to be annoyed that our neighbour has put up a bird scarer kite

[lucydogz]

Our living room window (on the third floor of a 3 floor house) looks across at our neighbours roof terrace. He's just put up a bird scarer kite like
this perhaps to scare pigeons or seagulls.
it's really annoying, the way that it randomly moves around all the time (obviously that's how it scares birds), not even like a real bird.
WIBU to ask him to take it down? We're on OK terms with him, and want to stay that way, but when I sit in my living room, this things always bobbing around in my field of vision.
I genuinly don't know if IABU.

How far away from it are you? Unless you are so close you can chat to each other across your windows like some of those American apartment blocks then I can't see how you can object. I imagine he has a problem with pigeons and he is trying to solve it.

no, we're a few hundred yards away, which is worse, I think. If it was nearer it wouldn't be so visually intrusive to us.

Does it drift into your garden? Could an "accident" befall it one day when he is out?

I don't think you can really ask a neighbour to take something down from his own roof terrace just because you happen to find the way it moves annoying. Presumably it isn't physically encroaching on your space. Not liking the look of something on someone else's property isn't really a valid cause for complaint; we don't have any right to choose every detail of our view. The fact that it is 'bobbing around in your field of vision' is just something you have to live with I think.

unfortunately not

we're a few hundred yards away

You definitely don't have a leg to stand on here, sorry.

Ok, I hear what you say, but, for the sake of argument and having looked at the adverts for these things, the whole point of them is that they move erratically in order to bother birds. Having it moving around in my view bothers me, for roughly the same reason. Surely I have a point of view on this.

If your living room is on the top floor or a 3 storey house, surely you've got the occasional real bird in sight?
Possibly fewer if this scarer is doing its job!

I've seen one on top of a 2 storey store. The movement is quite realistic and birdlike

Yes YABU I live in a 3 storey house and I know some of our neighbours use the top floor as their living room. Our street has an array of bird scarers, CDs out windows and my personal choice - a plastic bag out the window. We have a lot of birds, especially around nesting time and no one wants them nesting near their roof or the top of pipes especially as the houses are so high.

If it's wind chimes you were objecting to, I'd be on your side!

A Rustling plastic bag would be annoying!

You can have a point of view on it, sure. But you can't expect him to remove it just because you don't like it. Sorry.

I'm obviously BU, and will bow out with good grace, but I can tell you, this thing doesn't move anything like a bird (that's the point).

I'd go and politely ask if he could move it.

I had a similar problem with a silver spinning chimney topper my neighbour opposite put up. The sun reflected on it and into my front rooms. Luckily when I explained my house was now like a disco they painted it black.

had a similar problem with a silver spinning chimney topper my neighbour opposite put up. The sun reflected on it and into my front rooms. Luckily when I explained my house was now like a disco they painted it black.

I think that's very different though. That was actually affecting the interior of your property by shining light into the room. It's not the same as just being able to see something you don't like out of the window.

OP, if it's any consolation I think you will probably get used to the bird scarer pretty quickly, and after a while you won't find it distracting any more.

let's hope so...

but I can tell you, this thing doesn't move anything like a bird (that's the point).

My kids have made a scarecrow to try and stop pigeons from wrecking our vegetables. He doesn't look like a real person either. I don't understand why that is an issue- It is not supposed to be a life like copy of a bird!

Because, when I'm in my living room, it's constantly bobbing around randomly. (I'm prepared to agree that IABU by the way)

I bet he's growing soft fruit. Birds are b**ds when it comes to stealing fruit. We have bird scarers (mostly owl eyes) to keep them off. The erratic flying ones you describe are the most effective. No worse for you surely than random birds?

close your curtains

Why not put up with it for a few weeks, until the novelty has worn off for him and it has perhaps done its job of disrupting the birds routines, then go and ask. [Disclaimer I speak as someone with an ugly bird scarer on my roof currently and a velux window covered in crow and pigeon faeces]. It's job is to disrupt, so he may move it in and out anyway, so they don't habituate to it.

On a practical note, could you put something in the way on your windowsill to obstruct your view of it - a vase of flowers or something?

I suspect it´s one of those things that is really obvious and annoying when it first appears, but in a while, you won´t notice it any more.

thanks for all the posts. It has been taken down! I've got a feeling that my NDN (who has the same view as me) (and is less of a wuss) has asked him to.