More on bird strikes…

Round Robin, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s blog has an exciting and promising post about primary research into to preventing bird strikes. Most interesting to me was their overview of Dan Klem’s work  seeking to make patterned films for glass windows that reflect ultraviolet light, which means that birds can “see” the barrier, while ensuring we get to keep our views. Round Robin writes, “So far, studies done in wind tunnels show that these special patterns are nearly as good at reducing collisions as glass painted with bright orange stripes.” Check out their post!

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Urban bird strikes

Female house finch

Mornings are typically a time for me to quaff hot coffee while staring out the sliding glass doors to my back deck, where a seed feeder attracts house finches, Carolina wrens, Carolina chickadees, tufted-titmice, American goldfinches and migratory drop-ins like rose-breasted grosbeaks. But on this Tuesday, something went awry. I was in the kitchen when a crack to the glass sent adrenaline shooting through my core. I was at the slider within seconds and saw her there… on her back, beak moving repeatedly but emitting no sound, legs clawing at the air.

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