Preventing Birds from Flying into Your Windows
While we are almost in February, the Culpeper area has experienced some summer-like weather in the past month. And when it’s warm and sunny outside, the animals come out to play. A few days ago, I was sitting at home and I kept hearing a continuous thud. I walked into the living room and saw a bird flying back up into the air and onto the window.
During daytime, birds usually fly into windows because it either sees the reflection of plants or the sky or because it sees its reflection. During the night, birds are attracted by lights inside the house. Sadly, birds do not stop after the first collision and may continue to do it repeatedly which can result in death due to bruising or internal bleeding.
To help protect our winged friends from injury or death and our windows from damage you can try a few things:
- If you have any bird feeders, move them away from windows! Try moving them 30 feet away from the window.
- Get a bird screen! Cover the outside of your windows with a net-like screen at least 3 inches away from the glass; this will allow birds to bounce off before they hit the glass.
- Install external shutters! You can definitely avoid any birds hitting your window while the shutters are closed.
- Use transparent films! These one-way transparent films allow the person inside to see outside but it looks opaque from the outside.
- Pay attention to light! During the night, if your lights are on, close the blinds (especially during migration time which is February-May & August-November). In addition, use fixtures that are shielded. Moreover, it always helps to have downlighting instead of uplighting.
I hope these tips can help you avoid bird-window fatalities! And if you need window installation, call Culpeper Window & Siding!