7 Tips on How to Protect Birds from Flying into Your Window

There are an estimated one hundred million to one billion birds yearly that die while flying into human-constructed structures like windows. Windows especially are lethal to birds due to how "invisible" a window is to a flying bird. Many people assume by placing a decal on the window will stop it from happening. However, placing a decal on the window is not enough protection as you might believe. Furthermore, we might assume we are assisting birds by feeding them, yet we could also be the cause of the problem.

Recently, while spending the holidays at our vacation home in Georgia, we were able to witness this. There were so many varieties of finches on the ground and on our deck. We love feeding our wildlife, so there were plenty of seeds to go around. While we were enjoying the frenzy of them eating, suddenly, a finch flew towards our window and crashed into it. However, it jumped quickly on a nearby railing where it perched itself trying to hold onto dear life. For a few minutes we watched as the poor thing wobbled back and forth. It was bending over backward, staying there for a few seconds, trying to make its way back upward only to repeat this several times. We didn't even want to move in case we spooked it into a worse situation. Fortunately, the finch recovered and flew away.

After that I decided to research for some solutions on the internet. I came across some interesting facts about protecting birds from flying into windows. According to Project Wildlife they suggested the following seven tips to protect our birds:

1. Find a larger bird shaped silhouette like a hawk and suspend it in front of your window pane. The movement of this silhouette will make the bird think a predator is nearby.

2. Place bird food, bird baths, and any other attracting objects to birds as far away from your window as possible.

3. You can hang ribbons no more than two inches apart around the window so the movement of the ribbons will spook them away.

4. You can cover a medium size window with a netting material. This will act like a trampoline if they did go hit the window and it would allow them to escape.

5. You can use a window art film that can be taken off easily. I've seen these window arts at Home Depot.

6. You can bring down your blinds and keep the slats open. This way they know there is something there and yet at the same time you can enjoy the sunlight.

7. You can install a sunshield or awning on the outside.

Now, some of you may think why we should go through so much trouble for the birds. One major reason is that global warming (not to mention human growth) is destroying bird habitats to the point that we are seeing many species dying. We are the ones that invaded their natural habitat with our structures. So we need to be the solution to the problem and help protect them. Without wildlife, we would not be here.