Bird Window Strikes - Wild Texas Forums: Parks, Travel & Recreation

Shannon · 02-06-2004, 05:48 PM

We are having an awful time with doves hitting our windows lately. With four east-facing large windows overlooking our small backyard, and reflecting the sky and trees behind our home, we've always had an occasional "THUD!" against the windows -- but it's getting really bad now.

Our windows are tinted and are quite reflective outside. It's very difficult to see through these windows into our home from the backyard, due to the tint and the dark green-color of our walls in that particular part of the house. This leads to "danger alley" for birds, primarily white-winged and mourning doves.

Today has been the worst string of collisions (3 or 4 within the past 24 hours) in memory, and it's heart-wrenching. The latest strike was one mourning dove I'm almost certain will not make it -- its wing was awfully mangled when I accidentally startled it and watched it barely clear our backyard fence and land abruptly in the brush less than 25 feet away. It left the usual dove imprint and downy feathers, as well as urine from the shock of hitting the window at full speed. Like I said...heart-wrenching.

I'm at a loss as to a viable solution that can help reduce the occurrence of bird strikes but not reduce our enjoyment of our view into our backyard. I've read some great information at websites such as http://www.flap.org/new/diurnalfr.htm, but whitewashing my windows or sticking a film to them that will get baked on by the Texas summer sun, have me a little tentative. Even the Droll Yankee's "Warning Web" doesn't look like a good option, since I'd need about 10 or 20 of them to break of the expanse of windows enough to lessen strikes.

Hanging things indoors in the windows has met with only limited success; sometimes, I'll find a dove imprint right in front of where the item was hanging -- it becomes a target instead of a cue to "pull up!" Since the windows are tinted, it can be difficult to see even items hung right inside the window or taped to it. And even things taped to the outside of the windows are not a perfect solution -- shortly after we moved in 3 years ago, I made big masking tape "X's" on all four windows, but once the doves got used to them, they'd fly into the windows just the same.

Does anyone have any advice or tips they want to share? The doves all generally visit my yard to ground feed below two seed feeders placed on a free-standing pole at the far back corner of our yard (20-25 feet away). Since our backyard is small, there is nowhere further away from the house these feeders can be placed. A bird bath is located between these feeders and the dangerous windows in question... but most of the doves that strike seem to be taking off from below the feeders, not the bird bath.

We also have two feeder within 5 feet of the house and thus much closer to the "danger windows"; these feeders are attached to a pole clamped to our deck and situated to the right of the expanse of windows, but they're used exclusively by small songbirds (tufted titmice, house sparrows, house finches, etc.) and not doves, so moving these further away would do little good. The doves are (so far) strictly the ones hitting the windows, and they're travelling at a good rate of speed by the time they leave the ground feeding area and careen into the windows.

Watching (and hearing) doves strike our windows with ever increasing frequency is NOT how I want to spend my days... or have the birds spend theirs. I'm open to any thoughts or suggestions...

Oddly enough, no other windows in the house are struck by birds at all...not even the kitchen windows (3) which also face the backyard, but overlook our deck. These windows usually have the blinds drawn but tilted open for viewing. Unfortunately, we have no window treatments on the 4 large "danger windows" I'm referring to...and curtains there would ruin the point of having these 4 lovely windows and our terrific backyard view of the birds, sky and greenbelt.

Oddly enough, just this week I read about the research being done by Daniel Klem Jr. on the high toll windows/glass is taking on bird populations.

ploddinTod · 02-07-2004, 08:51 AM

Shannon,
That's a tough problem. I'm thinking that maybe a stuffed animal (perhaps a cat) positioned close to the big windows might help. Of course, this might also impact the visitation to the small bird feeders closer to the house. I just don't know but I feel your pain at watching those doves being crippled or worse.

Shannon · 02-07-2004, 02:37 PM

Thanks for the suggestion, Todd. What's sadly funny is the window that is most frequently struck is the window the tallest of our two scratching posts for our cats is located directly in front of. There's almost always a real live cat standing or sleeping on top of the scratching post during the day, and watching the birds is one of their favorite pasttimes. This has made me think maybe the doves are swooping in to ward off prey (the cat) and hitting the window as a result.

However, I've stood outside right after a dove strike and depending on the angle, it can be difficult to see the scratching post or cat from outside. What I see when standing in the backyard or crouched down ("dove's eye view" as it were) near the feeders is a reflection of the blue sky/clouds and trees in the expanse of windows... no wonder the birds careen into them at full speed.

Maybe four strategically placed wind chimes... though that would drive me (and my neighbors) batty. I think I need something attached to the eves of the house, outside, that will break up the unbroken "blue sky view" the windows create... but other than used CD's, which I don't think would break up the false sky the birds are seeing enough to prevent strikes, I'm not sure what to hang for the long term. Potted plants won't work, due to the height of our roofline back there -- it needs to be something I don't have to tend. Maybe Justin should pick us up four bright orange aviation windsocks...that's it.

The FAA probably wouldn't like that idea... since we live on the approach path to San Antonio International Airport, although the planes are still quite high overhead when they pass over our neighborhood. We're out by 1604 and Blanco Rd...

PS: Check this out -- the Sibley Bird Guides website has a compelling graph of how deadly windows are to birds...

ploddinTod · 02-08-2004, 10:19 AM

I think you have hit on something (no pun intended) by dangling something from the eaves. Instead of a wind sock you could buy a blaze orange hunter's vest or smock, cut it up into the sizes you want, and hang from the eaves. The wind would catch it and twirl it around like a Chinese kite, making it highly visible. Just a thought. Let Justin do all the ladder work--he likes high places!

kai · 02-11-2004, 05:02 PM

yup- i would suggest decorative windsocks, or those little nylon butterflies that spin around... here's a pretty option or this might be a little less...flamboyant. that website also has info on controlling bird damage- but it mostly deals with birds eating your garden veggies...

I love that website... www.gardeners.com I order from them all the time- they have a lot of creative, organic solutions to a lot of household issues. Like mosquitos breeding in my rain barrels...

08-22-2004, 04:17 PM

Have you tried putting up a silhouette of a hawk onyour window? I live in Germany, and they have these type of bird silhouettes on all the big glass sheets here (usually on highways). It seems to help. One place to het such a silhouette is at:
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/resources/birds3.htm

Also, you can get a better kind, which moves but costs money, at:
http://eartheasy.com/hawk_silhouette.htm

Good luck,

Dominique

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shannon

Thanks for the suggestion, Todd. What's sadly funny is the window that is most frequently struck is the window the tallest of our two scratching posts for our cats is located directly in front of. There's almost always a real live cat standing or sleeping on top of the scratching post during the day, and watching the birds is one of their favorite pasttimes. This has made me think maybe the doves are swooping in to ward off prey (the cat) and hitting the window as a result.

However, I've stood outside right after a dove strike and depending on the angle, it can be difficult to see the scratching post or cat from outside. What I see when standing in the backyard or crouched down ("dove's eye view" as it were) near the feeders is a reflection of the blue sky/clouds and trees in the expanse of windows... no wonder the birds careen into them at full speed.

Maybe four strategically placed wind chimes... though that would drive me (and my neighbors) batty. I think I need something attached to the eves of the house, outside, that will break up the unbroken "blue sky view" the windows create... but other than used CD's, which I don't think would break up the false sky the birds are seeing enough to prevent strikes, I'm not sure what to hang for the long term. Potted plants won't work, due to the height of our roofline back there -- it needs to be something I don't have to tend. Maybe Justin should pick us up four bright orange aviation windsocks...that's it.

The FAA probably wouldn't like that idea... since we live on the approach path to San Antonio International Airport, although the planes are still quite high overhead when they pass over our neighborhood. We're out by 1604 and Blanco Rd...

PS: Check this out -- the Sibley Bird Guides website has a compelling graph of how deadly windows are to birds...

ploddinTod · 05-03-2005, 09:05 PM

[quote=Shannon]We are having an awful time with doves hitting our windows lately. With four east-facing large windows overlooking our small backyard, and reflecting the sky and trees behind our home, we've always had an occasional "THUD!" against the windows -- but it's getting really bad now.

Did you ever solve this problem?

Shannon · 05-03-2005, 09:46 PM

I thought I had solved the problem -- by hanging various colored (but not weather-resistant, at least over a full season) streamers on the outside of my windows. Anything placed on the inside does no good since my back windows are tinted and the reflection is intense anyway.

All four main panes of my back windows have at least one bird strike to their "credit" again now, as does my back (kitchen/backyard) door -- go figure, since at least that one has blinds that should make it clear to birds there's an immovable barrier between them and where they want to go.

I saw some of those 3M stick-ons at the garden center but haven't found a supplier online and I'd need a bunch of them, since they're supposed to be something like no more than 2 feet apart and covering the problem windows. They're see-through so they don't ruin the view from the inside to the outdoors.

Still hunting, in other words. I don't want to hang streamers again this year -- they were annoying and in the right light they actually made my back windows look like they were cracked (as my brother dutifully remarked when he first saw them, "Oh my, you SAID you had a bird problem, but you didn't tell me they'd broken through the glass!")

Shannon · 06-02-2005, 01:43 PM

Update: Sadly, I had to scoop up a dead white-winged dove yesterday afternoon. It apparently broke its neck after slamming into the windowpane. The only good news is it probably died quite quickly, but this is going to tear me up if its as bad a bird strike season as last year (I had three died -- two immediately, and one that sat on our backyard deck for hours and, when I went out to check on it before sundown, barely cleared our back fence... I suspect it didn't live much longer.)

If anyone has suggestions I haven't explored yet, let me know. The eaves above these windows are too high to make hanging CDs or other dangly things practical -- I can't reach the roofline even with our ladder, and the ground slopes away. What with my knee and all, I guess I'm a little hyper-sensitive to climbing up 16+ feet.

I can, carefully, reach the middle and top 1/3 of the windows if I have a spotter, so I may have to go back to taping up shiny things on the actual window pane. It didn't thoroughly stop the bird strikes, but it significantly reduced them.

04-30-2006, 05:52 PM

This year I had a pair of Cardinals beat on one of my windows. It's a large window framed by plants and has a park bench in front of it. She would land on the edge of the bench and then hit the window, then repeat the process. I'd go to the window and unless I was really close (three feet or less), she would just beat on the window. I'd lower the shade all the way down to the frame and that was the only thing to stop her. He just sat on the bench and watched her. This went on for two weeks (on and off). She would land on the edge of the windowsill and just hit the window. I assumed she wanted to build a nest indoors. I don't have any feeders and tons of doves in the trees (which seem to be very aggressive). I'm wondering why she picked that window as I have a larger bay window just ten feet away with an open flight path. Do cardinals like to build in barns. I wouldn't think it would suit them?

David