What do you do to help prevent birds from hitting windows?

On and off throughout other forums, this topic has come up. We've most probably all encountered the dead bird on ground beneath window scenario and it's gut wrenching. Windows definitely take a toll on birds and the migration of birds has begun.

A few links-
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/attracting/challenges/window_collisions/document_view
http://www.birdsandbuildings.org/faqs.html
http://www.torontohumanesociety.com/caringforPet/prewindows.html
http://www.birdscreen.com/Klem_AFO_Collisions1990.pdf#search='birds%20collision%20with%20windows'
http://www.abcbirds.org/birdconservationalliance/members/window_paper.PDF#search='birds%20collision%20with%20windows'

What do you do to help prevent birds from hitting your windows?

I'll start.

I began leaving my screens on my windows year round. That only covers the bottom half of the windows but it was a tremendous help in reducing the collisions. We have interchangeable storm doors here that came with a screen panel as well as a glass panel. We leave the screens in year round now. .

We also began leaving all mini blinds in the down position cracked open. I don't think this did much to help deter the birds but on some days I can see the faint lines so maybe they can too.

Washing windows is now a thing of the past. I used to try to keep up but wasn't doing too well so I contracted window washers to come out and clean my windows twice a year. Inevitably, the day after they came, it would rain so my windows never truly looked all that great anyway so no big loss. I don't clean my windows on the outside any longer. I am told this helps a little bit.

I've had panels of stained glass installed in the semi circle decorative arch windows that we have here. Darker stained glass helps but again I don't know how much as there are many days where the reflections hide the stained glass panels that were installed on the inside of the home.

For our atrium doors, we've hung many sun catchers... on the outside of the windows. Looks tacky but is a help.

We've attached streamers to the frames of the windows.

This year so far, only one bird hit. It was a common grackle but it was a bird nonetheless and windows aren't all that discriminating in that they kill birds that are threatened and endangered too.

This was the north side of my house before the fire. I noticed window strikes almost as soon as I moved in. Most were not fatal, but too many were. I reduced window strikes by about 95% but the solution wasn't a decorator's dream. I went to Wal-Mart and got clear suction cups with hooks on them in the craft section of the store. Then I used a box cutter to slice long, thin strips out of a black plastic garbage bag. Spread some Vaseline on the inside of the suction cups (they stay up a lot longer if you do this). Double over one end of a strip a couple of times and poke the end of a hook through the multiple layers of plastic and crimp the hook down with pliers. Get up on a ladder (if necessary) and attach to top of window. The slightest breeze makes these strips move and just by breaking up the reflection it helps. I’d hang about eight strips on this set of windows. You get used to them and they do work – cheap, too!

This solved the problem completely.

Stelco I am so sorry about the fire. What happened? Is everyone OK?

Thank you, sempervirens.

It was a candle or an electrical fire on the second story. I will never know which. I was cooking in the downstairs kitchen and smelled something strange. When I got upstairs there was no smoke, so the smoke alarm hadn't tripped, but the entire headboard of the canopy water bed was rolling flames, licking across the top and starting the drop ceiling below the loft on fire. I was on a second date that night and we were just getting ready to eat. By the time I got her on the cell phone to 911, gave her the address and got her and her truck out of the drive the smoke had started and filled the house. I went in to rescue my cats. I was unable to breathe much, went out for air and went back in. I never found them - they hide. They were all that I was thinking about, so I left my keys and wallet on the counter, next to the door. By the time I was leaving the second time out windows were blowing out on the second story. I was in a hurry to get out by then. I had no identity for two days and no keys for my vehicles. Three fire departments sent everything that they had, but most of the 20,000 gallons of water went into saving the garage and preventing the 325 gallons of propane from blowing up. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy!

Mark

Mark, that is terrible, and I’m so sorry. I can't imagine how hard it must be to recover from something like that. I appreciate your sense of humor about solving the bird strike problem...but boy, it's hard to feel anything but pain when looking at those photos. I'm glad you weren't hurt, physically. But emotionally...that must be a really tough hurdle.

We have two big banks of fixed and sliding glass doors on the south side of our house. The only birds I've seen strike them are white-wing doves, but that happens fairly often. They have to fly under our deep porch to get to the doors, so I'm surprised how often it happens. That may be why I haven't seen one killed so far, perhaps they're slowing down to fly below the porch roof. Still, it's an upsetting sound/sight, and even if they can still fly away, I would think some are injured from the impact.

I appreciate the articles. I’ve considered decals to stop humans from walking into the glass doors, but it sounds like decals may not be large enough to make much difference to a flying bird. I could try suspending shiny streamers of some kind from the porch roof directly in front of the doors.

I'm glad to know I'm doing my part by not washing windows (see, I knew there was a good reason not to do that.) Our dog does his part by applying steady coats of dog slobber and nose snurfles to the lower third. In fact, the doves always hit above that line. Odd that dog slobber isn't mentioned in those articles, huh?

I knew he lost everything. Pretty depressing isn't it. I had a fire at my house shortly after we moved in but a newspaper delivery man spotted it while going out on his route at around 3am and after all the kids were out, every animal we owned was moved out of the house to include the pet rat, the goldfish, and the anoles. We were very fortunate because the south side of our home was completely engulfed and I can guarantee we would have lost any animal that hadn't been pulled out by the delivery man who kept going back in our house and hauling them out one after the next. We had 8 or 9 cats at the time and 3 dogs. Cats are tough because of exactly what Mark said, they hide. To this day I have no idea how he managed to get our cats out other than that we had just moved in and there weren't many hiding places yet. Our damage was no where near the levelling Mark experienced so we were able to move back in by the following spring.

Dog snurfles? Well if those count, then I would be set here.

The streamers we used came from toys and old windsocks but we used strips of white plastic tall kitchen garbage bags when we ran out of all the "decorator's dream" materials. I gotta say one thing, they work just like he said they did and the garbage bag strips hold up to the elements.

Mark, how awful that must of been for you. We too had a fire, in our very first house. I had put the dogs in the garage, so they weren't overcome by any smoke or anything. I lost a lot of sentimental things because of the damage and our bedroom had to be gutted and rebuilt. Ours was an old box fan I had stuck in the window, a storm blew up, blew the fan out and it was so old it didn't have the automatic off switch. Luckily for us, our neighbor was tending his marijuana in the back yard and spotted the smoke pretty quickly. You know I have to ask now, 2nd date, possible candle up in the bedroom.....*wink wink*

In this old house, I don't know if it's because almost all windows have an overhang or what, but I've not had any birds fly into any windows. Course I mostly have HOSP, so it would be no great loss if they did.

Thanks everyone. It is hard to deal with at times and almost every company that I have had to deal with have bent over backwards to make it as difficult as possible. My insurance company has not been a “good neighbor”. The car keys that were left on the counter because I was trying to get my cats out are part of my vehicles, don’t you know? They said “We need the $200.00 deductible on your two vehicles to have them re-keyed”. I suggested that since they were lost in the fire that they should take the $200.00 out of my contents portion of my policy. Nope, they were part of my vehicles, so they had to go on my vehicle policies and that can’t come out of the contents claim. The fact that my structure was under insured by almost $75,000 was not the fault of the company or my agent, even though he had never seen my house. The home owner is expected to know current building rates and what the structure would cost to rebuild – “It says so on your renewal notice each year”. I had a home equity loan with Countrywide and they insisted that they would keep my premium balance until I exhausted the rest of the funds rebuilding. They would then send someone out to insure that the equity would cover the relatively small loan amount. During the time that they held the money that I had borrowed I was expected to continue making monthly payments, including interest on money that they were holding! I had ten months of a Netscape dial-up contract that they wanted me to continue to pay even though I could no longer use the service. Consumers Energy tried to charge me for 1300 KWH for eight days of service in February, although I had only used 1100 KWH for the entire month of January. Verizon took an entire month to port over my phone number to my new cell phone, after telling me that it would take two days. I got a bill for trash pickup several weeks after the fire. I had to call and ask them if the guys didn’t notice that since there was no house and no trash they might put two and two together and not charge me. It goes on and on and . . .

The propane company was great! They took my tank out ASAP and credited me. The credit union was excellent! They knew me and accepted anything that I wanted to do without identification. Since I work for the state, I was able to regain my identity in two days. I was lucky to get a manager at the Secretary of State office. She expedited everything. Those were the only entities that I have anything good to say about, but I appreciate everything that the few of them did to try to help.

I’m sorry to hear of everyone else who has experienced a fire. There are SO many! I never knew how common it is. Although most folks don’t experience an entire loss, it is still devastating.

Terry, how could you jump to such conclusions? If I told you that two of my candles were on the headboard of my mirrored canopy waterbed I doubt that it would change that devilish mind. :) She never saw the second story. She was only in that house for about an hour. I’m REALLY glad that I’m not sure that a candle started the fire. I’ll tell you this much, if every guy could afford to lose everything on every second date I could write a “how to” book. The Salvation Army put us up in a hotel room and neither one of us could sleep that night . . .

In the future I will have ten pound fire extinguishers in the kitchen and a central point on the second story. If I had done that I would not be writing this. But, I have “woulda, coulda, shoulda,” myself to death. Now, I can only have learned from this and pass along what I’ve learned. Keep your smoke detectors in working order (this didn’t help me, but is still good advice). Keep large fire extinguishers on every floor, in easy access. Don’t burn candles in any room that is unattended. Make sure that everyone has an escape route and knows how to get out fast. Don’t go back in for anything! I got REALLY lucky. It was stupid to go back in once, much less twice. Three weeks after my fire a woman died while trying to retrieve personal belongings in a house fire just a few miles away from me. Only a week after my fire a family of four was lost trying to get everyone out, in the next county (they needed to use DNA to identify the bones). My three story house burned to the ground within an hour and a half. Once a window blows and the air gets in the fire turns into a furnace with small explosions. Know what your home and contents are worth! Make sure that you are insured for contents and structure! Your insurance company doesn't care about anything except making sure that your payments get in on time.

Life goes on.

Well, you about summed up the process with digital direct, the electric company, and every other service provider out there right on down to the garbage collection. We lost a car in the garage and that was a separate deductible for us too. Only difference on the home was that we had no problems with our insurance company. Our home was new construction so it had been insured for the amount it actually cost us to build. I'm sure if the policy had been in force for 10 or 15 years that we probably would have lagged behind and been underinsured. I won't make that mistake. We call the insurance company any time we do anything to this house whether it's adding wallpaper or adding shutters or a deck. Every time we sink so much as even $500 into this place we call and increase the dwelling coverage. Having even a small fire loss like we had really puts the fear of God in you.

Poor you, you got hammered.

Oh Mark, how could I not jump to such conclusions? I don't know you, so I don't know how fast you work :o)

Life does go on and after a while, it'll just seem like a really bad dream. You're safe, that's all that matters.

Mark, I'm writing down all your recommendations, how good of you to take the time to pass them along. What a horrible experience, I am so very sorry for your tragic loss.

We live in a two-story colonial and have only had one bird strike. I suspect it's because houses here are so close together (50'-75' lots) and because I'm not good about keeping my windows clean on the outside. Now I have an excuse!

Our one strike was a male cardinal. As far as I know he survived it. He was stunned but then got up and flew off.

Most window strikes do not result in immediate death. The birds seem to know there is a problem at the last minute and put the brakes on. If they are bleeding, yet alive, put them out of a slow death, if you can. If they are not bleeding I have used the same technique that we use on folks that suffer from a concussion. Keep the eyes open by having them sit on your finger and manipulating thier head. If you can't get them to sit on a finger they probably won't recover. I have saved many window strike birds, but don't know if they survive in the long run. It takes an hour, or so, to get some birds back into the air, but if I have the time I do it.

Terry,
I'm a single man. I've been a single man for many years. You may understand that if I cook a good meal AND have candles to create a soft mood my chances for a "comfortable" second date increase. Little did I know that a second date could be so "hot"! I cleaned the whole house before she visited for the first (and last) time. I wish that I had been upstairs, alone, when the fire started. Coulda, Shoulda, Whoulda . . .

Oh my, you are truly a hoot.

Mark, we all have coulda shoulda woulda's in our lives. Don't beat yourself up about it. It happened, it was an accident. Ya know? If only I'd not jammed that box fan into the window and left home. If only I'd of put my irreplaceable dolls (Japanese) in another room. If only I'd of put all my pictures into albums instead of in my drawer. If I'd of stayed home, I'd of been there when the storm blew up and I'd of shut off the fan. See? Coulda, woulda, shoulda.
You can cook? Gosh, how about a first date with a married woman? No need for anything to get "hot", I just want a man to cook an honest to goodness good home cooked meal for me! And I love candles.....creates a certain ambiance (that you'll have none of, but you can dream...lol...). WAIT!! You can clean?? Oh please come here. I've been so busy outside working on this old house, I've neglected my housework. I've got hair for about 4 more dogs than the 1 we've got. You come here, clean my house, and cook me something. Wow. That sounds like a plan to me! You game?? :o)

Equil, you typed over me. Keep your mitts off. Mark's mine. He can cook and he can clean. I want him. He's my new toy.

Candles, no way. Not unless they are in the fireplace box or out on the patio. That's where we burn ours these days. I've been burned out once and I'm with stelco on that one. If I want a candle in our bedroom or on the counter I'll get something neon in the shape of a candle and plug it in the wall or something otherwise they stay in the fireplace box. They don't look all that bad in there.

Ahem, I found him first. He's coming to visit ME to lend me a hand with a few things. My house is clean... it's rained the last three weekends. He serves a much higher purpose than menial cleaning, food preparation, and laundry detail anyway. Eat your heart out.

Well, we must part ways on that one. I love candles and burn them all the time. I have a neat thing that goes in front of the fireplace to burn candles also. It holds 7 candles, but I love the jar ones. My new favorite is Scarecrows n' Hayrides.

I've got way too much to do inside and out (that doesn't involve cleaning or cooking), to let some rain stop me.

I want one of those candelabra things that fits into the fireplace box. Those are really beautiful.

Sorry to butt in, but candles and cats = trouble! I like both. Whenever I have one burning one of the kitties always has to sniff it - curling their whiskers, sometimes singeing the hairs on their face.
I had a long-haired kitty that walked around a roaring fire in the fireplace and came out w/o a single singed hair or whisker. I don't know how that happened - kitty angels maybe?

Ya, cats were another issue around here. They always get their tails in things.

indirt, you're not butting in! I don't have cats, so no worry about that here. I would say kitty angels were there that day. I have a little long haired chihuahua, but she doesn't like fire. Scaredy cat is what she is.

Equil, that's what mine is. Flat on the back side, but doesn't fit inside, it sits outside. Mine is a coal burning fireplace, so it doesn't have as much space inside as a typical wood burning would. I got mine from Ebay. They did sell them at Pottery Barn and that's where the seller got this one from. It's wrought iron. I got one from Kohl's, but it wasn't near as heavy and it was bent. So, I went ahead and bid on this. I lost, but the buyer backed out and it was mine. I've also seen some smaller versions at Target. My sister has a neat one that hangs on her fireplace screen, bought from Target.

Well, while I enjoy being in demand by women, I don’t see how I’d turn out a winner here! As it looked more and more like I’d end up a confirmed bachelor the ability to cook a good meal became a priority. And, while I’d rather cook for friends than just myself I can’t justify a round trip to Illinois to do so. Cleaning is also something that I tend to do more for others than just myself. But, I can say that when I’ve ever cleaned for others, it was always MY house that got cleaned. I like to cook. Cleaning is a necessary chore, like clearing snow from the drive at 6:00 AM to make it to work. Right now, if was going to have someone in, it would take me a couple of hours to clean up. And, again, I just didn’t see a big return in these “Deals”! Maybe I could have you guys come here and I could teach you how to clean up the Purple Martin housing after 34 adults and 70 “kids” got done with them. You could learn “hands on” how to tear the nests out and scrape all of the compartments. Then you could spray them down with a Clorox solution (don’t wear anything that you care about on this day) and rinse well after the housing is clean. See, when I give my friends offers they get something in return. You shouldn’t turn down an opportunity to do this before you have a colony to care for. I’d let you practice on both gourds and aluminum housing. And, I might even cook you dinner! :-)

Mark Mark Mark. The win in coming to my house is me. Don't you get that by now? Who would possibly turn down meeting me? I could do all that you asked with my eyes closed. I grew up with the most anal mother and father on earth, trust me on this. I could probably strip paint or varnish, paint whatever you need painted, poly, re-finish your floors, fix your plaster walls and then do a skim coat over it all, all while cleaning and sanitizing the bird houses. What do you need done? I can do it, but I'd really like someone to do something for me. And that someone would be you, cleaning and cooking, while I'm out painting or stripping or polying or fixing those plaster walls in that back area......

I just read that you look like Jennifer Aniston. I wouldn’t trust myself. If you weren’t married I’d be on my way this weekend!

O.k fine. I really look and sound like Phyllis Diller. Better?

She does look like Jennifer Aston.

I'm the one who looks like Phyllis Diller.

I've got experience cleaning nesting boxes. We had wood duck nesting boxes, screech owl nesting boxes, woodpecker nesting boxes, as well as bluebird nesting boxes. I'm a seasoned veteran at cleaning nesting boxes and I cleaned out and sterilized bluebird nesting boxes for the county one year. We took them off their mounts and dipped them in rubbermaid garbage cans filled with dilluted bleach... goes quicker. Come to think of it, I made about 20 myself personally for the county to put up... but a free meal is a free meal. Count me in for the free meal and birdie do do duty.

Stelco - do you know who Phyllis Diller is?

You called dahling indirt?

Here I am!



This message was edited Sep 19, 2006 10:35 PM

Unfortunately, I am old enough to know who Phyllis Diller is, but just wondering if (I am assuming young, single) Mark knows who she is?

Lovely pic, by the way.

Thank you, thank you, thank you very much for the compliment.

It took me a while to dig that smashing photo up! I had to find just the right photo to post and there it was.

I know how old he is but I'll leave that to him to share if he chooses but, nyuk nyuk nyuk... he'll know who Phyllis Diller is.

Aack! Aack! Aack! Aack!

It is a perfect (smashing) photo to share LOL
I cannot claim to resemble anyone so lovely - lucky you!

My DS came up, saw your post and asked WHO'S *THAT*!? He was duly impressed by your post, as well - lol. At 8, he is a connoisseur of fine looking women (truly). After talking to a receptionist, I told him that even if he was old enough, he couldn't ask that one out on a date. "why not?" "B/c she had a big engagement ring on"

The way he's going, he will marry someone in menopause and my dreams of grandkids are out the window!

For birds, I have a few window clingers. I got some that look like stenciled leaves, so they seem less tacky than most. I do keep my screens on the windows all year long and they are filthy dirty. I recently got a quote from a service to clean all our windows and screens. I guess I now have a reason not to have them cleaned. (Though I think I will still have it done - I can't bear to look at these dirty screens)

For candles, I do have one of those candelebra's that fit in the fireplace. I like it.

For insurance, my agent inspected the house and suggested that we insure it for more than its appraisal amount. And our insurance agent typically keeps increasing the value of the insured property by about one or two percent per year. I have often grumbled about him recommending these inflated values to increase his commission. However after reading Stelco's posts, perhaps my insurance agent has been doing a good job for me.

The fire damaged pictures are quite alarming. But I love the lighthouse, very cool.

I always enjoyed Phyllis Diller. To listen to, not my type though. You don’t have to be young to be single. I qualify for my AARP card in a couple of years.

The lighthouse was cool – thanks. It didn’t survive the fire. I had just redone the entire inside two years ago. It was a working lighthouse when I bought the place. They had recently converted from an oil furnace to propane. Being an A frame, they had no place for the smoke stack on the old oil furnace. The guy who built the house was very inventive. He sunk the septic tank and put an octagon concrete cap on it that served as the footprint for the lighthouse. That’s where he hid the stove pipe for the oil furnace.

Here’s the front of the house from the fall that I moved in. I had done a LOT of work on the gardens, which are all gone now and so are the photos of them. This is just one that I happened to have at work, so it was saved.

Way cool! Are you going to build another A frame?

Ah so, since Phyllis isn't your type, when can I expect you?

Ya know Mark, I keep telling you to move here. There's an A frame outside of town on Lover's Lane (REALLY!) for sale. It appears to have a couple acres and is in dire need of gardening help. No clue on the inside, but I'm telling you, you need something stripped or painted, or stained and polyed or demo work, or decorating, I'm your girl *wink wink*.....

I'd love to rebuild what I had, but it is too cost prohibitive. Since I was already in debt and the insurance company had me another 75K shy of rebuilding what I had, I have to scale down and do A LOT of work myself (including painting, all of the tile and wood flooring and much more). Too bad that everyone lives so far away. I could use as much help as I can get. I’ll be pulling all of my own electrical, coax and probably some Cat 6 cable. I have a great builder and will be using a lot of newer and energy efficient/renewable resource ideas. The place will be as close to a chalet design as I can get and I’ll be tying in a 14X16 mud room/breezeway between the house and garage. This will have a bathroom with a shower and the laundry room, for easy cleanup after working in the yard. The furnace, water heater and softener will be in a separate room in the breezeway. I’ll be plumbing the place myself with PEX. It is a relatively new plastic supply water plumbing that has been used in Europe for more than 30 years and is accepted by plumbing codes in the U.S. The exterior walls will be constructed from Styrofoam block forms that are poured with concrete, as each floor is built. These homes withstand up to 200 mile winds, are insect proof and have an R factor for insulation that is impossible to obtain with any other materials. An outdoor wood burner will heat my water for most of the year and heat my house. The only propane I use will be when I’m out of town during cold weather months and for my clothes dryer and range. I designed the house myself, with a few ideas from some of my friends and my builder. The kitchen is open to the living room and the living room will be open to the second story vaulted ceiling. I will end up with three bedrooms and three full baths.

The house that burned was forty years old and codes have changed since then. I had to get three variances approved in order to rebuild and was only allowed to do so because I was grandfathered in and couldn’t comply with any of the codes in question. If I had just sold this lakefront property, with a garage, nobody else would have been able to build there.

When we finish the house I could sell it and move to Illinois, but there are several problems with that, Terry. It would be a heck of a commute to my job with the Michigan Senate IT department. My property, boat and camper in Northern Michigan would be A LOT further away. I didn’t see lakefront listed in that “A” frame property description (I love to go ice fishing in my back yard!). I’d have to find someone to take over the Purple Martin colony and Bluebird trail. And, we still have that pesky husband thing. Of course, if things go sour for ya, the new place would really be complimented by a Jennifer Aniston look alike and since I’d be doing all of the cleaning and cooking anyway one more person wouldn’t make that much more work. My specialty is barbeques – almost anything. I even cook outdoors in mid-winter. Indoors I have several favorite dishes to cook in a wok. I make a melt in your mouth English Cut pot roast, with all of the fixins. My chili and spaghetti sauce get made in two gallon batches and I’ve never had a suggestion to make any changes to my sauces. When a Turkey dinner is finished some of the best Turkey soup is created from what’s left – that’s why I always get a big bird. I always have tons of fish, if you like that. My freezer is full of Salmon and Steelhead fillets right now. When the lake freezes Bluegill and other panfish come fresh from the lake in the back yard. Every few years we spend 72 hours on a charter on the ocean, off of Key West, and load up on Grouper and Snapper . . . *wink, wink* :-)

Well, let's see...the creek is just down Lover's Lane. You've also got the Hennepin Canal, and various lakes all over to do your fishing. Our old neighbor loved to go ice fishing. I know the place, but can't remember the name. I could drive you though. You'd also get the advantage of my parents lakefront property down in Bull Shoals AR, on beeuutiful Bull Shoals Lake. You don't need a boat, they have 2 of em. Don't need the camper, you have the house. I'll go fishing with you, but only if you put the worm on. If you do all the cooking and all the cleaning, what do I do? Eat bon bons? Hmm....I do have a really yummy recipe for them that I'm sure you're dying to make for little ole me. Let's see, oh work. If you're about to get your AARP card, then surely it's time to retire. Cost of living down here is low. Course you do have to take care of me, so I guess maybe it's not too low after all. You are making me so hungry, that's not nice. I rarely eat supper, so you've got my stomach really growling. What time for Thanksgiving? Oh the husband thing. Think he'd mind? Hey wait a minute. Who's we? As in the we spend 72 hours....???

Equil, why didn't you do that? The mudroom/breezeway part.

I dunno. I really really love my 110 yr old house with all it's squeaks and creaks. I don't have a lakefront property, but you can just come here and adapt.

Well, the garage is attached to the house, I could have done a breezeway but didn't think of it. Aside from that, I do like that our garage can be heated even though we set it at around 40F. We do have a mud room, you didn't see it because it had big drooling dogs in it. I like the idea of being able to hose off before you come in the house. If I would have thought of it, I would have stuck a bathroom in the garage but then hind sight is always 20/20.