Current mood:
I am sitting quietly in my living room, enjoying my book and suddenly,
BAM!! SPLAT!!
Out of the corner of my eye I barely see something slam against my window. My first thought is "WTF!! Who's throwing stuff at my window!?!?" Then the next thought, the one I know is true, is, "Not again!! Another bird has hit!"
I rush to the window and look down to see a small yellow & gray bird lying dead on the patio. I go outside and down stairs and turn him over and wonder how hard he must have hit to be so totally dead so quickly. Then I notice something moving in the grass to my side. A robin is laying dazed & confused it's beak opening and closing trying to breathe. I realize now the gray & yellow bird is an older casualty and the robin is the newest victim. I pick him up and carry him back up to my deck. He's dead by the time I get there.
My house is now officially the Burmuda Triangle of the bird fly zone. Birds take off and never return home when they venture near our house. We've had 4 (FOUR!!!) feathered buddies die against our windows in the three months we've lived here. One other I am aware of managed to flap his way back to a branch low over my deck. He sat on that branch for over 30 minutes and finally was able to fly away. I did go and pet him and check on him after he first hit - I was ecstatic to see him eventually take off! But what's next? One of the geese that land just 50 or so yards away on the lake?
I don't know what to do. It breaks my heart every time one of these little creatures hits, breaks his neck and dies. I've looked at the windows from the outside and what I can determine is that they perfectly reflect the sky and the birds are going full throttle when they hit, believing there is no reason not to be.
Hanging something inside the window won't deter them since it's the sky's reflection that is fooling them. Anyone have any other ideas to keep these beautiful little birds alive? I'm so sad this is happening...
Greetings Ms. Badonkadonk
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There's a couple of tricks you can use to keep birds from committing hari-kari against your windows.
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Tint the windows. You can make the windows darker by apply window tinting film.
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Decals. There are some nifty decorating decals that can dress up windows. They don't need to be large, just conspicuous to the birds. (They prevent people from walking through sliding glass doors. They may just as well keep birds from flying through (or trying to) windows.)
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Awnings over the windows. Awnings will prevent some (or most) of the sky reflection.
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Suction-cupped colored mosaic glass doodads. (I don't remember what they're called.)
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Wind chimes & plastic windmills (twirly gigs) . Hang either one or the other on the outside of the window.
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My darling young bride and I just keep the windows of our deluxe custom-built double-wide dirty. No bird in it's right mind will flap it's wings through a dirty window. A real plus ... it doesn't cost a dime.
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I hope one of these suggestions help.
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Respectfully,
Gordon Lee
- Reply(3)
2 years agoI know what you are saying about the cat. The little gray & yellow bird disappeared and I think my cat took him after the fact. Because of the cats I can't even have a bird feeder because they get the birds when the pick the seed that falls to the ground... sigh....
It's been so long since we've touched base with one another I almost passed you by as a stalker....(just kidding)
Mr. Lee has some great ideas. I'd go with the window tint myself since the sky reflection seems to be the reason for it happening Probably be tough to apply since your location is difficult. Look on the bright side.....at least it's not your cat that's killing birds. I tell Tiger he is NOT supposed to do this and leave them on my doorstep! Now I just keep him indoors a
Thank you Mr. Lee, I'm starting my list!
The most difficult aspect is that it's a second story window and will be hard to get to from the outside, but the dirty window idea may work really well in that case. And every time I bird hits it tends to leave another splatter of downy feathers, so eventually that'll dirty it up real fine!!