Windows kill birds, it's true. 

Birds  fly into glass, either because they don't see it, or they see the reflection of nearby plants and think they are going to land in a tree or bushes! 

If you hear a clunk on your window, it's probably the sound of a bird who has flown right into the glass.

Photo by Eve Garrick, Massachusetts

Sometimes when a bird hits a window they survive, either just long enough to stumble away, or they may knock themselves out, revive, and fly away later.  In the meantime they are vulnerable to predators.  Some predators seem to understand and may chase smaller birds into glass windows deliberately!

Look at your windows from a bird's point of view...is there a particular time of day when reflections make them invisible, or is there a window visible on the other side of the building that might make the birds think they could fly right through the house? 

One of the best ways to make birds see your windows is to stick something on the outside...decals or other objects no more than 10 centimeters apart, or strips of material that can absorb and reflect ultraviolet light (which birds can see better than we can!) 

If you have a bird feeder you can change its location, either closer to the window or at least 30 feet away, according to an article in the Winter Bird Highlights, 2008-09, from Project FeederWatch.  Click here to read,"Windows can be a threat to the birds at our feeders" by Anne Marie Johnson, last page in the .pdf version. 

Some people have become activists about window kills.  Find out about F.L.A.P. , a whole group of people dedicated to reducing the number of window kills in Toronto, and rescuing stunned birds when possible. If urban buildings are not lighted at night, many bird/building collisions could be avoided. 

Sara Scharf has beautiful photographs documenting the migrating birds she finds in her city, who have been delayed or who just didn't make it. 

Thrush photographed by Sara Scharf

Sara writes, "Last year I joined FLAP (www.flap.org), a local organization devoted to rescuing birds injured in collisions with buildings in Toronto and to raising awareness of the fragility and wonder of our migratory birds. Rescuing birds -- when I found them alive -- was very rewarding. I will also never forget the haunting sound of a flock of white-throated sparrows singing in the financial district on a foggy spring morning, each crystalline note echoing off the walls of the skyscrapers. I took a lot of pictures of the birds I encountered on my dawn patrols in the downtown core. Most of the photos are of dead birds, since I was more concerned with getting the live ones to "bird rehab" with as little stress as possible than with taking their pictures. I love all the birds I encounter in the city. They are very beautiful, even the ones that we hear more often than we see, and even in death.

Ovenbird photographed by Sara Scharf 

Jane Abbott has created beautiful art work inspired by window kill.

name name wrote a story of a migration nightmare, when factors combined to cause a horrifying number of birds to be killed at the school where she worked...stopped during migration, either confused by fog, disoriented by nearby industrial presence, or bright lights..no one was ever able to determine what caused this migration disaster. 

Juliana Powell noticed that a male Northern Cardinal was fighting against his own reflection outside their window....she created a memorable image and submitted to our Birds in Art/Art in Birds contest. 

Eve Garrick writes:

This picture isn't as much a picture of a spooky bird as much as it is spooky remains of a bird. Three years ago, a bird, probably a mourning dove, crashed into the window. The bird was fine but our window was left with an interesting dusty print that we only noticed when the sun went down and it became visible via the contrast between the darkness outside and the light in our house. I like this shot because the photographer (me) in the background makes it seem like a ghost hunting scene from a movie.