Every spring the same call: "There's something living under my solar panels." It's pigeons, nearly always. The gap between a solar array and a tin or tile roof is shaded, dry, warm and out of reach of everything that would normally eat a pigeon, and once a pair has bred there once, the site is theirs until someone closes it.
We do bird proofing across the Illawarra for houses, sheds, units and shopfronts. It's exclusion work: we take the roost away and make the building unusable to the bird, rather than trying to get rid of the bird itself.
Solar panel proofing
This is most of what we do. The job has two halves and skipping the first one is the common mistake.
Clean first. Nests, droppings and feathers come out from under the array. Pigeon droppings are acidic and corrode roof sheeting, and the nest material blocks the gutters behind the panels. The mess also carries mites and lice, so the area is treated as part of the clean.
Then the mesh. A galvanised or stainless mesh skirt is clipped to the panel frames right around the perimeter of the array, following the roof profile so there's no gap at the bottom of the tiles. It's held with purpose-made clips, no drilling into the panels or the roof, and it keeps out rats and possums as well as the birds. From the street you don't see it.
Eaves, gutters, awnings and ledges
Away from the panels, the work is matching the method to the bird and the surface:
- Spikes on ledges, beams, signage and gutter edges where birds perch and foul the area below. They stop landing without hurting the bird.
- Netting across larger openings, under awnings and carports, or around a loading dock where the birds are roosting on the structure rather than one ledge.
- Mesh and sealing over roof gaps, broken tile vents and the gap behind fascia boards, which is where mynas and starlings get into a roof void to nest. The same holes let rats in, so this overlaps with rodent proofing.
What we don't do
We don't harm birds and we don't touch active nests with eggs or chicks in them. Native birds are protected in NSW, so if there's a nest in use we wait for the birds to fledge, then close the site. If the birds in your roof are native rather than pigeons, mynas or starlings, the plan is the same: exclusion once the nest is empty.
Call and we'll come out, look at where they're getting in and give you a fixed price.
Common questions
- Do you harm or remove the birds?
- No. Bird proofing is exclusion, not extermination. We wait until no live birds or eggs are in the space, then fit mesh, netting or spikes so the site is no longer usable. The birds relocate. Native species are protected in NSW and we don't touch them or their nests; the work is on the building, not the bird.
- What is solar panel proofing?
- A galvanised or stainless mesh skirt clipped around the edge of the solar array so pigeons can't get into the gap between the panels and the roof. It clips to the panel frames without drilling, and it also keeps out possums and rats that use the same shaded gap. We clean the droppings and nest material out first, because proofing over a mess just seals it in.
- Why do pigeons go under solar panels?
- It's the perfect roost: shaded, sheltered from rain and wind, warm off the roof, and out of reach of cats and hawks. Once one pair settles, the droppings and cooing bring more. Left alone the mess corrodes the roof sheet, blocks the gutters and cuts panel output, and the mites and lice in the nests can find their way inside.
- What does bird proofing cost?
- It depends on the roof, the size of the array and how much cleaning is needed before the mesh goes on, so we quote after a look. There's no charge for the quote.