Songbirds and Windows

[mso489]

Just a quick reminder that broad glass surfaces, typically windows and storm doors, can be death traps for song birds. They see the sky and trees reflected in them and fly full speed into them and break their necks. I'd never had this problem, but I'd been leaving the wooden door open to let the cats look out at the yard, and the absence of the wooden door made the storm door a mirror. So a few minutes after I brought in the paper, there was a beautiful russet female Cardinal splayed out with her neck twisted downward but her feathers spread out as if in flight. I dodged around so as not to have my wife see this, and scooped up the remains and tossed them into some deep woods across the street, a sort of last flight. I'm pasting some profiles of birds on the glass and will leave the wooden door open much less often. Stuff happens, but I don't want to be the cause. I do love to see the birds and other critters living and singing and doing their things. Female Cardinals are particularly sweet, so much so their males bring them seeds as offerings.

 

[jpmcwjr]

I've read that hanging a feeder a foot away from the glass is a good thing; helps reduce collisions. Further away, and the window or door becomes a hazard again. Not sure I am convinced, but I recall that "wisdom" I read somewhere.

 

[bluegrasspipe]

That's too bad, I love the sound of cardinals singing.

 

[warren]

Birds get startled and fly into windows. My feeders are scattered around the property for photo capture purposes. When a Merlin appears the panic begins. The wee birds have brain smaller than your little fingernail. So don't blame yourself. A house without windows would simply be a cell. And songbirds? They are prey and dead they still serve their purpose. Enjoyable as they can be, they are not here for the enjoyment of humans.

 

[mso489]

warren, I don't know about human understanding of "purpose." I think your wider perspective is a good one, but people know only a limited view of things. Emotions can been seen as noise, or signals, or either, but I don't think we are in a position to know that much. I trust my reason, but not only my reason.

 

[hobie1dog]

Birdwatching has become a new hobby for me since having to spend so much time horizontal.

 

[saintpeter]

Birdwatching has become a new hobby for me since having to spend so much time horizontal.

Yep. I can relate to that. I do love to watch them...doves, finches, the occasional road-runner... I just do not venerate them as much as others. Especially after I learned about that Audubon character.

Audubon developed his own methods for drawing birds. First, he killed them using fine shot. He then used wires to prop them into a natural position, unlike the common method of many ornithologists, who prepared and stuffed the specimens into a rigid pose.

 

[daveinlax]

We've tried the window alert stick on shadows with no luck and it was so bad last winter I put masking tape X's on our windows but they still hit them. Most of the time it's a glancing blow but we get casualty laying on the deck once in awhile. We had a stunned Hummer on the deck the other day but I think it made it. 8O

 

[mayfair70]

We have screens outside most of the windows, since we open them frequently, and that seems to do the trick. Likely, the inside blinds are preventing them from hitting the sun-room windows.
The other day a male cardinal landed on the roof over the porch where I was smoking and sang his little heart out. A minute later, a female landed on the bushes in front of me, looked around then jumped up and hovered like a humming bird for a couple seconds then took off west. I said out loud, "Go get her" and next I saw a flash of bright red as he hauled ass after her. I'm going to replace a dying white mulberry with a black mulberry to help keep these little fellows fed for the foreseeable future. ::

 

[anthonyrosenthal74]

This is so true. Years ago, when I was a manager for a fast food restaurant, I was pulling a till on the front counter and heard what sounded like someone banging their hands like a drum roll on the front windows. I looked up to see a large flock of sparrows bouncing off the window with a long line of more coming in behind them. They basically just played follow the leader to their doom. It was heartbreaking. I cleaned up the mess myself, as opposed to making one of the employees do so. Although many died, some survived. And I'll never forget the one I held in the palm of my hand stroking its back as it seemed to be struggling... that one brought me a little joy however as after a while, he came to completely, and then upon realizing he was in my hand, perked up and flew away.
I think the large wall size windows they put on many building are especially dangerous to birds. I've often since then seen a bird or two dive right into a reflective window, but that was the first time and hopefully last time I ever see a great number of them do so.

 

[darkcloud]

Trace a silhouette (life size) of an accipiter on black paper, cut it out and tape it to the window. Problem solved.

 

[darkcloud]

https://www.google.com/search?q=accipiter+silhouette&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari

 

[nevadablue]

I miss Cardinals. I will never forget the one that would 'fight' the hub caps on my Dad's Volkswagen. The bird would sit on the ground next to the wheel, look at the reflection in the hub cap and attack it. Rest, repeat.

We have had quite a few birds crash into windows. Sometimes I have picked up one and had it come-to. But mostly, they are gone. Sad.

 

[cortezattic]

Perhaps in time natural selection will find a solution. Windows aren't going away.

 

[kcghost]

That's really sad.

 

[mawnansmiff]

A few years ago I was sat on my sofa by the window quietly reading and heard a sudden 'thud' just outside. I got up and looked out of the window and saw a common buzzard had caught a wood pigeon on the wing right by my window.
It was on the lawn with its wings spread over its quarry and kept pecking at it. This it did for some while afore flying off with said pigeon.
Such a wonderful thing to witness, nature at its harshest.
Regards,
Jay.