We have some great and diverse birds around here. Migratory and year around residence. We've been here nearly 20 years and still see new varieties in our yard every year.

Sadly, we have way too many fly into our windows and die. We have silhouettes of prey birds in the windows to try to alter their flight plans but the windows are reflective and look like the surrounding sky.

This morning we had a pair of Scarlet Tanagers fly into a window off my back deck. The male was a striking red and a very deep, glossy black. The slightly smaller female much a more subdued olive and drab yellow. Thankfully they both died quickly and didn't suffer too long. As usual, I brought the bodies into the woods.

Seems like we get a couple "kamikazes" a week in the spring and summer. The tell-tale "bang" will usually determine the size and narrow down which window was the culprit. Sometimes they leave a "dust outline" of themselves on the window (especially the Doves). More often than not they are dead by the time we check it out.

I know it's morbid but we've had some very interesting victims. Kinglets, various Warblers and Thrashes are somewhat typical. The occasional Cardinal, Dove, Robin, Finch or small Woodpecker are not unusual.

We don't get near enough Crows, Starlings or Grackles to effect the populations of those pests. We hardly ever see Sparrows or Wrens.

We had a Pileated Woodpecker. He was much smaller than I'd imagined them to be once I picked him up. Their feathers make them seem bigger than they actually are.

We had a Saw Whet Owl a couple years back. He was fascinating little guy. We had a Dove being chased by a Sharp Shin Hawk both fly into our front hallway window. That was a big bang! I'm surprise we didn't have any broken glass on that one. The Hawk ultimately flew away (I'm sure with one heck of a headache).

We've brought in some survivors but have never had one live more than a day. We at least move those who survive impact to a more concealed and safe place to hopefully recuperate. (We learned this the hard way when we left a juvenile Kinglet on a deck rail in a man-made grass "nest" to gain his senses and a Crow came and carried him off for lunch). Most times they don't survive very long but upon occasion they do fly off.

It's still very sad when it happens. Regardless, I try to learn something about each species (both from physical examination and reading up on them afterwards).

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paws for friendship

I have more birds fly into my windows in this house than in any other. Perhaps it is the size of the windows, they are all fairly large. However, I have nowhere near as many as you describe. I don't often see the bodies, so I assume some dust themselves off and fly away.

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Luke 22:36

I occasionally worked at a nature center classroom out in the woods that had large glass windows on one side of the building. It was so common for birds to crash into the windows that a indigo snake would hang out nearby to take advantage of the "free meals".

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"Life is short, hunt hard"

Never heard of this. Maybe they want to escape the draconian laws up there? .

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A republic if you can keep it

This might help you:

Prevent Window Strikes :: Bill's Top 10 :: Bird Watcher's Digest.com

When I was in school, I worked the graveyard shift doing security at a pharmaceutical company that had a two story mirrored glass front lobby window. Some mornings, it almost sounded like hail with the number of song birds that flew into it. Pretty sad, really. Part of the Day Watch officers job was to go out and remove dead birds each day.

One time I was sitting there when a white tail deer actually ran into it. He backed up, and tried again. I couldn't believe that glass didn't break.

Larry

Thanks, I've seen this before. We've got 46 windows and 3- 8' sliding doors in my house. Keeping them clean is a part time job unto itself. I'm certainly not going to spray anything but glass cleaner on them. Hanging balloons, etc. aren't really options I can live with 12 months a year. I'm quite certain my neighbors would have me committed if I did.

Other than some hummingbird feeders, our bird feeders are all a ways from the house.

My windows are bronze reflective with low e. They absorb heat like crazy. Therefore, because of the potential for thermal stress breakage, I can only put silhouettes of prey birds in those windows that don't get direct sunlight. They don't seem to help anyway.

We tried many things over the years. It's just one of those side effects of living in the woods.

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paws for friendship

I guess they feel like suicide is a better option than flying 100 miles south to live.

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paws for friendship

At my folks house in San Antonio, The master bedroom has a couple vertical windows up high to let in sunlight. For the past several years, a Cardinal has been attacking those windows. I don't know if its the same one, & I do wonder about that. This past year I asked Dad about the bird & he said he hadn't seen it lately. I guess he finally realized he wasn't getting anywhere. On my front porch, I'll occasionally
here a thump. I believe its birds diving at the bugs attracted by the porch light. Since its at night, maybe its bats!

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Lounge Lizard Extraordinaire

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: compared to the lives lived by the Kozmics, my poor little life seems awfully tame and uneventful.

However, unlike in many of the posts by Kozmic, I did not detect even a hint of...er...embellishment on this one. Unless of course, Koz is, seemingly innocently, one-upping all of us on the number and variety of avian life that he observes at the Koz Kastle.

Kidding aside, it's too bad about the bird strikes that snuff out the lives of some beautiful examples of our flighted co-inhabitants of this world.

One of the memorably troubling days of my youth was the one when a man who we were rabbit hunting with one winter day shot a pileated woodpecker just because he liked the way it looked and wanted to get it mounted. That fellow happened to own the dogs that we hunted behind. Dad and I, by mutual agreement, never went out in the woods with him again after that.

But back to Koz's post before I get accused of instigating thread drift: I live outside of a small town, in a subdivision yes, but there's plenty of woods and fields still around. We have our feeders up, and we get a nice variety of guest bellying up to the suet bar, the hummingbird café, and the bird seed cafeteria line. One day last week, we had (at the same time) a cardinal, a bluebird, sparrows, nuthatches, doves, a red-winged blackbird, and a purple finch.

None of them was the worse for wear when they left my yard, Koz!

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Ukraine -- now more than ever

Tim, male cardinals are ridiculously territorial, so if he's seeing his own reflection, he's just trying to tear a new cloaca in that "other" bird.

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Ukraine -- now more than ever

Our dinning room features a nice big bay window that faces due west. We have lived in this house for 34 years and when we move in here there was only one pine tree in the back yard.

Now we have the entire west side of the house in shade from all our big trees and for years and years we have had this problem. We do have feeders out and are visited my numerous varieties and species of birds both big and small.

It seems that most of the time it is a morning dove that will hit the windows. We have a lot of white wing doves and the occasional ring neck dove as well but it always seems to be the morning doves that do this. It is my general observation that around here these birds are the least intelligent and slowest to react to danger of all of them.

About 12 years ago my wife started putting colorful stickers and hanging stained glass figures in the windows and we have, as a result of that, very few incidents of birds hitting the windows these days. Still when it happens it is always a morning dove.

The big danger for them now is that we live just behind the city park and it is very big and home to lots of predatory birds. We have Harrison's Hawks and Goshawks and kites, and on only two occasions in 34 years we actually had a fly over from a red tail hawk, and because we have bird feeders out every day year 'round our yard is part of their hunting ground. we loose around 20 or so birds a year to the hawks and kites. It is quite startling to be sitting at the dinning room table enjoying a nice hot cup of coffee and stimulating conversation with the wife when all of a sudden a rucus jumps up all the birds and there, 20 feet from where we sit, a hawk has a dove down and plucking all the feathers off it.

Can't think of anything to do about this. Anyway I'm not sure I should interfere. Hawks gotta make a livin' too.....

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Real men love cats!

Gee Vig, I'd invite you up for the weekend but I doubt you'd be able to handle the excitement (or eating all of that crow)!

And to think I spared you guys from the truly exciting things that happen up this way. Like one of my employees getting shot in his apartment by his cousin. Or my son's and my interaction with car thieves who got their "hot" car stuck in the snow on our street this past winter and the ensuing foot chase with the canine unit and police.

Those would cause your head to spin!

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paws for friendship

I can handle it, and I don't mind eating a little crow, so I'll see you next weekend. I'll just aim the car toward upstate New York and keep the windows rolled down so I can tell by all the sound of thudding of feathered creatures against windows where to find the Koz.

Then again, maybe all I need is a police scanner.....

You're welcome down this way any time. I'm only a mile off I-95 and it's easy to find from Exit 41. You can even bring your pistols; we're very gun-friendly down here.

By the way, among my chores today was replenishing the two suet stations and the bird seed tube. I can see already that my customers have taken note of both and are already gorging themselves to the point I wonder if they will be able to fly off.

I hate grackles too. What a well-named bird; sounds like a cat throwing up.

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Ukraine -- now more than ever

Yea smash into my windows all the time. Had a hit yesterday first one to make me get up and look, never did see it but by the sound it had to kill him. Some time when a hawk is around they will hit the window a lot trying to get away. Watch them snag a dove all the time dumb butt birds, taste like chicken. Hate when they get on the truck mirror and fight them self, fun to watch but they poo and leave slime marks and I have to clean it to see out of it, course this is only during mating season.

That they died but perhaps their feathers could be of some use. Do you know any flyfishermen?women? Could they use the colorful feathers? A ziplock bag and they would not take up much space in the freezer. If they are songbirds it may not be legal.

I thought that would be the case. I need those windows but do not have then. I think I escape birdstrikes here despite many big windows because I leave the blinds at least partly closed year round.

We have reflective stickers on our windows, and it seems to have cut doen the number of bird strikes. Usually it's only when they are being chased by one of the local raptors now....

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Even older, even crankier....

Once while I was cleaning out the cage Keats the parakeet escaped. He immediately panicked and flew down the hall and into the bathroom, where he hit the mirror. I found him laying in the sink, limp as could be. I picked him up and started telling him how stupid he was when he regained consciousness and bit me on the thumb. Lucky he didn't have time or room to gain much velocity.

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Regards, Ron
USASA 1965/69

My offices are located next to a beautiful green belt that includes a canyon. Red tailed hawks nest here, and enjoy the thermals as they fly. A few years ago, as part of some federal edict to save money through energy conservation, bronze window tinting was applied. This had the effect of creating a mirrored surface, and the hawks regularly "attack" their reflections by flying into the glass. We've suffered no bird fatalities, and ornithologist we hired explained that the hawks see their reflections and think they are invading birds. Additionally, by their striking the glass, the ornithologist explained that the hawks receive reinforcement that they have stricken the intruders and driven them off. It's hard to believe the hawks aren't injured or killed as hard as they strike the windows. Apparently, nothing can be done about it by our office.

Regards,

Dave

Have only had one fatality....dove being chased by red tail hawk hit the window going full bore....died upon impact and red tail hawk alit in yard and looked very puzzled for few minute but would not come on porch for the dove and finally flew on off.

We do have 83 resident Canadian Geese that vist from time to time to eat and relax.....talk about territorial....just watch them get after each other over the best spot to graze.

Nature is almost unbelievable.

We had a lab building that was really two buildings connected by a 3 story see-through glass atrium. It was murder on birds trying to fly through it, every day at least one would hit. They put some plastic owls above the foyer to try to keep them away. That slowed it down but didn't stop it completely.

I guess I must be lucky. I have a few bird strikes on the glass doors into my home office (close to one of the feeders). Luckily for me, as I am a big bird lover, most of them are only stunned. I always rush outside and scoop them up (5 cats) and sit with them on the glider for 15-20 minutes, until they shake it off and fly away. Sadly, every so often, there is no saving one..... I hate those times.

Solved our problems by having screens repaired and put on the windows..........
No more "Thunk's" !!
Most made it when hitting the glass sliding doors in the back yard after a few drops of water and a rest......but now they don't hardly mess up their feathers.