This short article is for people who are having problems with wild birds and window collisions.
Contemporary homes and modern office buildings often use insulated and reflective glass in their windows and even to replace entire walls. Although these windows may be aesthetically pleasing to humans they are lethal to birds. Unfortunately, many birds cannot distinguish the difference between the real sky and a reflection of the sky in a plate of reflective glass.
In the United States alone, it is estimated that each year during migration, millions of wild birds fly full force into windows and are seriously injured or instantly killed.
You can minimize these collisions by breaking up the reflection on the outside of the window with a window screen, flash tape and bird netting or a combination of all three.
Life-size, animate scare devices such as plastic falcons, owls and balloons, or the falcon and owl silhouettes attached to windows with suction cups are not effective deterrents.
You could also try planting trees and installing window awnings to block the sun from hitting the window to eliminate some of the reflective qualities of the glass.
But wild bird migration seasons aren’t the only time homeowners have trouble with birds and window collisions. Birds may hit your windows during breeding season, for territorial and instinctual reasons, and in the winter as well.
During breeding season, male cardinals, woodpeckers and mockingbirds may ‘fight’ their own reflections in windows (and car mirrors). Readers of this site have also claimed to have yellow and gold finches acting in the same manner. Generally these birds will stop banging into the window (or fighting with the window) as the breeding season ends. You can discourage them with screens and other barrier techniques.
Regardless of the season, birds can also fly into your house windows when they’re frightened while visiting a feeding station. Try moving the feeders a considerable distance away from the window, or immediately adjacent to the window so that wild birds don’t get up to flight speed before hitting the window.
That’s all for today!
Veronica
Filed in: Wild Bird Feeders, Wild Birds
Search by: wild bird
3 Comments Posted
Jack Bolton
February 24th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
Would like to know exactly where to place a bluebird house in the back yard. How far from trees, etc.
Miriam Kreiner
August 23rd, 2007 at 12:40 am
Your information is wonderful. A neighbor installed a feeder for the yellow finches and we have a great time watching their antics. We are particularly interested in where they go in the cold months. Thanks you.
stephanie from central new york
April 17th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
I have window feeder too. But it is under a porch over hang and the house next door is so close I don’t think that they can get a lot of speed. When they come up to it I have noticed that they ‘hop up the stairs’ then fly up to it. If it were on the window in my back yard that would worry me because they have the whole back yard to fly through before getting to the window.