Why Birds Attack Windows and Mirrors—and How You Can Stop Them

It’s a nice spring morning, you’re lazing in mattress, after which—clackety thunk-thunk clack!

A hen is thrashing away at your window and elevating fairly a racket. It’s annoying and it’s interrupting your sleep, however how in regards to the hen? Is it sick? Frightened? What’s occurring? 

To not fear. It is a pretty widespread habits throughout breeding season with a easy clarification: The hen sees its reflection within the window and is making an attempt to drive away the potential rival. Northern Cardinals and American Robins are recognized for sparring with their very own likenesses, however they’re not the one species to take action, and it’s widespread for each women and men. And the habits isn’t restricted to constructing home windows—birds usually assault automobile home windows and exterior mirrors, too. 

The dangerous information is that some people seemingly develop into obsessive about these phantom foes and would possibly return to do battle day after day. “They haven’t tailored to the man-made invention of glass, in order that they see their reflection and so they struggle it,” says Eli Haislip, supervisor at The Wood Thrush Shop, a bird-feeding retailer in Nashville. “They’re not going to study that it’s not actual. It’s simply going to develop into an ingrained habits.”

The excellent news? This habits sometimes isn’t dangerous to the hen, and there are easy methods to cease it. (To be clear, this isn’t the identical as a hen crashing into your window at pace, which is usually deadly—here’s how to prevent that.) 

To discourage a hen from attacking its reflection, you’ll must do away with the reflection. The only manner to take action is by inserting one thing on the outdoors of the window—inside received’t lower it. Hanging a sheet, blanket, or piece of cardboard over the window will do the trick, Haislip says. (This may not be essentially the most aesthetically pleasing resolution, nevertheless it’s straightforward, and you must have the ability to take down the article after a couple of days.) 

Different consultants advocate putting in an exterior display screen over the window, or marking up the glass with a bar of cleaning soap. Window decals designed to cease hen collisions may also stop this habits. 

If the window’s placement makes it troublesome or unsafe to entry, Haislip recommends anchoring Mylar balloons to a heavy object such that they’ll float and flutter simply outdoors the window. 

And if the hen is concentrated on a automobile’s mirrors, the best repair could also be to fold them in. One other fast and simple possibility is to cowl them with paper baggage when the automotive is parked. Go for paper, Haislip says—plastic baggage can mar your automotive’s clear coat. 

With these easy fixes, you may assist a confused hen save its vitality to beat the real threats it faces. And you will get some well-deserved relaxation.