Bashing Windows

No, this is not another tirade about Microsoft’s monopoly on computer operating systems and all the peripheral software programs that they blatantly plug. It’s about birds bashing into windows of human buildings. This is a significant cause of bird deaths in this country. Millions of birds are also killed (usually at night) when they fly into the sides of high-rise buildings, radio towers, and windmills, generally during their migration flights.

We have had far too many birds crash into our windows over the years. As they fly towards the house they see the windows reflecting the sky behind them. Unfortunately, nothing in birds’ evolutionary history has prepared them for knowing that window reflections are not soft sky, but hard glass. Few sounds make us wince as much as that of a bird’s headlong crash into the window. Too many of them have died instantly of a broken neck. Others experience internal injuries or become so shocked that they soon expire. A minority recovers and flies off, but I’ve read that even many of them later succumb to their injuries.

I have read about taping silhouettes of large birds of prey on windows to discourage small birds from coming near them, but I don’t want to scare them away, so I rejected that approach. I’ve also read about placing screens or closely-spaced lengths of twine a few inches in front of the window. I tried the twine, but birds still bashed into the windows. After trying a few other failed schemes, we came upon an approach that has worked very well: We attach small tree branches on the outside of the windows. This seems to give the birds the impression that there’s a tree there, rather than open sky, so they are far less likely to smash into the window. In fact, many times a bird will land on one of these branches, giving us a wonderful close-up view of them. Bird-window crashes have dramatically declined. Additionally, the branches look kind of attractive—especially if I search for pretty dogwood sprigs.

But a few birds do still try to thread their way acrobatically through the branches and bash into the window. Fortunately, most of them now fly much slower, since they are negotiating the narrow openings, so it’s more of a glancing blow and they usually immediately fly off. A very few become stunned enough, that when we go out, we find them lying upside down, panting in shock. We’ve learned to gently pick them up, bring them inside, and place them in the dark confines of a cardboard box. In a little while they tend to recover and begin fussing inside the box. We take them back outside and release them. It’s a wonderful sight to watch a just-dazed bird perkily fly away.