A scarecrow is a feature that was added in Public Beta 30, along with several other improvements regarding birds. They are not an item that may be found or crafted, but are built by the player out of blocks. These structures are rather open to the player, and can get quite creative. Scarecrows spawn in structures where crops grow.
Crafting[]
A functional scarecrow can be manufactured with the following items in this order:
- a head - skeleton skulls, wither skeleton skulls, pumpkins or Jack-o-Lanterns may be used. It does not work with Hill-troll chieftain skulls. The head must be at most eight blocks above ground.
- a body - any type of non-transparent solid bock must be placed directly below the head. The body may be up to five blocks high and might even be air blocks except for the top piece.
- legs - attach a fence of any wood to mount it on and you're all set! Grapevine posts won't work here.
Important: All three parts have to be in a vertical row. You can attach arms or whatever decorations you want to.
Uses[]
This contraption can be used as a companion to follow the yellow brick road (see here), or as a farmer's best friend. Scarecrows will frighten away any birds attempting to take crops when present within a distance of 16 blocks horizontally and 8 blocks vertically from said bird, measured from the head of the scarecrow. This way one scarecrow protects a maximum square of 33x33 blocks, exactly the size of a silver block banner protection area.