Preventing Window Collisions
Every year in the United States, collisions with glass kill up to 1 billion birds. The good news is that we know how to address this crisis: Add patterns to glass that make it visible to birds and you will prevent collisions.
NWAAS asks you to consider how you can make your exterior windows safer for birds, especially where you're attracting them with feeders and native plants. There are a number of inexpesive ways to prevent bird strikes. See below for some excellent resources
Ozark Engineering to Protect Birds from Window Strikes
By Joe Neal
For the past 30 years, I have been looking at birds through a large picture window at my home in Fayetteville. For about half of that time birds paid the price of my hobby. I have feeders in my yard. When a hawk – say like a winter Sharp-shinned Hawk – noticed so many birds around a feeder, they'd make a hard dash for them. Often it was a Northern Cardinal. They flew for the picture window because the reflection made it looked like a good escape route. The hawk would catch them, sometimes after they'd run into my picture window. What has slowed this way, way down has been installation of some long green strings of parachute cord. I cut the cords I needed to appropriate lengths, then stapled them on a 1 x 2” board 4 inches apart. I fixed this board with strings across the top of my picture window. I'd say the whole business cost maybe $5. Most importantly, it slowed down window strikes.
Research on protecting birds from window strikes subsequently showed that there would be fewer strikes if the strings were placed 2 inches apart. I spent about 10 minutes in taking down my original installation, adding more strings, and putting it back over the window. This time I spent nothing, because I still had plenty of cord from the first effort.
I call this a type of work “Ozark engineering.” It's not beautiful, but it has helped. I used inexpensive materials and wasn't too fussy in terms of how I put them up. This may work for some of you. It will help reduce bird strikes on your windows.
