For birds, glass windows are worse than invisible. By reflecting foliage or sky, they look like inviting places to fly into. And because the sheer number of windows is so great, their toll on birds is huge. Up to about 1 billion birds die from window strikes in the U.S. each year, according to a recent study. Often a collision will temporarily stun a bird but it will fly off, seemingly recovered, a few moments later. Many times these birds die later, from internal bleeding or bruising, especially on the brain. Dr. Daniel Klem of Muhlenberg College has researched this issue since the 1970s. He writes, “Intensive studies at single homes reveal one out of every two strikes results in a fatality.” Klem adds, “Glass is an indiscriminate killer that takes the fit as well as the unfit of a species’ population.” The window imprint left by a Mourning Dove. Photo by Priscilla Bradley/PFW. There are two main types of window collision mortality. The first happens by day, when birds crash into windows because they see reflections of the landscape or see through the glass to potted plants or vegetation on the other side.

The second type happens by night, when nocturnal migrants (including tanagers, orioles, thrushes, catbirds, and warblers) hit lighted windows that jut into their airspace. fingerprint door lock manufacturer indiaSome of these nighttime collisions are due to simple chance, but much more often the nocturnal migrants are lured to their deaths by the lights. garage door rollers steel vs nylonFor reasons not entirely understood, lights divert nocturnal migrants from their original path, especially in low-ceiling or foggy conditions. double glazed doors secondsIn the lighted area, they mill about, often colliding with one another or the lighted structure. The Fatal Light Awareness Program, based in Toronto, Canada, has much more about this problem.

Reflected landscapes can confuse birds and cause deadly window strikes. Birds may also attack their own reflection, believing it to be a rival. Photo by Susan Spear/Cornell Lab. A third type of window collision is far less likely to end in mortality, although it can be annoying to humans—that’s when a bird attacks its reflection in a window. This occurs during daytime, most often in spring and early summer when birds are defending their breeding territories. Some of the species that do this most often are Northern Cardinals, American Robins, and California Towhees. It happens when a bird notices its reflection and perceives it as a territorial rival. Territorial battles with windows may be so strong that a bird may exhaust itself, but these collisions usually don’t result in fatal injury. The best solution, which will also prevent fatalities from other kinds of window collisions, is to cover the outside of the window with netting or screening so the reflection is no longer visible or the bird is held too far from it to hurt itself or be such a nuisance for you.

You can also try drawing soap streaks across the window to break up the reflection. Placing feeders close to windows helps to avoid deadly collisions. Image by Cornell Lab. Window strikes are something you should be aware of and try to prevent. Start by identifying dangerous windows. Large picture windows or a pair of windows at right angles to each other are usually the worst culprits. Go outside near your feeders and look at your windows from a bird’s point of view. If you see branches or sky reflected in or through the glass, that’s what the birds will see, too. Try some of these ideas to make your windows safer: Unfortunately, window decals rarely prevent bird strikes. If you find a bird dazed from a window collision, examine it for external injuries. If the wings are both held properly, neither dangling, and the eyes seem normal, see if it can perch in a branch unassisted. If so, leave it to recover on its own. If the bird has a noticeable injury, get it to a wildlife rehabilitator as quickly as possible.

Broken bones usually need proper attention within minutes or hours to heal properly without surgery. Use this online directory to find a rehabber near you. Meanwhile, place it in a dark container such as a shoebox, and leave it somewhere quiet, out of reach of pets and other predators, for 15 minutes. If the weather is extremely cold, you may need to take it inside, but don’t keep the bird too warm. Do not try to give it food and water, and resist handling it. The darkness will calm the bird while it revives, which should occur within a few minutes unless it is seriously injured. Do not open the box indoors to check on it or it might escape into your house and be hard to get back out! Take the box outside every 15 minutes or so and open it—if the bird flies off, that’s that! If it doesn’t recover in a couple of hours, take it to a wildlife rehabilitator. Remember that, technically, it is illegal to handle a migratory bird without a permit, and medically helping an injured bird requires training, so your job is just to transport the bird to a rehabilitator.

Why should your walls have all the fun? Windows are a brilliant canvas for beautiful décor, too. Our collection of window decals enhances any glass surface. Ordinary windows can become colorful and classy stained glass showpieces. Glass clings can transform an everyday shower door or window into a remarkable oasis of expression. These decals can work with natural light to radiate elegant designs and colors, or add privacy and block unsightly views. Make a sunroom special with stained glass designs, or add a special detail with corner pieces. Even mirrors can be enhanced with the etched glass decals. Our window film is easy to work with and adds an authentic aesthetic to your glass. Add caming lines to complete the look and have fun accenting your home with exceptional elements.It’s that sickening sound that can only mean another bird has flown into one of your windows. Birds cannot see glass, especially if it is reflecting the nearby habitat or sky. These reflections do not register as such to a bird.

This is why millions of birds die or are injured each year in collisions with glass windows in homes and office buildings. Here are 10 different suggestions for making your windows less deadly for birds. 10. Move your feeders. Many window-killed birds are familiar feeder birds that use our backyards every day. There are two parts to this suggestion. Move the feeders farther away from your windows or move them closer to your windows. The idea here is that you’ll disrupt the birds’ usual flight path to and from the feeders. Moving the feeders closer to the windows can sometimes help because birds startled off the feeders by a hawk don’t build up enough speed to hurt themselves, and being closer to the window, the birds might be able to see that it is not an effective escape route. Remember that moving the feeders will do nothing to prevent nonfeeder birds, such as migrant thrushes and warblers, from hitting the glass. So here are some more general suggestions.Breaking up the reflective ability of a large expanse of glass is key to making it less deadly.

A natural way to do this is to suspend tree branches in front of the most-struck windows. Try to do this in a way that will give good coverage to the pane of glass but will not eliminate your view entirely. 8. Plastic food wrap. Another method for breaking up the reflection of glass is to stick large sheets of food wrap across the middle of your windows. Saran wrap and its cousin products can serve this purpose. If you have trouble getting the wrap to stick, spray a light coating of vegetable oil or water on the window before laying down the wrap. The wrap’s surface does not reflect the surroundings as the glass does. 7. Spray-on fake snow/vegetable oil. If you can stand it, a light coating of either of these two products will “deaden” a window’s reflective ability. Just don’t overdo the fake snow or you’ll be dreaming of a white Christmas and not be able to see anything out your window.There are a few products available commercially that are designed to reduce or prevent window strikes.

One of these is a static-adhering sticker that looks like a spiderweb; others are various designs meant to scare birds away with predator faces or with bright metallic reflective surfaces. 5. Mylar balloon/Mylar tubes. If you are willing to shell out $6.99 for a balloon at your local grocery store, make sure you get one of the long-lasting metallic-looking Mylar balloons (often featuring innocuous messages such as “It’s A Boy!” or a well-known cartoon character). These shiny balloons will flap around in the breeze and spook birds from coming too close to your windows. A variation on the theme was published in Bird Watcher’s Digest’s November/December 1999 issue. The author suggested wrapping strips of bright Mylar around cardboard tubes (from paper towel rolls) and suspending these wrapped tubes from strings in front of your problem windows.The black vinyl flying accipiter silhouettes were the conventional solution for window strikes in the 1970s and many are still in use today.

I have also seen owl and crow silhouettes used for the same purpose. The idea is that these shapes of “dangerous” birds are scary enough to prevent small birds from flying toward them, but their effectiveness is debatable. In certain situations they seem to work, at least for a time. The question is, do the birds get used to them and ignore them? If you can’t find these at your local bird store, trace the outline of a hawk, crow, or owl from a picture, enlarge it on a copier, cut it out and trace it onto black paper or vinyl, and stick them onto your windows. 3. Plastic strips/pie pans/ Christmas decorations/ CDs. Another method of scaring birds away from windows is to use something unusual suspended in front of the glass. The item can be shiny and reflective such as the aforementioned Mylar balloon, an aluminum pie pan, tin foil, Christmas decorations, or old compact discs (CDs). Or it can be something that flutters in the wind, such as strips from a plastic garbage bag. The message to birds is “don’t fly toward this scary, moving stuff.”

2. Screens or netting on the outside. The old standby solution to window strikes is to stretch some mesh netting (also known as fruit netting or crop netting) across your problem windows. This can take a bit of work, and it doesn’t look great, but the benefit is that it is 100 percent effective in preventing birds from hitting your windows. Some bird watchers will tie short pieces of white flagging, rags, or yarn to the netting to alert birds to its presence. An alternative is to get some old window screens (old storm window screens or screen doors work well) and suspend them in front of the windows birds are hitting regularly.Perhaps my favorite reader tip of all time was featured as a “My Way” in the September/October 2001 issue of Bird Watcher’s Digest. The idea is called FeatherGuard. BWD reader Stiles Thomas of New Jersey created FeatherGuard. His creation consists of bird feathers strung about 8 inches apart on fishing line. These lines of feathers are then strung vertically across regularly struck windows.