In reply to Mike Hessenauer's query about 7 window strikes by American Robins in one day around feeders...
We live in the CVNP in a home with many windows, and many feeders. We had far too many strikes far too often. But when an annually reliable Yellow-bellied Sapsucker was killed when he flew into my study window, I finally dealt with the window strike problem by installing Bird Screens on the outside of the windows.
Hung about two inches away from the window glass on the outside of the window, bird screens are nearly 100% effective due to the double effect of the screens breaking up or eliminating the reflection from the glass, and, if a bird were still to make a mistake, the screens act as a sort of trampoline and dramatically reduce the force of the impact.
But over many years, we found there are three other problems with bird screens:
1) The dramatically reduce the clarity of your view from the inside of the house.
2) They get dirty and must be cleaned/vacuumed.
3) Critters like squirrels and raccoons will try to climb up them to get to the feeder hanging in front of the window, sometimes ripping them.
Last year I took all of our bird screens down and installed Acopian Bird Savers. These are quite simple: a single dark-colored nylon cord is hung vertically a few inches in front of the outside of the window glass, from top to bottom. These single nylon cords are spaced about every 4 inches apart across the horizontal width of the window.
The idea is that birds are used to flying through the woods, avoiding branches and the presumption is that they recognize these dark nylon cords, perhaps because they look similar to dark branches and they are used to recognizing branches. The Acopian Center for Ornithology at Muhlenberg College and Dr. Daniel Klem, Jr. developed and refined this tactic, including field tests in a wooded opening in a Pennsylvania forest with bare windows, decaled windows, window screens, and nylon-corded windows, with the cords hung at various distances apart from each other, all set up in front of a feeder station. All window strikes were recorded and compared. It is good science. The result was the nylon-corded windows with the cords hung at 4.25 inches apart fared quite well, reducing window strikes by upwards of 90% compared to unprotected windows.
My experience is about the same. We do occasionally get a window strike, but they are very far and few between and when they happen they tend to be quite "soft," as the birds must try to pull away at last second due to the cords. The only exception are the rare panic strikes when our resident Cooper's Hawk hunts our feeder station.
You can easily make your own Bird Savers and the Acopian Bird Saver web site shows you how. You can also send in window dimensions to them and they will make them for you. The latter approach is pricey; the former approach is cheap, easy, and personally satisfying. I made all of ours except for four on our third floor casement crank-out windows; I ordered those pre-made.
There are other benefits to hanging Bird Saver cords on your home. All of your guests will inquire about them and it creates an opportunity to educated about window strikes and to promote responsible bird feeding, and responsible home management. Moreover, the cords actually look kind of cool from the inside; I was worried it might give our home a "prison-like" feel, but on the contrary, the cords actually lend a kind of elegance.
The first link below is to the Acopian Bird Saver site, with how-to info, ordering info, photos, etc.
The second link below is the Acopian Center for Ornithology at Muhlenberg College pages on window strikes and bird savers, and much else.
http://www.muhlenberg.edu/main/academics/biology/faculty/klem/aco/BirdsandWindows.html
http://www.birdsavers.com/
Let's save the birds from our windows.
-Patrick Coy
Peninsula, OH
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael R. Hessenauer [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, March 05, 2013 10:22 PM
Subject: Robins and Window Strikes
Hello All!
Our office is in Dublin, Ohio and I have set up bird feeders outside of our windows. There has been a growing number of birds and we have enjoyed this, however today a swarm of robins spent most of the day there and at least 7 flew directly into our windows. All survived, but it was very unusual.
Has anyone heard of this kind of thing?
Mike
--
Mike
Michael R. Hessenauer
614-764-2211, extension 74
[log in to unmask]
The Hessenauer Corporation
Brokers and Managers of Commercial Real Estate P.O. Box 1462
6100 Memorial Drive, Suite 200
Dublin, Ohio 43017
614-764-2211
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Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.
You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
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