Every year a bunch of Cedar Waxwings hit my windows on their migration path, each year we get around 8-10 deaths, I was wondering what I can do to stop them from hitting my window, or at least have my windows visible to them. Has anyone had similar problems? How have y’all dealt with this (if at all). Anything helps!
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Yeah, I get these too. Birds sometimes crash into my windows because they see reflections of trees or the sky. I’ve found it helps to make the glass more visible with decals or tape, move feeders far away, or keep curtain up. Dimming bright indoor lights at dawn or dusk can also make a difference. Using a few of these tricks together usually keeps the little guys safe. I’ve got a big window that looks out to my yard and I got a curtain and haven’t seen any birds dead since.
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Glad you asked!
Window strikes are a VERY major cause of bird mortality, yet are very preventable. Most birds that strike windows die later from their injuries, despite that they may be able to fly away initially.
This link provides pretty well all you need to know to strike-proof your house: https://flap.org/stop-birds-from-hitting-windows/
Note: I’m sure a lot of people will respond by recommending that you put up a couple of decals. Study has found that decals are ONLY effective if they are spaced at no more than 2 inches apart on the outside of the window; otherwise, one is just depending on luck that birds don’t still strike the other portions of the window NOT covered by decals.
Knowing this, it’s clear that decals/markings are most effective if they are small and evenly and closely spaced across the entire outside window surface.
The attached link provides some effective, do-it-yourself strike-prevention methods, e.g. vertical lines drawn on with a white paint pen 2 inches apart.
FeatherFriendly also sells excellent manufactured solutions - strips or sheets of small squares that are applied to create a close-spaced grid across the window: https://featherfriendly.com/ Note: Link edited by mods to remove adwords/tracking info
We’ve found this product to be 100% effective at our house and very durable and I had no problem applying it.
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I can vouch for the white stripes two inches apart on the outside of windows. No bird strikes since adding them two years ago. And visually, I don’t even notice or think about them from the inside anymore, and I actually enjoy when other people notice them and ask if it’s to protect birds.
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We have burglar bars across our opening windows - those are okay for birds. But the non-opening sections get bird strikes. Until we get around to more decals, we have a primitive but effective solution with broad (cream) masking tape down the long side. - X - very simple but it works like a charm. Our garden is green with trees and the reflection is clearly inviting to ‘fly thru’.
I’ve heard people using swirls of soap on the windows.
The most effective thing I have found is leaving the screens on the windows year-round, even though you only need to have them up during the months you wish to open the windows.
Our screens sit an inch two away from the glass, so when birds strike they don’t make contact with the glass. The material of the screens is somewhat flexible and much softer and bouncier than glass.
They also really alter the appearance of the reflections. I once took photos of a window that had lots of sky and tree reflections, with the screen and without it, and the difference was very clear. (I can’t find the photos to share.)
Unfortunately, leaving them up all winter in New England sometimes result in mangled screens, if they are pierced by falling icicles or torn by the wind.
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Being in the country with grasslands and woodlands to look at, I’ve tried vertical strings, but they really interfere with the view and the wind can sometimes play havoc with them, despite being secured on both ends. What I’ve been trying this year seems to be working pretty darn well so far: I have a deck under my windows that face the birdfeeder, so I just lean a broom or a hoe or a shovel handle right in the middle of the window, and it seems to be enough of a cue for the birds to see that something is there. So far the wind will make them occasionally slide to the side, so I just reposition and the birds have not hit the windows once, something they used to hit a few times each time I was feeding the birds. Time will tell if my success continues, but somehow a handle or broom or hoe is easier for me to look around than covering the window with dots, strings, or other such objects. Might be worth trying for you, too, if the shoe fits.
Something to keep in mind is that we’re only aware of the window strikes that we hear or see the results of - a stunned bird that will usually die later even if it’s able to fly off, or a halo of feather dust and oil and some feathers stuck to a window.
Study suggests that the strikes we actually notice are only a fraction of the total that are likely occurring.
It’s very well understood how to implement optimally effective window-strike prevention… which makes people’s general resistance to doing so quite unfortunate.
https://flap.org/stop-birds-from-hitting-windows/
Some food for thought:
https://abcbirds.org/news/bird-building-collisions-study-2024/
https://partnersinflight.org/what-we-do/reduce-bird-mortality/
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Totally agree, and the way I track the bird-window collisions is that I really clean the window and it’s been my experience that any bird hits will leave a smudge on the window. I still had birds hitting the window with parachute cord dangles over the window, but so far I haven’t seen any telltale smudges with the hoes, push brooms, etc. leaning against the windows. Will keep you posted…..
That is incorrect. Whether a strike leaves a smudge or not depends on the angle they hit at, and how hard. You may actually be unknowingly killing more birds by keeping the window extra clean, since more reflective equals less visible to birds.
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Some windows (like the ones I have) have screens on the inside, unfortunately.
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The link I posted above gives you all the info needed for anyone to implement proven, effective window-strike prevention.
@danly If birds are STILL flying into external window screens, it’s obviously not providing an effective solution to breaking up window reflections. Collisions can be expected to cause injuries, whether they are slightly cushioned by a window screen or not.
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