What's going on? Last year we had a bird hit the windows, maybe once a month, or every two months. This year it's been more like 6-8 a day!! And even the cautious ones hang on the junction ledge and press their heads against the glass, or tentatively flutter around over the surface of the glass, as if they could find some opening to get through. Some of these birds are so aggressive they go to several windows and sliding doors.
Some birds hit so hard they mortally wound themselves. Most usually are stunned and just make a horrible flutter/thump sound that can be heard throughout the whole house, a bit jarring. But, like I said once a month, or every two months is one thing. But this is getting unnerving, even in the time I took to type this in there were two 'hits'
Anybody have any similar experiences this year, or ideas as to why the increase?
PS: many of these birds are 'seed' eaters, so don't tell me we sound like bugs in here! ok, a giant nut, i walked into that one.
It happens here in NJ too. I would say this year it's been happening above average. Maybe one a day. I have a contemporary house with large windows in the front, live in a wooded area, so it does happen. I'd say about 80% of the time they survive.
A few years ago, in the middle of winter, I had a flock of robbins that kept repeatedly slamming into the windows. It went on for a couple of hours. Twenty years ago, you never saw robbins here in winter. I felt bad for them, but what can you do.....
One year I had a robbin hell bent on getting into one of the basement windows. Only happened that once, but that bird just kept trying and trying for a couple hours.
Not this year, but about 10 years ago, I had this. For 2 or 3 summers in a row. I think it was the same bird. He would hit the rear sliding glass door about 10 times, t hen fly around to the front and hit the front sliding glass door about 10 times. Maybe 20 times. Every day.
I don't think he ever hurt himself. I always thought he got tired. The lights are usually off here during the day, and I wouldn't think he could see inside very well. There also doesn't seem like anything in here would interest him. Well, there was a big spilled bag of bird seed under the piano, but at the time I didn't think he could see that, what with glare on the south-facing glass door. And since in the wild, bird seed isn't in a big pile, except in feeders where I thought they relied on smell to find it, I don't think that was the attraction. And he'd have to remember the bird seed to fly around to the front to try to get in there. And it was only one bird, I think.
I'll try to remember to look in and see if he could have seen it.
Of course you don't sound like bugs. How silly is that. But when you're quiet, you sound like seeds.
I'm in NC and this year has been way above average for bird-window interaction. Several collisions per day. Ocurred throughout theWinter and into April. Seems to have stopped. They destroyed a pane in a storm door.
I can't speak to the recent Hitchcock-ian behavior of the birds in your area, but I can offer this:
Nature Centers often use a silhouette of a flying bird to prevent the birds from flying into the windows. Just like we humans and our cars, birds don't like to occupy the same space as another bird. They will do their best to avoid the silhouette and thereby avoid the window.
I could be wrong, but I don't think that birds simply mate with whatever bird they happen to fly by. I think there's a little more to it than that..like maybe some type of agreement between the two parties.
Thinking of bird kills by windmills, I googled this up from the Washington Post in response to them killing 500,000 per year:
The American Wind Energy Association, which represents the industry, disputes the conservancy?s projection, and also the current Fish and Wildlife count, saying the current bird kill is about 150,000 annually.
Over nearly 30 years, none of the nation?s 500 wind farms, where 35,000 wind turbines operate mostly on private land, have been prosecuted for killing birds, although long-standing laws protect eagles and a host of migrating birds.
If the ongoing investigation by the Fish and Wildlife Service?s law enforcement division results in a prosecution at Pine Tree, it will be a first. The conservancy wants stronger regulations and penalties for the wind industry, but the government has so far responded only with voluntary guidelines.
?It?s ridiculous. It?s voluntary,? said Robert Johns, a spokesman for the conservancy. ?If you had voluntary guidelines for taxes, would you pay them??
The government should provide more oversight and force operators of wind turbines to select sites where birds don?t often fly or hunt, the conservancy says. It also wants the wind industry to upgrade to energy-efficient turbines with blades that spin slower.
The lack of hard rules has caused some at the conservancy to speculate that federal authorities have decided that the killing of birds ? including bald and golden eagles ? is a price they are willing to pay to lower the nation?s carbon footprint with cleaner wind energy.
But federal officials, other wildlife groups and a wind-farm industry representative said the conservancy?s views are extreme. Wind farms currently kill far fewer birds than the estimated 100 million that fly into glass buildings, or up to 500 million killed yearly by cats. Power lines kill an estimated 10 million, and nearly 11 million are hit by automobiles, according to studies.
?The reality is that everything we do as human beings has an impact on the natural
I don't know about robins, but if you open the window where a NY pigeon likes to sit on the sill outside, none of the pigeons will come sit there until you close the window. They won't come in the apartment either.
I saw a bunch of drunken honeybees once. Maybe it was birds but I think honeybees. They were eating fruit that had been lying on the ground for days. And they wobbled when they walked.
This is getting creepy....first the bees, now the birds?
I've had four or five window crashers, all hummers but for a sparrow. All died, but for the sparrow who was knocked cold for a minute or so. Anything new in the neighborhood that might change migrations? There was a study in Florida a few years back that found that thousands of migratory birds (35K? each) were killed by running into transmission towers. Perhaps keeping curtains closed would tell them it isn't a thru-way?
At least now you know about the birds and the bees :)
Like someone else said, cut out an outline of a bird from construction paper and tape it on the windows. The humane society suggests this. I believe it should be the shape of a hawk. Go to any humane society site and you might find a picture to use for cutting them out. OR, just close the drapes so they see something other than glass.
Same experience here in middle GA... in particular a pair of bluebirds. I don't want to take preventative measures because pair of Phoebes has nest within a few feet of most attacked window.
I've heard of the bird silhouette, no idea if it works. Closing the drapes does not, the attacking bird can still see the reflection that it is attacking.
One day I came out to get in my car and there was a robin perched on the front door chrome trim so it could see the side-view mirror.
It would peck at it's reflection in the mirror, poop, then peck again.... there was this huge steam of bird poop on the side of the vehicle under where it was perched. Dunno how long it had been at it, but it must've been awhile.
We used to have that problem until my wife got some spider web decals to stick on the windows. There are all sorts of bird-deflector decals on the Internet; just google "spider web decal birds" or something similar and you'll get lots of hits.
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