How to Get Bird Poop Off Your Car?

It may sound funny, but bird poop is a serious problem because it makes your car look ugly and can damage your paint. Bird excrement, feces, or dropping—whatever you call it, is a corrosive element that damages your car exterior. If left for too long, it etches into car paint and bleaches the color of your car. And in this article, we discuss the ways to get bird poop off your car and how to avoid bird poop to fall on your car. But first, let me answer some questions related to this article.   

Why do birds poop in two colors?  

Birds excrete both poo and pee from a single opening of the cloaca. They convert their pee into a white-colored sticky substance uric acid to reduce water. So, the white part of the bird dropping is pee, and the central darker part is their digestive waste or poop.

Why do birds like to poop specifically on cars? 

The birds do this for a variety of reasons. Some of these are listed below. 

• Out of fascination and fear, birds are more likely to poop on cars of specific colors. 
• Birds poop on cars when they perch on high places such as trees or power lines. 
• Birds poop on automobiles to mark their territory. If you park your car in the same place for a long time, birds may poop on your car and argue. They do this to discourage other birds from perching on your vehicle.  
• When a bird sees a reflection in a shiny car, it gets scared and poops. Reflections off windshields, windows, and side mirrors can have the same effect. 

Why is bird dropping harmful to car paint?  

The answer is in the white portion of the poop, which is uric acid with a pH of 3. The acidity of bird poop is not less than any rust-cleaning product. Being acidic, it decays away the surface of the car. Being sticky, it dries to become a hard cement-like material when baked by the sun, and this acidic residue eats away the car coats which protect car paint. 

Why do you need to get bird poop off your car immediately?  

Bird poop and car paint in a sticky plus hard relationship. When poop is moist, its relation to car paint is weak and easily wiped. Once it dries, it develops a problematic connection with the car paint in the form of stubborn stains. To remove these stains, you may scratch your car paint. A person who loves his car is indeed not going to do this.  

What Happens if You don’t get bird poop off the car?  

With time, the acidic substances in the bird poop will eat through the clear coat of the car paint and dull the car’s finish. Since the clear coat is thin, the acidic poop will also attack the color layers, making this damage more difficult to reverse. 

Seven ways to get bird poop off car paint? 

The following seven methods will deliver a quick remedy for bird-bombing events.

Method no 1: warm water and car wash soap. 

To get dry bird poop off your car, consider mixing hot water with concentrated car wash soap. Gently dab the mixture onto feces to soak them. Leave it for 30 minutes, and gently wash the bird poop with a sponge. If still hard, spray again with the mixture and leave for 30 minutes more. Don’t bother scraping the dry poop. It will damage your car paint. The soaking will loosen and dissolve the dry droppings, make easy to wipe them off. Rinse the car thoroughly with water and dry it with a clean cloth. Your vehicle is now ready to be hit by a new bombardment. 

Method no 2: Quick detailer sprays. 

These sprays are very effective in getting fresh bird droppings off your car. Just mist these sprays on the spot where the bird poop, wait for 15 minutes and wipe using a clean cloth. 

Method no 3: Baking soda and distilled water. 

This is a homemade recipe that works well to get bird poop off your car without damaging your car paint. Mix baking soda and car wash soap with distilled water in a standard spray bottle. Baking soda helps increase the cleaning property of the car wash soap.

Rinse the car with water and spray the mixture onto the contaminated areas. Allow to dry, spray again after 15 minutes, and wipe gently using a soft sponge. Don’t scrub, as it can damage the paint of your car. Rinse the vehicle twice with water to clear the poop residues. 

Method no 4: Bird-dropping spray 

Using commercial cleaners like the bird-dropping spray is promising for minor infected areas. Just spray the mixture on the poop and let it dry. Remove using a clean cloth. Your car is clean and free of ugly-looking dry poop. 

Method no 5: Vehicle-safe cleaning solution. 

These types of solutions are specifically made for cleaning hard-to-wash stains from car paint. So, they are also effective to get bird poop off your car paint. Start by soaking a clean microfiber cloth in this cleaning solution and place it onto dry poop. Leave the wet cloth on the stain. After 15 minutes, gently rub to remove the poop residues. You can repeat the procedure to get desirable results. 

Method no 6: Seltzer water. 

Club soda or seltzer water is carbonated water that helps break down the acidic qualities of bird droppings. In order to get bird poop off your car, spray the seltzer water on the infected areas of the car, leave for 30 minutes, and then wipe it off with a single action. 

Method no 7: WD-40 Spray.

This popular spray lubricant is a powerful multi-purpose cleaning product that removes stubborn stains from painted surfaces. Spray the sample onto the affected area and dab it with a soft sponge. Allow it to work for 15 minutes and wipe away using a clean cloth. WD-40 spray is sensitive to sunlight, so work under the shade. It is not a product specifically developed for the automotive industry, so when finished, rinse thoroughly, preferably with a pH-neutral shampoo.

How to protect your car from bird poop? 

• Park in covered areas: 

When not in use, park your car in covered garages to avoid bird droppings.  

• Avoid parking underneath bird’s hot spots: 

Avoid parking your cars under trees, street lights, or telephone wires. The birds also love to hang out on the edges of buildings and near trash cans, so avoid these areas. Otherwise, the hood, windows, and windshield will be splattered with hard-to-clean bird droppings.

• Invest in a car cover: 

Invest in a quality car cover. It can save you a lot of headaches and money. A car cover can protect your car from pesky birds and their droppings. Plus, it protects from the sun, tree sap, insects, acid rain, and other pests.

• Ceramic coating or Car Wax: 

Consider using a high-quality wax or ceramic coating to protect your car paint from acidic bird poop. Although it provides limited protection, it helps keep your car clean and minimize the damage by bird droppings. 

How can you stop the birds to poop on your car? 

Here are some hacks which you can do to avoid pooping birds. 

• Cover the car’s side mirrors to prevent birds from seeing the reflection and leaving droppings.
• Place a rubber snake or other predator replica on the roof of your car to keep the birds from pooping on your car.  
• String old CDs with a fishing cord and droop over the parking area where you park your car. The shining surfaces of the CDs will surprise the birds away. 

What if bird droppings damage the car’s paint? 

If the clear coat or paint of the car is showing minor wear or discoloration, you can correct it by using a polishing compound available at most auto parts stores. A major etch on the paint can only be fixed by a professional car shop. 

If you are also interested in knowing about car cleaning hacks. Please visit how to wash a car or how to wax a car at https://howtothings.net.