I have had squirrells and racoons break off scapes but I have never had a bird of any kind damage the daylilies. My yard is heavily planted to attract the backyard songbirds and I do have orioles here each year nesting in the neighbors really big oak tree that has branches overhanging my property. They, as well as many other birds hang out and look for bugs (or whatever birds do) in my shrubs, When the Serviceberries are ripe, there are an endless series of birds coming to eat the berries and I have a daylily garden right at the foot of those shrubs. I never see birds interested in daylilies at all.

How sure are you that the damage is caused by birds? In my garden I see often similar damage, but it is usually caused by slugs.
Olga

Well, thanks for your responses. I am certainly not against songbirds; I have fed them, provided them with water, shelter and nest boxes for years. Olga, I do have garden slugs and have always peacefully co-existed with them. I have hostas, and the slugs' damage there is minimal as it is everywhere else in the garden. I've never had enough slug damage to worry about. Besides, this doesn't look like that to me; the holes in the daylily buds really look like deeply pecked spots - much like strawberries look when robins get at them. The leaves are completely untouched. I'll try to get a photo to post.
Anne

I've had a few of those holes this year too> Makes me want to scream. I am finding small black beetles in some of those seed pods. I think the rain this year has had a few drawbacks, as well as all the benefits.
Thankfully, most of the pods are getting ripe, so I'm losing only a few seeds from a pod or two, but this could get out of hand easily.
Nina

Are you sure it's birds. I had a couple kittens earlier this spring that amused themselves by chasing bees around the dl's. They would shred the blooms and chew on the buds. They figured out if they grabbed the bloom the scape would bounce and it was such fun to play with. The kittens found new homes very quick.

Andrea

Thanks, Andrea for that cute mental picture of your kittens, but no, it's not cats. :-)

It is happening in the daytime, BTW, not it the dark of night so I don't think it is slugs or earwigs, even if the damage looked more like the stuff those critters do elsewhere in the garden. Here are some photos from this morning:

Thanks for looking and for all your comments.

Anne

sorry to hear of the problem. I have problems with Japaneze Beetles on my Rudbeckia (black-eyed susan). They attack during the bud stage and when the flower opens the petals are chopped up looking I have lots of feeders and lots of birds but not sure I have orioles here in N GA I haven't noticed the birds bothering the dls. Try some snail and slug bait unless you don't like to use chemicals. Sarah

I think it could be birds. I've had a few similar looking things and today I saw a bird pecking at one of my lilies so I imagine they could do the same thing to daylilies.
Val