Birds & Windows

Birds and windows don’t get along very well. It may seem like a small problem to you if you experience only 2-3 window kills per year but studies suggest that 100 million to 1 billion birds representing 225 different species collide with glass in the U.S. each year and about half result in fatalities.

Birds hit windows (or peck incessantly at the glass) because they see a reflection. In the case of endless pecking, the bird is seeing a reflection of another “bird” of the same species and sex in its territory and is attempting to chase it away. Birds fly into glass when it reflects the habitat around them – trees, sky, bushes, etc. The best defense you can offer is to break up that reflection.

Sometimes, simply closing the drapes or blinds will solve the problem. If not, then applying vertical strips of tape spaced about 4” apart will work as will hanging strips of reflective ribbon (mylar) on the outside that will flutter in the breeze. A suggestion I came across in a magazine works well, too – cover toilet paper tubes with reflective paper and dangle 2 or more on strings at different lengths on the outside from the top of the window frame. A more attractive method is to place silhouettes on the reflective window. Wild About Birds sells static cling hawk silhouettes and packets of chickadee, hummingbird, and butterfly static cling window stickers.

Whatever solution you choose, its relatively easy to prevent window strikes and stop annoying glass pecking if you simply break up the reflection seen by the birds outside.