Birds 'n windowpanes...

Any of you know a good way to keep birds from banging their beaks on the outside of our living room bay window??? We've tried putting up flag markers, strings, etc. Nothing deters them.

Hi know what you mean, Jabber. We've had this happen as well. Not every year, but many years. Always the same window - and always robins (at least for us).

I did some research on it a few years ago when it first happened, and I seem to recall that this is a territorial issue. I believe the reigning theory is that the bird sees his reflection in the glass, and thinks it is a rival bird in his domain. So he flies at it to send it away.

I'll do some checking to refresh my memory, but I seem to recall that the only thing that helps is if you can somehow stop that window from reflecting. Possibly temporarily hang a curtain there, or something.

Meanwhile, anyone else have experiences or solutions to share?

Here's an article about birds flying into windows which might offer you some additional help, Jabber.

The window with the issue is in the front of the house, facing the road. We have curtain panels which close entirely across the bay. But they aren't stopping a wacky female Cardinal from banging her bill against the panes. The curtains were closed this morning and she's still hitting glass. I read the above article. They say let the window stay dirty and it won't reflect as much. Well she doesn't stop banging it long enough for us to clean it. And that's annoying. I love clean windows. We've lived here 34 years and this the first time I remember this sort of thing being an issue.