Bird v. Window

I hate to do it, but I’m about ready to remove the bird feeders from our yard. So far, three birds have been killed flying against our windows, while another hit and survived. We’ve tried pasting reflectors on the windows that are supposed to scare the birds, but they don’t seem to work with the birds we have now. When hummingbirds are migrating in the fall, we always had problems with them hitting the glass, but last year the reflectors seemed to reduce the number of strikes.

One winter in North Dakota, we were standing at the window watching a Sharptail Grouse feeding on bare ground about 100’ from the house. Suddenly, the bird flew up and headed directly toward us as hard as it could fly. We jumped away from the window as the 3-4 lb bird launched a kamikaze attack on the glass. When it hit, the house shook and we were certain it was going to end up in the living room, but the glass survived and the grouse didn’t. At that speed, it probably broke every bone in its body.