Window glass: Silent bird killer?
Windows take a toll on birds -- killing up to 1 billion a year in North America. Conservancy bird expert Dave Mehlman gives tips on how you can help stop this deadly problem.
Photo: readerwalker/Flickr 
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Move bird feeders, bird baths and perches to within 3 feet of your window — you’ll see the birds better and they can’t fly fast enough to get hurt.
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Collisions are caused by birds trying to fly through glass or because they see reflections from the outside — so do what you can to break up or eliminate this by placing decals or strings on the outside of your windows, separated by no more than 4 inches vertically and 2 inches horizontally.
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Use screens, films or other coverings on your windows that eliminate reflections — or use bird-safe glass.
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If constructing new windows, consider angling them 20 to 40 degrees from vertical.
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When installing new landscaping, consider placing trees, shrubs, water features, and other bird attractants well away from windows.
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Comments
I thought you may want to know about this technique for preventing birds from flying into windows. We've been using this technique for many years. It's a very simple solution and it works. And it looks good too!
You can read more about it at
www.BirdSavers.com
Unfortunately, in 1 wk, there were 4 birds killed from collisions at my windows even tho I had some suncatchers affixed. I now have sheer curtains on all windows. It is is so sad to have these birds killed from window crashes.
That should be 1,000,000,000/year.
1,000,000,000/day = 2,739,726/day = 114,155/hour = 1,902/minute = 32/second (all calculations rounded), and this is just in the US. WTF?!?
The bird window death numbers don't compute. It would come to about 3 a year per person in the U.S. alone! I am 50 and only recall witnessing a couple of these in half a century, and the same can be said for my relatives. I would have noticed if that many bird corpses were lying about. Also, I read the article that was claimed as the source of the numbers. No where in that article did it provide any scientific, research based information to back up those numbers. All it kept doing was using.... More
I'm reading the standard American response in a lot of comments: "I've never heard of this or I don't understand it, so it can't be true."
The numbers are not inflated. There are chrome and glass buildings all over America and they are a graveyard for birds, since they so perfectly reflect the sky. This is why a lot of new buildings have special glass that reflects a bright mesh pattern that is highly visible to birds.
Where those numbers came from:
http://www.fws.gov/birds/mortality-fact-sheet.pdf
Something to consider:
.... More
In 1973, I was a college student in the Boston area. I was walking around early in the morning, and came to the Prudential building. It had shops on the ground level (outside) with glass walls all around as windbreaks. There was an old man with a broom, sweeping up piles of dead and dying birds. He told me that it happened every night during migration season.
It happens.
Callous homeowners kill trillions of termites per year. Ants, too. Why is a bird's life, or human's life, more important than termites?
A life is a life, and one baby termite life is the same as one human baby life. What would you do if trillions of human babies were killed each year?
i hope you're being sarcastic cause if you're not i'm gonna have to kill a whole lot of babies...
"It seems like the majority of commenters didn't feel it necessary to follow up on the source given:"...
I read the source. "The one 100 million to 1 billion toll IS BASED THE THE ASSUMPTION that 1-10 birds are killed at are killed at one building each year".
Must be global warming.
Collisions with glass comprise the second biggest man-made threat to birds in the U.S. after habitat loss. Just because you don't see dead bird by your windows doesn't mean your pane isn't causing premature avian death. Birds that have run into windows are often eaten by scavengers or, if the collision occurs in a city, they're swept out of the way by street cleaning crews. Here's some more reading on the subject; do note that it's from a bit over a year ago: .... More
Aren't there around 300 million people in America? So wouldn't that mean that every single one of them would have over three birds a year killed at a window close to them? A family of four would have 14 birds EVERY year killed at a window on their home? What kind of idiot compiles these statistics? Certainly not a math major. Worse, who gives these people credibility?
All this time I thought it was the wind turbines generating electricity that were killing the birds. Sounds like another environmentalist wacko who won't be happy until we are all living like it's 1800. If a bird is too stupid to avoid a window, then Darwin was right...
I shot thirty starlings today, protecting all the home owners glass and insurance rates!!!
Sorry about the blood on your car, dude.
I love the line "I see no immediate reason why these figures would be erroneous."
To say that windows are possibly killing more birds than both hunters and cats is just wanton misinformation. Sure there's a source linked, but his numbers are just estimates. What are they based on? Oh yeah, other estimates... and his own personal vendetta against windows. This is just another example of American fear-mongering and blatant stupidity. "I see no immediate reason why these figures would be.... More
Reminds me of a song ....by Pitbull, "You're So Full of Shiat".
It seems like the majority of commenters didn't feel it necessary to follow up on the source given:
http://aco.muhlenberg.edu/Bird-Glass-Overview-D-Klem-Jr-2008.pdf
Where did he get those numbers, right out of his behind?
This guy obviously learned math at the school of Numbers I Just Pulled Out Of My A**. This might be believable if there were dump trucks of dead birds being piled up with nowhere to put them. I thought science was supposed to be objective.
Oddly, at the age of 46, in my entire life I have yet to see a single bird actually killed by a window collision - barring windshields, of course. I've lived in rural, suburban and urban settings. I have witnessed a grand total of *perhaps* 6 window v bird instances in that 46 years, and in every one of them the bird simply flew away afterward, albeit a bit less enthusiastically. Since Mr. Klem and the author of this piece of reporting seem so convinced, I would certainly like to see how Klem.... More
I'm not ankle deep in dead birds here in a major city. OK so there are some birds that fly into glass. Boo hoo. Who counted all these dead birds? And how many of the dead birds are simply pigeons that had been poisoned? I walk down city streets among tall buildings and I don't see a bird on the sidewalk or street. WTF kind of idiot writes this stuff? And WHO TF is the idiot that gives this any publicity at all, even on the internet? How about I write an article about Martians.... More
Estimates are that this writer is a retarded douchebag — I see no immediate reason why this estimate would be erroneous.
THERE ARE DEAD BIRDS EVERYWHERE JUST MASSIVE PILES OH MY GOD THE HORROR THERE IS BIRD BLOOD RUNNING IN THE GUTTERS THE PESTILENCE BROUGHT ON BY THESE BILLIONS OF DYING BIRDS IS SURE TO INFECT US ALL THIS IS THE NEW BLACK DEATH.
I had no clue that a computer operating system could be so destructive.
I blame Bill Gates.
The billion number is completely asinine not to mention the incredibly wide range of "100 million and 1 billion." a 1 to 10 ratio? let's say the # is true...that would be a billion more birds in the air if we try to save some with these tips...how many more plane crashes via jet engines, how much more bird crap on newly washed cars...
It has been my observation most of the birds that hit my picture window do so around the time of the vernal or autumnal equinox. Maybe it has something to do with the angle of the sun at this of the year. My picture window faces the north and doesn't usually have shades down the way that the other windows do.
That would be 32 fatal birdstrikes per second, or 3 annual birds killed for every resident of the U.S.
Sounds like an open and shut case to me.
A billion bird-kills a year in North America? How is that even possible??
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A billion birds! LOL That would be....well no math skills here but that would be like hundreds of birds hitting windows every *second* ....that would be like a scene out of Hitchcock with literally stacks of birds that we'd have to push aside from our doors to get to work.
dudes.
Or we could use plasma windows and simply turn them off in good weather and let the birds fly in and out. This would give them time to realise they made a mistake and would sort of be like living in a planatarium.
All the more reason to reduce chemical exposure and just not bother cleaning the windows, if you ask me ;) Windex is the enemy here, methinks.
good thinking re: the glass cleaners ... LOL I guess we can open the windows if we want to see outside. BTW a bit of vinegar works well if you prefer to keep the windows shut.
