We are having problems with Kookaburras eating the aloes in our garden. No one will believe us until they see them jump down and tug on the plant until they break off a piece then fly up to the fence, "kill it" then eat it!
We now have three coming in all day for a drink and a bath and when finished, eye off our plants and today started tugging on my bromeliads until I went out to get them to stop. They are very people friendly, I can talk to them and they just look at me. They do catch worms and insects daily so they cannot be starving.
We love having them visit but I don't want them destroying my garden.
Any suggestions. We have put chicken wire around each aloe plant but they are still trying to get to them through the wire.
the plants are aloe Vera and I'm thinking they love the taste or are getting a high or something from them
Hi cwoodroffe. These Kookaburras seem to have been artificially fed given their relative lack of fear. So step one might be to embark upon a campaign to encourage your neighbors to cease the practice. But if you want to persist with a garden of introduced plants you may have to protect your plants with wire netting or similar as you seem to be doing. An alternative might be to change your garden to one of indigenous vegetation so that you attract not just Kookaburras but also a wide range of other native birds. Then the eating of plants by Kookaburras (if that’s what happens) would be one of many interactions between the birds & the natural environment you will have created.