It was a quite morning on the home front, when all of a sudden I hear a familiar noise that can only mean one thing. One of my little bird friends has somehow gotten confused and flown the wrong way right into my window.
Up to this point there hasn't been a casualty from these encounters, but this one was different. I looked out the door and 'lo-and-behold' on my front porch was this poor little bird, laying on it's back with it's tiny little legs kicking!
The only thing I could think of was to see if it was hurt badly enough that it was going to end up in the belly of the neighbor stray cat, or if it was just stunned.
Grabbing a towel I went out, picked it up and gave it quick inspection. It really looked scared but didn't seem to be mortally wounded
Now, you need to know, not being an expert on birds (or anything really) my best guess as to what to do was this…. I put it back down right side up to see if it could stand.
Well, the poor little thing took a couple of hops and fell right back over with it's legs kicking again! Oh dear….What to do?
Not giving up yet I picked up and this time set it out in the grass. It must have been doing better because instead of falling over it stretched it's wings and hopped through the grass, I guess trying to get momentum to fly.
After researching I learned that many birds that hit windows and appear to be dead are merely stunned. Leave birds on ground covered with a kitchen colander or box with air holes, until they recover. This will protect them from predators. (good advice)
By this time I've named it "Crash", and I'm cheering for "Crash" to take off and fly like the bird, but to no avail…dang!
At this point I'm really at a loss of what to do, retreating inside to let nature take it's course, knowing that either the bird will fly or it won't After about 10 minutes I decided to go check and to my delight it's nowhere to be found!
Later that day I decided to go sit out front and watch the world go by, and to my surprise I find one of my feeders has a bird on it, just hanging out, eating a little. Now mind you this feeder is only about 7 feet away from my chair and usually when I'm out there, birds fly up but when they see me they don't land, they just take off. Well this little bird doesn't seem to be afraid! I sit and watch it eat for a while and notice other birds come by but none stop.
Thinking this maybe the bird I helped earlier…..I decide to take a picture if possible, but I have to go inside to get the camera. When I get up to go in this little bird doesn't budge! I get the camera, go back outside and sit down, all the while this bird is eating! By now I'm sure this is Crash, (it has to be). Anyway after some pictures which you see to the right a few friends visit then they all fly off.
I have since investigated some possible remedies for the bird into the window deal and I found some window decals you can put on your windows. That are virtually invisible from inside but the birds see them instead of the reflection of the sky which is why they fly into the windows in the first place. They are relatively inexpensive and easy to apply.
Another solution is closing the curtains on the windows, especially if another window can been seen through the problem window. To the birds, this second window looks like a tunnel or escape. If you have plants visible from the outside, the birds might try to escape into the plant cover, or forage in them. Move the indoor plants out of view, or create a barrier so the birds will not think they can reach the plants. Some individuals hang pine cones on fishing line at various heights in front of their windows.
It's estimated that more than 90 million birds are killed each year as a result of hitting windows. Stopping the collisions is a matter of changing the birds' perception of what they see in the window. Reference:http://www.ehow.com/how_1815_prevent-birds-flying.html
Here are five tips for keeping birds away from your windows.
1. Put feeders within three feet of windows; at this distance, approaching birds aren't moving fast enough to get hurt.
2. Hang obstacles in front of the glass: tree limbs, strips of cloth or shiny materials, old CDs, toilet-paper rolls, or feathers on a string.
3. Spray the glass with vegetable oil or fake snow to make it opaque. Or stick on plastic wrap. Consider products used on greenhouses to make glass translucent.
4. Put decals—including dots or bird silhouettes—on the outer glass face. Space decals uniformly, two to four inches apart, to transform the window into an obstacle birds will see and avoid.
5. Hang netting, or buy special see-through screens. Also consider installing awnings that can be lowered when you go to bed or raised when you want a view.
Reference:http://audubonmagazine.org/features0403/alert.html
Another great resource for help to stop birds from crashing into or pecking your windows:
