flowerbug
Garden Master
That's true. However, here in the US, the commonest "wild strawberry" you'll bump into is the Mock or Indian strawberry, Duchesnea indica. That IS edible, but utterly tasteless, so more or less pointless.
Incidentally, I have found that one way to get a heads up on the birds and other critters is to plant WHITE strawberries. The birds apparently go by color to determine ripeness, so they keep thinking the fruit isn't ripe and you can pick them at your leisure.
i've also heard of red colored and similarly shaped decoys that they peck at and then find out they're not anything so after a while perhaps they give up and go look for something else?
personally, i have found out that i do not lose nearly as much of my strawberries to birds as i do to chipmunks. yes, there is some damage, but i can tolerate it. in trade for them eating some of my berries they also eat bugs in the gardens. i don't feed the birdies here otherwise so they have to forage for their food. we put up birdbaths for them so they have places to keep clean and plenty of water. that has been working well enough for us so far that i don't do much bird management other than discouraging the grackles. we don't have berry bushes or fruit trees yet. netting is probably important for small fruits if you don't want to share.
i do hunt chipmunks here or there. i don't like to do it, but until i can do things my own way here that's not going to change.