Well, I can attest to the fact that ravens have no compunction about washing dismembered baby birds in my birdbath. After a while I couldn't stand it and left the bath without water. The ravens didn't use it in previous years, but this year it was disgusting since they dropped every manner of food, a lot of it awful-looking, and I had to clean and refill it several times a day. Once the ravens had contaminated it, none of the other birds wanted to use it. Now I just have bowls of water around and the ravens sometimes use one of them too; one is shoved under rosemary branches where they can't get to the water. You try to do the right thing but nature often has other ideas.

I agree with all of the above....lol We have a heated birdbath so our problems never stop. The heater keeps the water around 47 degrees or so all Winter long. The birds love it. Of course I have to clean it out come sleet, snow, or freezing rain on a daily basis. The starlings take a bath after their return from foraging elsewhere. The dirt that comes off them colors the water dark brown. It's fun to see 15 or so of them taking a bath at the same time in a bathtub that has a ring of ice around the edges. We also have a nest on every trellis (3) plus nests in the rose bushes.
We can walk out on the deck with doves sitting on the railing. They don't even move as they are not afraid of us. One year a dove had built such a flimsy nest on a trellis that I though the eggs would drop through. I took a piece of stiff wire screen and attached it right under the nest. While doing this mom dove never left the nest. She had to see my fingers messing with the screen as they were inches from her.

If you think you have a lot of birds come around your place, ya ain't seen nothing yet. Take a look at this picture, taken this past February, of Robins migrating, thousands of them. This is only one tree out of 7 or 8, not counting those on houses and yards.

It sounds like your yard is an endless source of wildlife entertainment and a lovely habitat as well. I would feel bad about the shredded rose buds but hopefully they will learn. I had that problem with my hot peppers, a bite out of them until they decided they wanted something else. It's frustrating but I would much rather have the birds than not!

I love gardening for birds. When I lived in california I had a family of orioles come nest in my Palm tree every year. It was magical, how they weave their nests and raide their family together. I really miss it.

I don't garden for birds, but they're always here; I don't feed them, but they're always near; They poop on my shiny wheels plus my curl hair; making awful noises you don't bear to hear; I spray them with water, they circle back and wanted to be sprayed again. They picked all my seedless grapes and leave the grape skins here and there; I can't sleep until daylight, they scream all together way before moon gone disappear.........starting to poke all the nests out, for the peace and quiet air......... :-)

We have a bird feeder and a bird bath right off the edge of our patio.

We have a pair of Cardinals that come back year after year. This year the male has become very cantankerous. When he wants to eat he runs all the other birds off. When he is not on the feeder he sits in the tree about 25ft away or the fence about 15ft away. He keeps watch over the feeder and as soon as another bird goes to the feeder here he comes and runs them off.

After watching his behavior for a few days my husband made two more bird feeders and we hung them on shepherd hooks about 12ft apart around the patio thinking Mr. Cardinal would have to change his behavior. Nope, didn't change it. Now he goes from feeder to feeder running the other birds off.

The finches have moved on but we do have some sparrows that continue to come back over and over and sneak in when Mr. Cardinal is not keeping watch.

Quail are causing problems here in Nevada in this drought. They are pecking my roses (the new ones) bare and I don`t know if some of them will live. This had never happened before. Now I have black netting around them from Home Depot. I tried the spinning pin wheels you get from $ Tree. That didn`t help. I have 3 tomato plants (no tomatoes yet) and one of them they are pecking. I found it lying on it`s side this morning. I put out a bird feeder, but the ones who flock to it are robins, so the quail are not eating from it. I too have a problem with the birds messing up the bird bath, and I am out there cleaning it up every day. I keep smelling saw dust from my bedroom and wonder if it`s a woodpecker. Oh, the problems of summer!

If you don't have grackles, count your blessings. They are noisy and can be aggressive if they think you are too close to their nest. I used to get dive bombed every morning as I crossed the street.

I live in an old neighborhood with lots of big trees and therefore, birds. They are everywhere, all kinds. I've seen a hawk snatch a morning dove in flight leaving a cloud of feathers. The most entertaining is the mockingbird who sounds like a car alarm.