Gus Overton writes:

Hello,

Anyone have ideas on how to keep birds off a deck? I had the deck
recently stained and repaired and almost every day there are 2-3 bird
poop on the top railings. Mourning doves seem to be the worst about
doing this... And the other day, I noticed one of the top top posts
was gnawed a bit. Which the squirrel has done in the past. Anyone
else have these problems, and what do you do? I wash off the bird
poop since that can't be good for the wood, and is unsightly.

Yep, the birds, especially the doves, love my railings.
In my case, they are sitting on rather narrow pool fencing,
they like to face inward, and the poop misses anything
I care about.

In the winter I usually see large "dove meetings" in
the early AM as the sun comes up and I really enjoy them.

I agree with Brooklyn, cats would work.

In your case, something obstructing the railing or a slightly
higher piece of rail beyond the existing railing might work.
Don't know if you can do that attractively.

--
Dan Espen