Varied Thrush

[Carol Lysek]

Yesterday a varied thrush hit the side of my house with a loud thud. I found him standing about six feet from my garage door. I went back in the garage and cracked the door a little in order to watch him. I could tell he was still alive because his tail or head or eyes would move a tiny bit from time to time. He was a beautiful adult male just like the picture on my Sibley book. I played his song on my iPhone to encourage him and after about a half hour, as I was about to take a picture, he flew off. That was really special! I have heard them on the hike up Mary’s Peak many times but have never seen one up close. The book says they flock in the winter.

[Stephanie Hazen]

We have found that narrowly spaced lines prevent birds from striking windows.  Acopian bird savers or lines drawn with a pen suitable for drawing on glass from an art store are effective.

Birds see a reflection at certain times of the day that make it look like they can fly through a window. Widely spaced stickers do nothing to prevent them trying to fly into the space they think they

see.

The windows to the left and right of the main window have framed screens mounted on chains that hang from a bar mount. These are also effective. They act as trampolines if birds strike them

which they rarely do because any reflection is dissipated.  

See attached photo below

Stephanie Hazen

Salem  

On Feb 24, 2023, at 11:29 AM, Carol Lysek <ca...@cmug.com> wrote:

Yesterday a varied thrush hit the side of my house with a loud thud. I found him standing about six feet from my garage door. I went back in the garage and cracked the door a little in order to watch him. I could tell he was still alive because his tail or head or eyes would move a tiny bit from time to time. He was a beautiful adult male just like the picture on my Sibley book. I played his song on my iPhone to encourage him and after about a half hour, as I was about to take a picture, he flew off. That was really special! I have heard them on the hike up Mary’s Peak many times but have never seen one up close. The book says they flock in the winter.

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[Nancy Betty Baumeister]

I like this idea of drawing lines. Easy to install and remove when no longer needed. 

Is there any downside? Does making or removing them have any effect on window coatings?

I used house paint to draw on a plain glass greenhouse window and it is very effective. 

I’ve hung bird netting off the gutter above a window. It doesn’t need to go all the way to the bottom of the window to be effective. 

Nancy (Betty) Bee

 Blog: https://nancybird375.wordpress.com/

"A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving." -Lao Tzu

On Feb 24, 2023, at 1:37 PM, Stephanie Hazen <stephani...@gmail.com> wrote:

We have found that narrowly spaced lines prevent birds from striking windows.  Acopian bird savers or lines drawn with a pen suitable for drawing on glass from an art store are effective.

Birds see a reflection at certain times of the day that make it look like they can fly through a window. Widely spaced stickers do nothing to prevent them trying to fly into the space they think they

see.

The windows to the left and right of the main window have framed screens mounted on chains that hang from a bar mount. These are also effective. They act as trampolines if birds strike them

which they rarely do because any reflection is dissipated.  

See attached photo below

Stephanie Hazen

Salem  

On Feb 24, 2023, at 11:29 AM, Carol Lysek <ca...@cmug.com> wrote:

Yesterday a varied thrush hit the side of my house with a loud thud. I found him standing about six feet from my garage door. I went back in the garage and cracked the door a little in order to watch him. I could tell he was still alive because his tail or head or eyes would move a tiny bit from time to time. He was a beautiful adult male just like the picture on my Sibley book. I played his song on my iPhone to encourage him and after about a half hour, as I was about to take a picture, he flew off. That was really special! I have heard them on the hike up Mary’s Peak many times but have never seen one up close. The book says they flock in the winter.

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Sent from my iPhone

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[Gayle Peterson]

Where can I get the framed screens with the hanging black cords?  If I can’t get them, do I draw the lines on the inside or outside?

Thanks very much,

Gayle Peterson

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[Ray Temple]

Hi, here are a few thoughts on working through the problem of bird strikes at home.  Residential and similar sized buildings account for an estimated 44% of the bird mortalities at windows, about 253 million annually.  Fortunately, we can all do something about that.

Birds are deterred from striking windows when they can see parallel lines and judge that they can't pass between them.  Visibility is important.  Hanging window screen mesh panels may not prevent all strikes but any strikes that do happen are less harmful.  Screens are best hung from the top and allowed to swing back and forth a bit.

 You can get pre-made Acopian Birdsavers or do-it-yourself instructions from https://www.birdsavers.com/   Having made a lot of these, I strongly recommend buying the completed product.

I made the hanging screens that we use.  A carpenter shop or handyman could custom make some.  They are very effective because they present a resilient physical barrier between a bird and a window.  The downside is that painted wooden frames suffer from weather exposure over time and need maintenance.  I'm replacing all of ours with birdsavers as the frames deteriorate.

You can paint lines on the inside of windows with paint pens from art supply stores.  Pay attention to the American Bird Conservancy's recommendations for line spacing (never more than 4 inches).   The paint holds up well, but will need retouching or replacing if you wash the windows with glass cleaner.  Check out Collidescape tapes (https://www.collidescape.org/tapes) as a possible alternative.

Bird netting is inherently dangerous to any bird small enough to get its head through the meshes. The fine black strands are almost invisible.  We have rescued birds up to western screech owls out of bird mesh that protected plantings.  Hanging netting is particularly risky and should be avoided.

The American Bird Conservancy site (https://abcbirds.org/glass-collisions/) is the best source of ideas and evaluations of ways to prevent bird strikes.  It's worth a look.

Ray Temple

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[Lynda Capel]

We've also had great luck with hanging plastic deer fencing in front of windows.

Lynda Capel

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[Randy and Pam Comeleo]

We have had a different product, Bird Screens, on two 6’x6’ windows above our deck that have worked for many years. They are best for smaller birds who bounce off like it’s a trampoline, but we had Turkey hit it once and not appear to be injured.

https://www.birdscreen.com/PowerStore/photogallery.php

 

We also used a more primitive method on two large triangular windows that are too oddly-shaped and too high up to use either Birdsavers or Bird Screens. We soaped the windows using a telescoping window washing tool😊 Looks like heck, but we don’t live in some hoity-toity neighborhood where that matters and saving birds beats pretty windows for us. We do have to re-soap them occasionally.

 

Randy’s ornithology professor at Muhlenberg College, Dan Klem, has studied bird window collisions for 49 yrs. As one of his students, Randy used to collect window-killed birds from the shrubbery under the windows at the college for him.

https://www.readingeagle.com/2022/04/15/988168/

 

Dr.Klem quite literally wrote the book on it.

https://www.hancockhouse.com/products/solid-air

 

National Audubon interviewed him in 2021 when the book came out:

Preventing Bird-Window Collisions: A Discussion with Researcher Dr. Daniel Klem

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIP2QJFiWGA

 

-Pam

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[Olin Allen]

Several years ago we used a paint pen to draw lines on several windows as per instructions.  This has at least substantially reduced – perhaps eliminated? – collisions with those windows, which were responsible for the great majority of strikes at our house.  The windows are very high under the living room’s cathedral ceiling, so we painted on the outside of the glass to avoid wrestling with the 24 ft extension ladder inside the house.  The paint has held up very well, although the windows are protected by the roof overhang.

 

Olin

------------

Olin Allen

Monmouth OR

olin...@earthlink.net

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[Gayle Peterson]

Thanks for all the info.  I am wondering about the black lines drawn on the window.  Has anyone tried that method?  It seems a lot easier than installing the birdscreens.

 

Gayle

 

From: Randy and Pam Comeleo [mailto:rott...@peak.org]

Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2023 12:57 PM

[Gayle Peterson]

Ah, that sounds like a plan.  Thank you all for your assistance.

Gayle

[Olin Allen]

The instructions that we followed used a WHITE paint pen available at craft stores.

 

------------

Olin Allen

Monmouth OR

olin...@earthlink.net

 

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[Lisa Millbank]

Thanks to everyone for providing a lot of good suggestions for preventing window strikes.  I actually wasn't sure if Carol's original message referred to a window strike or some other freak accident, because it says "hit the side of my house" rather than "window," but regardless, it's great to learn about people's window modifications.

Here's another idea: make lines on windows with an ultraviolet-light reflecting ink that's visible only to birds.  You can search for "UV ink marker" and find many of these, which aren't expensive and are usually alcohol-based.  I got the idea to use a marker after I saw an ultraviolet-reflecting bird collision prevention product called "WindowAlert," but I thought there must be a cheaper way to do it.  We haven't had any fatal bird strikes since using the UV marker, although it isn't perfect because sometimes birds will still bump the window when panicked by a raptor.  After cleaning the outside surfaces of the windows, we draw lines over the entire window surface, the closer together the better.  The marker leaves a clear film of ink that's only slightly visible to humans.  The ink is fairly waterproof, as most of these markers use an alcohol solvent.  It may not be the best possible solution, but it's reasonably effective, cheap, easy to apply, and has little impact on our use of the windows.

Lisa Millbank

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[Ray Temple]

Lisa, lines, frits, and other patterns that are visible to birds that can see in the UV spectrum can be effective, but not all taxa can see them.  Raptors, pigeons, and doves are among those who don't see in UV.

Ray

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[Betty nancy bee]

Thanks all for the discussion. Great information. 

Humans and nature can co-exist, and both can thrive.

Travel and nature blog: https://nancybird375.wordpress.com/

On Mar 1, 2023, at 2:46 PM, Ray Temple <rlt...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Lisa Millbank]

Ray, that's a good point in addition to all of the excellent suggestions you made in your earlier post.  It's interesting that certain families/orders of birds can't see very well into the UV range, either because of the types of cones they have or because their corneas absorb UV light.  

I still recommend that people try UV ink since a large proportion of the birds in most yards are sensitive to UV light.  But UV ink may not be effective enough on its own, and some of the other methods you mention are more reliable.

I should have added that all of our windows also have white grids/grilles inside them.  It probably helps that the windows already have a type of "visual barrier" so that species that can't see UV light are more likely to notice the window.

Lisa

[Lisa Millbank]

Hi Sunia,

I believe we have this one: https://directglow.com/collections/invisible-uv-ink-markers/products/directglow-invisible-uv-ink-marker-pen-with-metal-bullet-led-blacklight.  It seems to last pretty well on the outside of the windows.

Lisa

On Wed, Mar 1, 2023 at 4:13 PM SYang <syan...@yahoo.com> wrote:

Lisa,

What a great idea!  Would you mind saying what brand or kind of pen you use?  Thanks!

Sunia

>     <image001.jpg>    On Feb 24, 2023, at 11:29 AM, Carol Lysek <ca...@cmug.com> wrote:
>  Yesterday a varied thrush hit the side of my house with a loud thud. I found him standing about six feet from my garage door. I went back in the garage and cracked the door a little in order to watch him. I could tell he was still alive because his tail or head or eyes would move a tiny bit from time to time. He was a beautiful adult male just like the picture on my Sibley book. I played his song on my iPhone to encourage him and after about a half hour, as I was about to take a picture, he flew off. That was really special! I have heard them on the hike up Mary’s Peak many times but have never seen one up close. The book says they flock in the winter.
>
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