Birds Flying Into Windows

Spookdaddy said:
I think the theory now is that birds simply don't register glass as a thing, and see a window as an open route to be flown through. Thus, they tend to fly into the windows of clearly lit rooms, and not those with blinds or curtains closed, or where the room is very dark (making the glass look opaque). Also, larger areas of glass tend to be more of a problem - especially if the bird can see through to a clear window on the other side of the building.

As long as they are positioned correctly, window bird feeders are actually considered safe - even the RSPB sell them these days - which probably wouldn't be the case if birds went mental at their own reflections as a matter of course. (I think some species do get aggressive, especially during mating season - it happens, but it's not that common; birds tend to tweet the buggery out of each other, rather than get punchy.)
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When I was younger a bird fell in love with his reflection on our bedroom window. Every morning he would come and peck at the glass. It got so bad, you could actually start to see a mark on the glass from all the pecking. Sadly he was an early riser and being woken by the incessant tapping was not fun. The curtains being closed didn't seem to make a difference on the bird and the reflection. We rang the RSPB who said we should hang a string with something noisy on that might scare him. We fashioned a peace of string with some foil cake tins (the small kind, like MR Kiplings) as it was the best we could come up with. The next morning the bird appeared and was very grateful for the lovely swing we had provided. Back to the RSPB who said we should smear the glass to make it opaque. So the best part of a bottle of windowlene went on the windows and stayed for a week, after which the bird was never to be seen again thankfully.
 
Thanks for the comments folks!

I'm hoping to post another photo of the owl imprint from inside the house where it looks as though its feet have come forward to break the impact to some degree (I tried to post 2 photos initially but only one uploaded?) Glad at the time that there wasn't a dead or injured owl in the garden, so hopefully it survived to crash another day.

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Hundreds of migrating songbirds died by striking windows in New York City's skyscrapers.

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Hundreds of migrating songbirds crash into NYC skyscrapers

Hundreds of birds migrating through New York City this week died after crashing into the city’s glass towers, a mass casualty event spotlighted by a New York City Audubon volunteer’s tweets showing the World Trade Center littered with bird carcasses.

This week’s avian death toll was particularly high, but bird strikes on Manhattan skyscrapers are a persistent problem that NYC Audubon has documented for years, said Kaitlyn Parkins, the group’s associate director of conservation and science.

Stormy weather Monday night into Tuesday contributed to the deaths, she said. ...

Volunteers with NYC Audubon document bird deaths at high-risk spots during the spring and fall migrations.

Melissa Breyer, the volunteer who tweeted about finding nearly 300 birds on sidewalks surrounding the new World Trade Center towers, said the experience was “overwhelming.”

“As soon as I got to the buildings, the birds were everywhere on the sidewalk,” Breyer said. “Looking north, covered, south, covered, west, covered, the sidewalks were literally covered with birds.” ...

It wasn’t the last flight for all the birds that crashed. Some survived. ...

A total of 77 birds were taken to the Wild Bird Fund’s rehab facility on the Upper West Side on Tuesday, the majority of them from the trade center area, director Ritamary McMahon said. ...
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FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/lifestyl...ew-york-city-baf07c81dc9fa8da53d4eac627129f7d
 
Earlier this week, when I was walking into town to do some shopping for my mum, I had a blackbird fly at full pelt into the side of my head.

Fortunately, it didn't leave a big greasy bird shape.

Well...I don't think it did - no-one mentioned it when I was in Waitrose.

Come to think of it, maybe they were just being polite.
 
I keep canaries. They are in large cages in the conservatory. A couple of times the sparrowhawk has misunderstood the nature of glass. They tend to come talons first so no damage done, just a bit of a surprise for raptor and canaries.
 
Before I retired last year I was a window cleaner and bird imprints on glass were quite common.

A customer who was an avid twitcher told me it's usually an imprint of a sparrow hawk. The sparrow hawk would be chasing a small bird (sparrow, tits, etc, school boy snigger) which would fly at something and veer off at the last minute. The sparrow hawk usually wouldn't quite make the turn.
 
kesavaross said:
Before I retired last year I was a window cleaner and bird imprints on glass were quite common.

A customer who was an avid twitcher told me it's usually an imprint of a sparrow hawk. The sparrow hawk would be chasing a small bird (sparrow, tits, etc, school boy snigger) which would fly at something and veer off at the last minute. The sparrow hawk usually wouldn't quite make turn.
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Have you found it to be true that a bird flying into a window is a common sign of death for someone in that dwelling / area?
 
kesavaross said:
Before I retired last year I was a window cleaner and bird imprints on glass were quite common.

A customer who was an avid twitcher told me it's usually an imprint of a sparrow hawk. The sparrow hawk would be chasing a small bird (sparrow, tits, etc, school boy snigger) which would fly at something and veer off at the last minute. The sparrow hawk usually wouldn't quite make the turn.
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I have heard accounts of sparrowhawks flying into windows as well. One must have had a near miss with my window one Sunday afternoon about four years ago. I looked up from my book to see a female sparrowhawk subduing a large wood pigeon on my patio.

It was an extraordinary but quite gruesome sight. I haven't seen a sparrowhawk in my neighbourhood since but I expect a pair will still be around.
 
John Fairclough71 said:
I have heard accounts of sparrowhawks flying into windows as well. One must have had a near miss with my window one Sunday afternoon about four years ago. I looked up from my book to see a female sparrowhawk subduing a large wood pigeon on my patio.

It was an extraordinary but quite gruesome sight. I haven't seen a sparrowhawk in my neighbourhood since but I expect a pair will still be around.
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Definitely, a pair will still be around.

According to the twitcher, there are more sparrow hawks around than we realise due to the ever increasing pigeon population. Sparrow hawks are incredibly fast flying and we only tend to see them when chasing after prey.

Apparently the female sparrow hawk is much larger than the male. The female goes after larger birds, like pigeons, as they are easy prey, and the smaller male goes after smaller birds.
 
Sparrowhawks are beautiful birds. Not uncommon around me, but rarely seen. I had to give my downstairs neighbours a heads up once, when I realised that their garden bench looked like a murder scene after a sparrowhawk had taken a pigeon apart on it. I also once caught a juvenile on a driveway struggling with a very fat woodpigeon. They both looked up at me like kids caught doing something dodgy - I could almost sense the young hawk think 'fuck this for a game of soldiers' as it gave up and flew off. The pigeon puffed itself up and did the same, but in the other direction.
 
Apparently the RSPB were maintaining that 30 million birds die in the UK every year by flying into glass. That radio prog which debunks statistics investigated this further and found no foundation to the figure. Apparently it came from a study in a town in the US where the number of birds found dead close to particular buildings was counted over 12 months. This figure was then multiplied by the number of buildings in the town and then the number of buildings in the US. The RSPB then used this statistic for the number of buildings in the UK . Complete nonsense. There are quite a few large windows in my house and in 30 plus years I've only had one bird fly into a widow and snuff it.
 
kesavaross said:
Definitely, a pair will still be around.

According to the twitcher, there are more sparrow hawks around than we realise due to the ever increasing pigeon population. Sparrow hawks are incredibly fast flying and we only tend to see them when chasing after prey.

Apparently the female sparrow hawk is much larger than the male. The female goes after larger birds, like pigeons, as they are easy prey, and the smaller male goes after smaller birds.
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The female is usually larger than the male in birds of prey species. The sparrowhawk has one of the largest differences in size. It was partly how I was able to identify the bird I saw as the female. A male sparrowhawk would have very little chance of catching and killing a large wood pigeon. The female I saw struggled a bit before finally finishing off her unfortunate prey.
 
PeteS said:
Apparently the RSPB were maintaining that 30 million birds die in the UK every year by flying into glass. That radio prog which debunks statistics investigated this further and found no foundation to the figure. Apparently it came from a study in a town in the US where the number of birds found dead close to particular buildings was counted over 12 months. This figure was then multiplied by the number of buildings in the town and then the number of buildings in the US. The RSPB then used this statistic for the number of buildings in the UK . Complete nonsense. There are quite a few large windows in my house and in 30 plus years I've only had one bird fly into a widow and snuff it.
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Funnily enough a small bird (I think it was a dunnock) flew into my window last week. That is the first time I can recall it happening in the 17 years I have lived in my home.

I remember it happening quite a lot at my family home when I was a child. I recall seeing a few birds looking dazed but I don't remember any being killed.
 
Ronnie Jersey said:
Have you found it to be true that a bird flying into a window is a common sign of death for someone in that dwelling / area?
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I've heard stories of a particular bird being an omen* of death for certain families, sometimes flying into a room rather than into the windows. Owls and Nightjars possibly as they fly at night.

Can't find any specific examples but usually associated with aristocratic British families and tenuous at best. As in: "The Owl has long been seen as a harbinger of death for the X family, An owl was seen sitting on a branch outside the window of 103 yr old Lord X who died mysteriously three months later."

*Perhaps omen pigeons? - I'll get my coat.
 
Tunn11 said:
I've heard stories of a particular bird being an omen* of death for certain families, sometimes flying into a room rather than into the windows. Owls and Nightjars possibly as they fly at night.

Can't find any specific examples but usually associated with aristocratic British families and tenuous at best. As in: "The Owl has long been seen as a harbinger of death for the X family, An owl was seen sitting on a branch outside the window of 103 yr old Lord X who died mysteriously three months later."

*Perhaps omen pigeons? - I'll get my coat.
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Nightjars are very odd birds. I saw one many years ago. Even its flight is a bit weird.
 
I've had woodpeckers in the greenhouse (Not a euphemism btw) They tend to run about rather than fly, perhaps looking for the equivalent of a hole in a tree to hide in.
I was also being careful those beaks look pretty effective at knocking the crap out of tree branches let alone my hand.
 
Just a half hour ago whilst in my living room I heard an unusual sound, turned round to find a small bird inside, flown through the open window. Fortunately it found its way back out in short order. I didn’t get a long enough look to tell what sort of bird for sure - it was mainly brown & could’ve been a sparrow although my impression was it was a bit larger. Also sparrows are quite scarce round here.
 
hunck said:
Just a half hour ago whilst in my living room I heard an unusual sound, turned round to find a small bird inside, flown through the open window. Fortunately it found its way back out in short order. I didn’t get a long enough look to tell what sort of bird for sure - it was mainly brown & could’ve been a sparrow although my impression was it was a bit larger. Also sparrows are quite scarce round here.
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That means you'll be dead within 6 months.
 
I was in New Brighton yesterday to watch a cricket match. During a break in play, I glanced towards one of the houses next to the ground and noticed a pigeon flapping against the inside of a window. It must have either flown into the house through an open window, or the owner keeps pigeons inside his home. It made for a bizarre sight anyway, even slightly unnerving.
 
hunck said:
Just a half hour ago whilst in my living room I heard an unusual sound, turned round to find a small bird inside, flown through the open window. Fortunately it found its way back out in short order. I didn’t get a long enough look to tell what sort of bird for sure - it was mainly brown & could’ve been a sparrow although my impression was it was a bit larger. Also sparrows are quite scarce round here.
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I've got big sash windows which I tend to have wide open in summer. Regularly get birds in and out of my kitchen - and I do quite enjoy their visits, I have to say.

The last major wildlife incursion though, was a couple of bats in my bedroom. I spent ten minutes trying to work out how to get them out safely, before I realised that the best option was to turn the lights off and leave them to it. They'd found their way back out by morning.

I was kind of laughing to myself all the while - because literally the first thing that entered my head on realising that I had bats in my bedroom was, "Ketch him Derry. Derry...there's a bat!...Mam, will you get out...He's making a mockery out of you boy."

 
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