Birds Flying Into Windows? (homes, closing, subdivision)

[SteelCityRising]

As I sit here in our home office I can only grimace as we have several rather persistent birds---including a robin, cardinal, and dove---that habitually take turns flying into our front window after perching themselves on a rather large shrub. We live near one of the few patches of woods between our subdivision and Highway 315, so a lot of critters make their homes very near to our home. What, if anything, can we do to deter these birds, whom I assume are mothers attempting to find a new nesting place, from potentially injuring themselves? I've closed our blinds, but I still hear the unmistakable "thud" noise of their beaks hitting glass. Anyone else have success with curbing this problem?

[Vinny536]

My parents have a cardinal that spends his days bouncing off their window, and i'm sure he spends his nigh wondering why his head hurts.

You could try to scare them off. my grandmother swears by aluminum foil but i bet even a computer print out of a cat taped to the window would keep them away.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by 61scout80

My parents have a cardinal that spends his days bouncing off their window, and i'm sure he spends his nigh wondering why his head hurts.

Yes. This does become quite painful actually. I'm accustomed to banging my head against the wall all the time at work when people argue with me that you don't need to mix gas and oil for 2-cycle engines for outdoor power equipment, and I spend the better part of every evening trying to ease the swelling with an ice pack.

Originally Posted by 61scout80

You could try to scare them off. my grandmother swears by aluminum foil but i bet even a computer print out of a cat taped to the window would keep them away.

Thanks. This is actually a good idea. Then again, they see me sitting right inside the window and still come charging full steam ahead. I know I'm not exactly the most intimidating person, but the dove will actually sit right on the exterior window sill looking at me with a sideways glare while the cardinal will stare at me dead-on from a perch on the shrub near our window. Can't I scare off anything besides potential boyfriends?! LOL!

[mbs7]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

As I sit here in our home office I can only grimace as we have several rather persistent birds---including a robin, cardinal, and dove---that habitually take turns flying into our front window after perching themselves on a rather large shrub. We live near one of the few patches of woods between our subdivision and Highway 315, so a lot of critters make their homes very near to our home. What, if anything, can we do to deter these birds, whom I assume are mothers attempting to find a new nesting place, from potentially injuring themselves? I've closed our blinds, but I still hear the unmistakable "thud" noise of their beaks hitting glass. Anyone else have success with curbing this problem?

Hi ScranBarre. What you are describing is a common problem, at least with cardinals and robins (I'm not sure I've ever heard of it happening with doves). You're right to think it has something to do with mating season, but the culprits are probably not female birds seeking nesting sites, but rather male birds who, because it is mating season, are hyped up on hormones and feeling especially territorial. (If the cardinal attacking the windows is bright red, then it is definitely a male. Female cardinals are much less colorful.)

These hormone-crazed birds are not interested in expanding their territory into your home office. Rather, they're interested in driving other male birds out of their territory. So when they see their reflections in your front window, they attack. Unfortunately, the birds are not smart enough to figure out that what they are seeing is just a reflection--to them it's an incredibly stubborn competitor who will simply not go away no matter what they do. So they react by being pretty stubborn themselves, "attacking" over and over and over again, even though in the process they keep bashing their heads against your window.

Closing the curtains, as you've discovered, usually does not help that much. Though it may be a bit inconvenient, probably the best way to stop the birds from attacking is to cover the outside of the window for a few days with some non-reflective material. Of course, this will prevent you from seeing out and will probably make the neighbors wonder why you've decided to cover up your window. And there's always the chance that the birds will just move to some other window and start attacking there. Still, it might be worth a try. Basically, anything you can do to make the window less mirror-like should help.

[BLUEDIAMOND64]

When we first moved in a hawk crashed into our bathroom window. It was a scary thing because we did not know if it was a person and then we saw the evidence of feathers.

[BLUEDIAMOND64]

When we first moved in a hawk crashed into our bathroom window. It was a scary thing because we did not know if it was a person and then we saw the evidence of feathers. There was glass everywhere!!

[poconosmama]

I had a turkey fly into my windshield a few weeks ago. i screamed so my son screamed and i almost peed my pants. it left a beak scratch and snot all over the window. lol.

[fay111]

We had the same problem for the last 3years - the only thing that worked was covering the outside of the window with a tarp. Unfortunately, as soon as we removed it, the robin came back. My husband finally, in frustration, put flypaper over the window. We never saw the bird again.

[jone10021]

Can't you put some scarecrows up outside of your windows?

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by mbs7

Hi ScranBarre. What you are describing is a common problem, at least with cardinals and robins (I'm not sure I've ever heard of it happening with doves). You're right to think it has something to do with mating season, but the culprits are probably not female birds seeking nesting sites, but rather male birds who, because it is mating season, are hyped up on hormones and feeling especially territorial. (If the cardinal attacking the windows is bright red, then it is definitely a male. Female cardinals are much less colorful.)

These hormone-crazed birds are not interested in expanding their territory into your home office. Rather, they're interested in driving other male birds out of their territory. So when they see their reflections in your front window, they attack. Unfortunately, the birds are not smart enough to figure out that what they are seeing is just a reflection--to them it's an incredibly stubborn competitor who will simply not go away no matter what they do. So they react by being pretty stubborn themselves, "attacking" over and over and over again, even though in the process they keep bashing their heads against your window.

Closing the curtains, as you've discovered, usually does not help that much. Though it may be a bit inconvenient, probably the best way to stop the birds from attacking is to cover the outside of the window for a few days with some non-reflective material. Of course, this will prevent you from seeing out and will probably make the neighbors wonder why you've decided to cover up your window. And there's always the chance that the birds will just move to some other window and start attacking there. Still, it might be worth a try. Basically, anything you can do to make the window less mirror-like should help.

Hello. Thank you very, very much for this reply. Yes, the cardinal is the most frequent window attacker, and yes, (he) is a very bright red bird. It would make sense now that the reflection of itself is actually causing the bird to react this way, as I notice that after he flies into the window rather brutally he'll retreat to the shrub, stare at the window again, turn his head, and then do it all over again (and again and again for that matter). The dove doesn't dive into the window. He (or she) perches himself/herself on our brick window sill and stares at me, as if it wants to flirt with me.

My neighbors are relatively hippyish for suburbanites anyways, so if we drape the outside of every window in a black tarp nobody will care. LOL!