by Erik Van Tongerloo

Created on: May 26, 2007   Last Updated: May 19, 2009

Have you ever had birds fly straight into the window of your home? Chances are this has happened and when it did you wondered what would make a bird fly into a window. An assumption many people make is the birds didn't watch very carefully and were flying too fast. This might be part of the reason, but often they fly into windows through the reflection they see in the windows.

The birds don't understand the concept of glass windows. Everyone likes a clean house and surely prefers tidy windows, however, dirty windows are better for the safety of the birds; you won't probably like this because cleaned windows look much nicer and give a better impression of your home to other people.

There is no perfect solution to prevent the problem of birds flying into your windows, but there are a few things you can do to reduce the risk of birds flying into your window.
Most people will choose options such as putting a screen in front of the window or smearing soapy products on the windows to prevent the birds from flying into them. You can also buy a shade cloth in a garden shop and create a scarecrow effect on the window. This will send the birds in another direction.

Another good solution is a window alert. This is a kind of ultraviolet light which birds can see in the windows and warns them from flying into the windows. Human people can't see this reflection of the ultraviolet lights and you can consider it as red lights for birds.

Curtains can help protect the birds from flying into windows. If you lower the windows a little bit they don't see any reflection and they will likely choose another direction. Stickers of birds can be very useful to protect them. Where you place the stickers depends of the kind of glass you put them on. In case of transparent glass it is best you place the objects on the inside; in case of dark glass or reflected glass the outside will protect them better.

Creating a barrier can help those birds too. It is useful to move the plants which they can see from outside out of view otherwise they are likely to do efforts to reach these plants. When you hang bird feeders on your window they will reduce the birds' speed for searching some food. You can best keep these feeders not to close to the windows otherwise they may notice these feeders too late and still fly into windows. It still may help to prevent death because they don't fly anymore with enough force but it is still possible they are injured.

Try to be a good friend for the birds and save their life. You can help them and prevent injuries or even deaths if you follow these actions. Additionally it will also save you a lot of trouble of broken windows or damage to your windows.

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