The dangerous relationships between birds and windows is one that comes in varying degrees. Other times it is fast peck of bird running into glass. Others it is a tiny series of small crashes and a light flutter of many wings. The worst, however, are the jarring impacts that resonate throughout an entire house, leaving you and your family members startled and often crippling or killing the bird. Sadly, these impacts are far more common than you might think. In an article for Audubon magazine, David Malakoff cited that in North America, window strikes kill between 100 million and 1 billion birds annually. According to an NPR story, Professor Daniel Klem of Mulhenberg College things that Malakoff’s estimate is too conservative, and that the real number easily exceeds 1 billion birds in the United States alone.

Why Strikes on Windows Occur?

It’s hard to know for certain exactly why window strikes happen, but observation has granted some measure of insight. The first, and seemingly most common, rationale is that birds simply cannot see glass. The transparency of the glass makes the window look open, and this is often complicated further by a window on the opposite side of the house. This causes what is commonly referred to as the “tunnel effect,” meaning that the bird believes that the two windows lack glass and thus represent a clear tunnel to fly through.

The other primary reason for bird strikes seems to be reflections. Windows in homes and office buildings sometimes give a good reflection the area around them. So, while the house or building certainly appears to be a house or building, the windows look more like wooded areas which are perfectly safe for flying.

Ways to prevent window strikes

There are a range of possibilities for preventing window strikes. The best method is to take out a window, or to cover it with something dark and non-reflective like cardboard or wood. Granted, this removing a window is a bit drastic and not practical for the vast majority of home owners. Thankfully, with a little understanding as to why birds strike windows, home owners can reduce bird strikes with more people-friendly methods.

Covering Windows

While boarding up windows is an extreme solution, it does prove a point. Putting something between the window’s glass and the outside world can both alert a bird to a physical object and prevent reflection. The line for most home owners seems to be when such a covering moves from the area of protecting birds and into the realm of obstructing views. Home owners have several options like summer storm screens, to heavier plastic “shade cloth” and even the commercial CollidEscape film, all of which help to remove transparency and restrict reflection to various extents.

Silhouettes and Obstacles

Another tactic is to prevent the bird from coming  near the window. Some people put obstacles such as a bird feeder in front of the window, especially windows that are hit with any frequency. If you notice that your bird feeder is causing birds to strike your window, then moving the feeder further from your house would be a prudent move. Another popular method, which works to varying degrees, is to intimidate birds away by way of statues and silhouettes. A statue of an owl, or a cut out made to resemble a flying hawk can cause an errant bird on a collision course with a window to change course.

The Happy Medium

For many home owners, window strikes are infrequent happenings and thus can easily be remedied by merely moving a bird feeder or placing a hawk silhouette in a tree. For others, more permanent measures must be taken. Lucily, for most people in areas with a lot of bird traffic, there is a happy compromise. Make part of the window more obvious with the application of custom window decals or stickers. PUtting decals and stickers on a window makes the glass in the window less transparent and can disturb reflections, minimizing two of the reasons why birds hit windows. Special sticker creating techniques can even make these stickers nearly-invisible to humans while birds staying perfectly visible to birds. Such stickers benefit birds while doing very little to detract from the value humans derive from said windows.

Custom Stickers used to prevent bird strikes can come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Homeowners can use of the many seasonal options such as snowflakes for winter, leaves for fall and holiday images. These stickers can even be made in the images of predatory birds, thus mimicking the silhouette effects and adding to the sticker’s effectiveness.

The big key to stopping bird strikes to your windows is to change it up. This can be done through changing the locations of physical things – like bird feeders and trees – thus forcing birds to alter their flight paths. Or, it can be done though intimidation, via silhouettes of predators. Or, a home owner can change the bird’s perception of the actual window. Stickers, whether they are human-visible or not, make windows more obvious to birds, while screens and covering cloths negate the qualities (reflections and transparency) that make windows harmful to birds in the first place. The home owner needs to determine which prevention method works best.