I have grackles nesting in my new “no clog” gutters. Pooping on my car. I hope it rains really hard tonight–to wash away the nest AND wash my car.
Some people seem to have success keeping birds away with those fake plastic owl decoys.
yearly we had a birds nest in the wreath at the front door- we also put up a sign not to use the door and they left in a few weeks- sadly after many years of buying the same type of wreath from kmart (they liked them) they have not come back in the last couple years- 
I thought there is a red robin making a nest in my fiber optic column that I used for the rose pergola, my husband was full of hope that we have a nest.
Our WA birds laugh at plastic owls. 
Not a nest, but we have a crow who recently decided our backyard fountain is his personal bath. He bathes, drinks and washes his food there. Someone in the neighborhood puts out stale bread which he brings over to soak. It was cute for a while but he made an awful mess. The solution turned out to be floating ping pong balls. Effective and festive!
As a geneticist, I can appreciate that building nests over peoples front doors is a poor survival strategy.
I put a small piece of tine foil. I am saving a fake snake for later. We don’t want to scare them too much. According to my vet, birds can die of fright. He had one die in his hand.
Growing up, my neighbor had a fake owl in her backyard. It kept some of the birds away but the rats didn’t care.
You could say she was ahead of her time - open composting pile in the backyard…
Robins seem to build in precarious locations. We have had them every year in our yard and I got tired of picking up poor little dead baby birds and disposing of them, and that’s if one of my dogs hadn’t found them first. In the past couple of years, they’ve chosen a better spot and had success with three babies successfully raised and surviving. Yay! This year they are in a completely different spot, and in a tree outside our dining room window. There are now babies and I’m hopeful that these will grow and leave the nest safely.
Update: Got my car wash (heavy rain) last night. We’ll see if the nest is still there. . .
I’m delighted by how many birds have returned to our neighborhood. It’s some sort of ecological shift here, after years of people using toxic lawn products.
The snake or a cat statue (they have them that can attach to the wall near the nest) may help. Next year, have it up early. Or get the right sort of birdhouse for the bird type and stake it near that spot. Part of me says, poor little birdies, just trying to build a home.
No such sympathy for the squirrels. Good luck.
We love the birds coming to our yard but have had to stop feeding them as the feeders have attracted bears. There still around but not in the numbers when we fed them, unfortunately.
I have a suggestion, when the bird comes, tell it “you are welcome to nest here. However, know that if you are living under our roof, you have to follow our rules, no xxxxxx, no yyyyyyy,no cohabitating with a bird of the opposite sex”…guaranteed to make it look elsewhere:)
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A piece of tin foil and daily clearing out worked.
Amazing how fast these baby birds grow. A few days ago, I could barely see their beaks above the edge of the nest as the parents fed them. Today they are about two inches above the edge!
Our spring baby cardinals fledged less than two weeks after we noticed that they were making peeping noises in the holly. Mom and Dad have constructed a second nest in the arbor (bad choice) and are fighting Mr and Mrs Blue Jay over the back yard. These storms will probably aid the jays ( nest in holly under the eaves) so our red friends may be set back several weeks.
Mine hatched this weekend - worm feedings taking place regularly now.
Talking about worm feeding, I just dump my worm bin out in the open, I hope they don’t eat all of my worm. I didn’t have time harvesting all of the worms today and put them back in my other compost bin.
My baby birds have finally hatched. Mom and dad are feeding them constantly - but are very leery when we are out on the deck to go into their house, so I haven’t sat out all weekend. Only wrens have nested their before but this year it’s chickadees.