a rain start alert and optical verification 
I suppose those birds are covered by an Species Protection Act ?
Anyway, that “experiment” would be nice to see, even from a biological point of view…
Thank you for that; an absolute delight to see. He was probably sent by Wunderground to wreck your gold star:-)
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Hello: I am a brand new owner of a WeatherFlow station. (In fact, I am about as new as one can get: My station is still in the UPS system and due for delivery on Monday 20 May!) Anyway, I have read many posts on deterring bird landings on the Sky unit. I would like to add whatever protection I can to the unit before I mount it on my mast, as it will be a bit difficult to take it down due to location. Would anyone here recommend metal spikes or plastic: Zip tie ends cut pointed? I just do not want anything that would interfere with the operation of the Sky. Any suggestions would be welcome! Going to the local home supply store tomorrow to purchase some mounting hardware and hopefully Monday evening the fun will begin! Thanks a lot!
Steve in Kansas
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Sorry your post got stuck by antispam, released it.
Guess you already read this topic above (I moved yours in here). Not sure you will have a real issue or an occasional issue with it . some like me hardly ever have this though I’m living middle nowhere with lots of bids but I guess they prefer a normal branch to the slippery sky (think I got like 5 cases in over a year)Hence no real issue.
Remember that the rain is measured by vibration detection so whatever idea you want to use, it should not add vibration to the system. Long spikes will add some when windy conditions etc … But I guess some here are way better in helping you as they also have some nasty cuckoos landing on their sky
Not everyone has bird issues. You might need to worry about high winds and tornadoes more than birds.
I live in Colorado and have never had a bird issue. You may well be fortunate too.
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Don’t worry to much on birds causing false rain events. Some users have that issue but the most of stations don’t have any or really rare fals rain start events. And when they occurs they are often not related to birds…
An idea wich might help would be too place a stick or a grid about 20 cm above the Sky with a separated mounting.
Are there relevant / aggressive birds in your area ?
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I just brought down my SKY and found the entire top/haptic sensor covered in bird crap. I washed it off using water and added spikes cut from coat hangers and attached with super glue. Added spikes to solar panel too. Unit will be going back up in a few hours once I have filled with sand my 16 ft galvanized support. I’ll report back on the bird activity in a few weeks.
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