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Birds and windows

bédébédé Posts: 3,095
edited 17 January in Problem solving
How do you prevent birds flying into windows?

Without it looking ugly.

Blackbirds are killed or seriously injured. Lighter birds can bounce back.  I once had a duck, its partner hung around for ages.  But that was in Belgium.
 location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
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Posts

  • WaterbutWaterbut Posts: 344
    Some people put these plastic birds of prey in appropriate places.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Window stickers are less unpleasant to look at than a songthrush with a broken neck 😢 


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Bee witchedBee witched Posts: 1,295
    Those clear stickers sound good @wild edges.

    Can you remember where you got them?

    Cheers,
    Bee x
    Gardener and beekeeper in beautiful Scottish Borders  

    A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
  • LunarSeaLunarSea Posts: 1,923
    Yes, we occasionally get the odd window strike despite having the large raptor-shaped stickers (from the RSPB) on our patio doors. Most survive, even the larger birds such as Collared Doves, but I'm guessing that's got something to do with them being large panes of glass with more 'bounce'.

    I'd also be interested in those clear UV-glowing stickers.
    Clay soil - Cheshire/Derbyshire border. 

    I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,016
    We rarely ever get bird strikes on our windows.  The conservatory has an expanse of glass approximately 14 feet wide and 7 to 8 feet high and I can only remember one instance, and none where permanent damage has apparently been done to a bird.  I make that statement on the basis of not finding any dead birds.
    I can only assume it's the direction the windows face and the birds not seeing them for some reason.  At one place I worked there was an enormous bang on the window and the perfect shape of a pigeon in flight left behind.  No dead pigeon, but they're tough birds.
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    I got the UV stickers with a bird food order years ago but I can't remember where from. They're these ones https://www.ivelvalleybirdfood.co.uk/window-alert.html Not quite as invisible as the marketing photos would have you believe but not too bad and I can take them on and off all the time to clean the windows.
    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • Bee witchedBee witched Posts: 1,295
    Thanks @wild edges ... I'll give those a try.

    Bee x
    Gardener and beekeeper in beautiful Scottish Borders  

    A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
  • LunarSeaLunarSea Posts: 1,923
    I once had the misfortune to pick up a dead Waxwing from the pavement. We were watching a flock repeatedly descending onto Rowan trees in the centre of town and this one bird obviously misjudged it's flight path, crashed into a window and broke it's neck. One of the birders was also an amateur taxidermist so he took the poor bird away with him. 
    Clay soil - Cheshire/Derbyshire border. 

    I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
  • TheVanguardTheVanguard Posts: 136
    What about leaded or leaded look windows? We have some and I can't recall a bird hitting one. We have one window which isn't leaded and that has had a couple of 'strikes' we are in the process of changing it to match the others.
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