Date: Sun, 24 Dec 2000 14:13:21 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Sherry Peruzzi Subject: Re: Bird-Window collisions MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Frank Boyle wrote: > The only way to prevent bird-window collisions is to eliminate or > "break up" the reflection in the window. Birds instinctively fly > for cover or potential food sources and what they're seeing in > your window is probably a reflection of trees, shrubbery, etc. > that to them is just another avenue of flight. Frank, I don't know why birds fly into closed windows, but it's not only that they think the glass is just part of the landscape. About 14 years ago, When I lived in Clarksville, there was a male cardinal who crashed into my second story bedroom window regularly starting not long after sunup. He'd fly straight at the window, crash into it with a loud THUD, fall 5 or 10 feet, recover, fly back up into the tree outside the window, and do it again -- and again, and again, and again, and again, for at least a half hour. It was not a pleasant way to wake up in the morning ... THUD THUD THUD , over and over ... and it went on pretty the entire summer of 1986. I tried everything. Blinds up, blinds down, breaking up the reflection with cutouts, white paper, black paper, you name it. Nothing worked. I don't know what ever happened -- I had a sale contract on my house and moved at the end of August, with the cardinal still THUDding into the window every morning. I've often wondered what the new owners thought, and what, if anything, they ever did about it. ;-) Sherry Columbia, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================