Outdoor Ontario

Discussion => General Discussions => Topic started by: Axeman on January 25, 2011, 12:35:07 PM

Title: Birds and Windows
Post by: Axeman on January 25, 2011, 12:35:07 PM

I've noticed that certain species hit our windows more often than others...now some of that I can attribute to population sizes and general habits...but I'm wondering if some birds hit windows at a rate that is statistically significant....I've noticed in the summer, overbirds hit a particular window and die, more than any other bird...and then birds like chickadees hit this same window a lot more than any other bird but they always fly away....in 6 years, I've had 1 blue jay and 2 ruffed grouse...8 ovenbirds....and no Ivory billed woodpeckers...

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Post by: Leslie on January 25, 2011, 01:30:43 PM

Funnily enough the birds that hit my windows are the local juvies (only ever had 1 fatality).
FLAP might have better data.

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Post by: Reuven_M on January 25, 2011, 03:19:50 PM

Of the the four birds that have hit my windows hard enough to be injured (that I know of), 2 have been hermit thrushes and 1 a swainson's thrush. Considering that I don't see more than 3-4 thrushes (besides robin of course) in the backyard each migration season, this is rather odd.

I do remember reading that ovenbird was the most common window strike in downtown toronto.

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Post by: Axeman on January 25, 2011, 04:05:49 PM

Ahhha !! I knew it ! I don't see too ovenbirds around...a few in the summers and then, often lying lifeless on the ground.....

I wish I knew how to stop them from flying into this particular window...the silhouettes don't seem to work.

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Post by: farmer on January 26, 2011, 07:57:45 AM

We had a gold finch nest in our backyard this summer and she flew against all our windows all summer long, but not hard enough too hurt. In the fall, a chicadee smacked the kitchen window hard and was lying feet up, apparently dead, but before I could get outside, he was gone!
My aunt had a pair of cardinals ruin the mirrors on her car. They attacked it all summer and scratched them up.

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Post by: Axeman on January 26, 2011, 10:44:51 AM

Since it's not my mirror, the cardinal story is fun.

As for the windows, I remember one summer the windows claimed a female rufous sided towhee on me....that one really got to me...we usually have a pair of towhees and a pair of red breasted grossbeaks....they're kinda my summer jewels...