FWIW, birds used to take my yellow cherries when they were still greenish yellow without the least bit of red blush. Someone forgot to tell the birds that they aren't attracted to yellow sweet cherries, or it's just a myth/lie that the marketing people made up to sell more plants, one or the other.

Have you tried christmas ornaments?

No, really. Get red and green christmas ornaments roughly the same size as your cherries (they make 'em for those little tabletop trees) and hang them on the trees as soon as they start leafing out. I mean really deck the halls.

Why? The birds will see them, and think they are fruit. They fly in, take a few pecks at them, realize they're not food, and fly off. If you do this early, they'll fly in a few times, repeatedly find the fakes, and will eventually just stop looking at the tree altogether (much like how you have to move owl/snake props around every few days or they become immune to those).

That way when the real fruit comes in, the birds will think its just more ornaments and leave 'em alone.

I've heard of that trick with strawberries, too.

I tried that trick on strawberries and it didn't work with my birds. I did have some luck with CDs in trees to keep birds out.

This spring my White Gold was also much more blushed than usual. Most seasons it is not as blushed, not sure what was different this year. It worked out OK for me, the birds picked on a few of the reddest fruits and left most of them alone. I got a nice crop without netting. There are some white cherries with no blush, I have seen them in old cherry books, so its certainly possible. I don't know enough about the white cultivars of today to know which ones don't blush. Oh I think "Gold" is one of them, good luck finding it though.

Scott

I put up the plastic owls and some CDs and that seemed to keep them off for the most part.