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Please help...Bird is driving me crazy!!! (1 Viewer)

dberg

New member
For the last week we have had a bird attacking our sliding glass door and glass kitchen window. I've tried closing the blinds to see if maybe the bird was confused, but it hasn't helped.

I'm not sure what type of bird this is. Red beak, greyish brown body with maybe some red on the underneath side?

This bird starts at 6am EST and attacks until the sun goes down. It is driving me nuts because I can hear it everywhere in the house.

Is there anything I can do?
 
Hi - I would imagine it is seeing its own reflection and thinks it is another bird and therefore defending its teritory, try putting some old newspaper up against the glass for a couple of days (or anything to stop reflections)

HTH

Terry
 
Good morning and a very warm welcome from the entire staff here at Bird Forum.

While I'm not sure what bird you have, your bird is fighting its reflection. It does not know it is a reflection. Looks at it as a rival for its territory. Very common this time of year. You might try hanging something in the window or putting some kind of stickers on the outside of the glass. I am sure it is driving you nuts but it should be short lived.
 
yeah, put something on the outside of the glass.
Early last month, an American Goldfinch tried to divebomb its reflection. It's amazing he survived, since i normally believe if something came in fast, the skull would have been crushed by the force of the collision.

When I was a wee bumbling, I came home from school one day, and saw that a glass panel on our garage door was smashed. the glass shards were on the inside, so something must have smashed into the garage. I went in, and sure enough there was a bird sitting on the workbench. it had died as a result of its head-bangingly bad headache. Now, after all these years, my mom still remembers that it was a grouse, so I looked through my bird books and picked out the only year-round grouse we get: the Ruffed Grouse. Should I add that to my life list, or is that only for living birds?
 
Only bird that i think matches your description is a female Northern Cardinal:

6816northern_cardinal_female.jpg
 
Hi folks,
Interesting thread. My Aunt and Uncle who live in a small village in Rutland UK have a garden with a pond regularly visited by a heron. One day this heron started throwing itself against one of their downstairs windows attacking its reflection. To say they were startled would be putting it mildly!
 
Yes, sounds like a female Cardinal to me, but I don't think I've seen a female be so territorial, attacking the 'intruder' reflection in the glass...
 
I have a male cardinal that has been attacking my windows for several weeks now. I have tried covering the windows but he just goes around the house until he finds another window. I simply can't live in a house with all the windows covered so I put up with him. I figure he will stop when he gets tired.
 
Um, sorry to burst your bubble, but I wouldn't count on them stopping anytime soon...

They will get tired. But they will go to sleep, get some rest, and continue pecking at your window the next morning... Then the cycle will continue, hopefully until he decides to dive-headbutt the "enemy" and crash through your window, killing himself. and thus the cycle ends...

We had a bird fly through our window once, and last month a Goldfinch tried to dive-headbutt its reflection, and he ended up giving himself (or herself rather) a major headache. Since the first fly-through window opened, we've lost hundreds of potential "customers", probably because they don't want to end up with a "head-shattering" headache, or worse, dead.

Just don't let the woodpeckers see your windows...
 
mmm this sounds like a real problem !
I think the birds are attacking there reflections, but how do you stop it!
I guess other than boarding up the windows you will just have to put up with it.
I reckon its a territory thing with spring in the air, perhaps the window asualts will cease as spring progresses.
Otherwise try a shotgun, but not too near the windows !
 
The nature shops used to sell (reasonably) attractive hawk silhouettes to be taped on the windows, with the intention of keeping small birds from flying into them.
 
Dberg - On BBC Radio Four's 'Home Truths' this morning, one caller said that she had successfully deterred birds from flying into the glass of her conservatory with a glove puppet racoon! (not sure what she did with it?)
Andrew
 
I just registered for this forum as I have had the same problem and was researching it on the internet. Our bird has been doing this also and I know she has a certain pattern in the mornings, around 6:49 ET and then about an hour later. The interesting part is that my dh thought it was seeing its own reflection but when I was sitting on the deck where the cardinal sits before attacking, all I see are trees which makes me wonder if it thinks it is flying into the trees. What do you all think? Are female birds territorial?

Thanks,
Sarah
(new to the forum)


Charles Harper said:
Yes, sounds like a female Cardinal to me, but I don't think I've seen a female be so territorial, attacking the 'intruder' reflection in the glass...
 
That's also where a hawk silhouette would help: they are scared of it, and also may "understand" that they're not flying into trees.
 
Hi, Sarah! I see this is your first post, so a warm welcome to you from all of us on staff here at BirdForum!

Anything that will cut down on your window's reflectivity will cut down on window strikes. Unfortunately, birds do acclimate to seeing birds of prey, whether they're decals or those fake owls people stick on top their buildings/homes, and soon ignore the "threat." ;)

Also, if you have bird feeders in your yard, if you'll move them to more than 20' away from the nearest windows of your house, this will also cut down on the strikes. Or, move them to under 3', which will at least lower the birds' momentum so they're not injured if they do hit. :t:
 
A local kindy had the same problem with a peewee (agressive little blighters.) They tried raptor cut-outs, fake cats, all sorts of things. They couldn't keep the blinds down, or stick something over the windows, because they needed to be able to see out to supervise the kids.

In the end, a black mesh flyscreen over the windows seemed to work. Either that, or the peewee gave up and looked for a more co-operative sparring partner.
 
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