[obol] Re: another idea to prevent window strikes
- From: Dan Gleason <dan-gleason@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: deweysage@xxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2014 18:48:13 -0700
There are a couple of other good options to minimize window strikes by birds.
These are commercially available products, but I know that they will work
whereas hawk silhouettes mostly do not.
There is a product called Window Alert, made by a company in Bend and available
in many places. These are nearly clear decals you put on the outside of the
window. They have a UV reflective layer which the birds can see, but we cannot.
They come in many designs, but the birds don’t care about design, they just see
something in their way.
I had the opportunity this past summer to talk with the person for American
Bird Conservancy that is doing the research on window strikes. He told me that
these decals are among some of the most effective products that he has tested,
with a few provisions to be aware of: The UV layer will fade in 6 months to a
year, depending upon exposure (the company tells you this on the package). What
he would like the company to do is to put more decals per package and to say
that these need to be clustered more tightly, don’t spread them far apart. With
only 4/package, people tend to spread them over a wide area and single ones are
of little value. He also told me that these are much more effective during the
summer in the PNW and less so during the winter or in many portions of the
east. Cloudy days significantly reduce the amount of UV light that reaches us,
so these decals are very effective on bright sunny days and much less effective
on cloudy days. In his region of Pennsylvania, there are enough summer days
with cloud cover that these may only be 50% effective.
He has found that almost anything can be effective if you follow his 2 x 4
rule. Strips of tape (not transparent), etc. need to be placed 4 inches apart
in the vertical direction and 2 inches apart in the horizontal direction. Birds
will sometimes try to fly through spaces larger than these dimensions. But, who
wants that much tape, etc. blocking your view out of the window? The most
effective situation that he found was when something was on the window that was
also visible to us, like etched glass. But again, most people don’t want to
block a window’s view.
There is something else that does apparently work well, and that is using a
series of parachute cords hanging down across the window every few inches. This
sounds objectionable, but I have one customer who did this and told me that it
has been 100% effective and not nearly as objectionable as she thought it would
be. The ABC researcher also told me that this is one of the most effective
products that he has seen. This cord is big enough to be easily visible and
heavy enough to not sway too much in the wind. There is a website where you can
get information and purchase the needed cord, if you don’t know another source.
Each home will have its own needs as to how much cord is necessary and how to
hang the cords and the site provides you with those details. The site is
http://www.birdsavers.com I have not tried this myself, but it may be worth
investigating if you are having serious window strike problems.
I hope that some other products will be available in the future to help with
this. I know that some European companies are working to make glass that can be
seen by birds for use in skyscrapers, etc. As far as I know, none of this is
available yet in the US and it is very expensive, but more work is being done
on preventing window strikes, so I hope more options become available for
homeowners.
Dan Gleason
---------------
dan-gleason@xxxxxxxxxxx
• Co-owner, Wild Birds Unlimited of Eugene
• Author of "Birds! From the Inside Out" and "Looking for Yellowheads"
• Instructor of Field Ornithology, University of Oregon
541-953-4726
On Oct 10, 2014, at 4:39 PM, DJ Lauten and KACastelein <deweysage@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> Here is a product made by American Bird Conservancy:
>
> http://abcbirdtape.org/index.html
>
> Looks like good stuff, but I have not used it yet.
>
> Cheers
> Dave Lauten
>
>
>
>
> On 10/10/2014 3:20 PM, L Markoff wrote:
>> For a couple of decades I’ve been using pieces of FOST (fluorescent orange
>> surveyors tape) and other tapes/stickers on my windows to try to prevent
>> window strikes. I also place my feeders in such a way that if birds are
>> spooked off the feeders they will not fly into the windows. Here is another
>> idea a friend passed along, using a highlighter pen to make a grid on your
>> window:
>>
>> http://youtu.be/c1u3auWG9qc
>>
>> Sometimes no matter what precautions you take a bird will still hit your
>> window, but it’s good to have another tool in the toolkit.
>>
>> Lori Markoff
>> Eugene
>
>
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