Birds and Windows

[Axeman]

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...

[Leslie]

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

[Reuven_M]

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.

[Axeman]

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.

[farmer]

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.

[Axeman]

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...