Preventing Wild Birds From Flying into Windows

Robins are known for attacking their own reflections in windows.
Photo by Phil Cole / Getty Images.

Many years ago, I once saw a wild bird attack his own reflection in one of my windows. The attack only lasted a couple of minutes, and further attacks were prevented by moving the bird feeder away from the window. Actually, a squirrel destroyed the bird feeder and I threw it away, so I can't take credit for the solution. There is now another bird in the neighborhood who has attacked his own reflection in one of my windows for several minutes at a time, two days in a row. There was no bird feeder to blame this time, so this means I'm long overdue for making my windows bird-friendly.

Also, it's estimated that up to one billion wild birds are killed when they fly into windows every year, because they see a reflection of the sky.

To prevent these tragedies, you can purchase window decals that look nearly invisible to people but in the eyes of birds, break up the reflection. Are you more the DIY type? If you don't mind obstructing the view, you can tape ribbons, paper or anything opaque to your windows, no more than 4 inches apart. It helps if the objects in the window move, so you might want to suspend the objects on thread so that they move slightly. Some also swear by silhouettes of predators to repel birds from windows. You can find patterns for a hawk, an owl and a falcon on pages 6-7 of this free booklet. Just cut them out of black construction paper and tape them to your windows.