Leaving bird poo on your car is not good for the paintwork. It can damage the clearcoat which then leaves the paint underneath at risk. Droppings from birds that eat seeds are worse than droppings from birds that eat invertebrates and animals.
The easiest way to prevent birds from messing on your paintwork is preventative.
- Park your vehicle undercover (e.g. a garage) but watch for areas where pigeons might roost above. If you own the garage you can use string or fishing line to discourage birds from hanging out there.
- Cover your car with a car cover when parked outside; it’s a hassle, especially when it’s raining, but is excellent protection from all the elements
- Avoid parking underneath trees where birds roost
- Avoid activities near your car which attract a lot of birds, e.g. feeding seagulls
- Discourage birds from hanging around your car with active and passive bird scaring technology.
There are some myths around why birds like to dump on your car:
The bird won’t poop on a reflection of another, despite it being commonly believed. If this was true, they would poop on one another constantly.
- They are responding to reflections in the vehicle’s paint and windows. The darker and more highly polished your paintwork is, the more vivid will be the reflection. There’s no solid evidence of this being a factor
- Birds poop on cars that match their plumage colour more frequently than ones that don’t. Again, no evidence of this.
- Certain colours signify danger to birds. This came from a UK study that reported red cars were dumped on the most out of a sample of 1100 cars but it didn’t give the relative numbers of each car colour within the sample.
Darren has owned several companies in the automotive, advertising and education industries. He has run driving theory educational websites since 2010.