I hate window strikes.


It gives me a sickly feeling in the pit of my stomach.

We put a lot of effort into keeping our bird feeders clean and full. We place them to minimize birds flying onto the window but it still happens.

Sometimes the birds are only stunned and we protect them as well as we can.

This red breasted nuthatch hit the window and managed to fly about ten feet before settling on the grass.

We put him in a fly through feeder to keep him out of harms way and eventually he recovered and flew off.

Comments

Lynne at Hasty Brook said…
Sorry he was stunned but what a lovely little guy! Is there a reason his toes are curled around the leaf? Did he grab it? We see red-breasted nuthatches at our feeders only in winter.
7:44 pm
Anonymous said…
Many of the Owls we find have a slight concussion and makes me wonder if these smaller birds do the same. Might be a little stunned or dizzy but they do get over it and gets better. Great Job finding Ric before any other mammal finds the bird.
9:02 am
Rondeau Ric said…
Hi lynne. He latched onto the leaf and would not let go. I suspect it thought it was a branch.

As far as I know we haven't had an owl strike. We have heard thuds during the night, but that's usually a racoon stumbling about.
9:28 am
Susan Gets Native said…
I have seen birds that hit our windows curl up their toes, too. I think they are so stunned, they can't stand normally.

The types of houses we build nowadays is partly to blame for window strikes. We put in huge picture windows that can hold a realistic reflection, but what's worse is the big picture windows we also put at the other end of the room, opposite the other window, and the birds think it's a fly-through.
Good tip on placing feeders: Put them CLOSE to the window so the bird has to slow down to land on the feeder and they are less likely to strike.
11:25 pm
Rondeau Ric said…
Hi Susan, my thought was they can't get up enough speed leaving the feeders to do much damage.
11:31 am
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