diff --git a/network/bird/bird.conf b/network/bird/bird.conf
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a6af13f6d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/network/bird/bird.conf
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+# --- SDE-COPYRIGHT-NOTE-BEGIN ---
+# This copyright note is auto-generated by ./scripts/Create-CopyPatch.
+#
+# Filename: package/.../bird/bird.conf
+# Copyright (C) 2010 The OpenSDE Project
+#
+# More information can be found in the files COPYING and README.
+#
+# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+# the Free Software Foundation; version 2 of the License. A copy of the
+# GNU General Public License can be found in the file COPYING.
+# --- SDE-COPYRIGHT-NOTE-END ---
+
+# disable the client if no readline package is available
+if ! pkginstalled readline; then
+	echo_warning "Disabling BIRD client (readline not found)"
+	var_append extraconfopt ' ' "--disable-client"
+fi