I wasn't sure where to post this so I decided that since the main issue is the birds and keeping them away, I'd post here.

last summer we planted tomatoes in the backyard patio garden. My stepmom insisted on letting them vine ripen, but most got nibbled into the moment they turned orange. I suspected birds, as they live all around the neighborhood, though others I spoke to suggested squirrels or other rodents.

well. I have confirmed it is birds.

This guy has been hanging around on the bean trellis for the last week. He/she lives up in the trees in the neighbors yard up the hill with a few others of the same species. They're chatty and I think their call is the high pitched whiny one, although like I said, we have a lot of birds.

the strawberries got absolutely mutilated this past week, around the same time the birds showed up. I'm absolutely sure it was them as there were chunks of seed and pulp everywhere and in my experience (with parrots at least), they love to be messy!

the picture is kind of awful so I'm sorry for that. They usually flee the second they see me no matter how slowly I move, so this was the best picture I could get after a number of tries.

they have a long thin tail that they flick and bob up and down a lot while standing. When they fly, their wings have a really defined white band through the middle.

any thoughts on a) what kind of bird they are and b) how to keep them away from the poor strawberries? I like watching the birds but my stepmom doesn't want them eating her food. And really, I don't either.

any help is appreciated! And sorry for the long post. It's hard to edit and shorten when I'm on mobile and this was the only way I could get the photo up.