[KingFriday13]

It's nesting time for robins around my yard.


At sunrise they sit in cypress trees next to the house and periodically fly straight at my windows, bounce off and go back to the trees. A couple minutes later they repeat the performance. This goes on for 2-3 hours.


They aren't damaging anything but the noise is annoying. BTW, I see no nests in or around the house.



Any thoughts on how to modify the behavior?

 

[Nealtw]

It's nesting time for robins around my yard.


At sunrise they sit in cypress trees next to the house and periodically fly straight at my windows, bounce off and go back to the trees. A couple minutes later they repeat the performance. This goes on for 2-3 hours.


They aren't damaging anything but the noise is annoying. BTW, I see no nests in or around the house.



Any thoughts on how to modify the behavior?

They don't understand glass, especially when they can thru to the other side, it looks like an open barn. Close curtains if you can.

 

[Calson]

What greatly reduced bird strikes at my house was hanging 2x2 inch netting down from the eaves and about 2 feet from the windows. A couple of times each year a bird will get stuck in the netting and I need to cut them free but otherwise it needs no attention. I bought black 2x2 inch netting and it is not obtrusive when looking out the window.

 

[lenaitch]

While we get the odd window strike probably like everybody else, in the past couple of years we've had birds sitting on the window sill pecking at the glass. I think they are seeing their reflection as a rival during mating season since it does seem to settle down in later Spring/early Summer. Some seem more aggressive/persistent than others. We had one Robin that was absolutely relentless. I felt like wanting to tell him/her that genetic imperative is misdirected and ultimately counterproductive.

 

[CaptTom]

It may not be that they see through the glass, but that they see their reflection in the glass.

They instinctively attack that "other male" in their territory.

We had a bunch of turkeys destroying shiny cars in our employee parking lot around mating season every year. Fortunately, mine was never shiny.

 

[SeniorSitizen]

We had a Robin encounter a window so I went out to find it on the ground but still breathing. I seems as if it was only knocked koo koo ( knocked out ), not to be confused with the Yellow Billed Cuckoo ( the rain crow ). I took it in the house and placed it in a paper towel cardboard tube. Perfect place to recoup without a chance of self injury. In approx 20 min. it seemed alert so outdoors it went in the accompanying tube without the outdoor cats knowing. Now that's a feat in itself. Freed the bird and it ran off into the timber as if drunk and didn't know it had wings to fly but I believe it lived to be a fine healthy Robin.

 

[lenaitch]

We had a Robin encounter a window so I went out to find it on the ground but still breathing. I seems as if it was only knocked koo koo ( knocked out ), not to be confused with the Yellow Billed Cuckoo ( the rain crow ). I took it in the house and placed it in a paper towel cardboard tube. Perfect place to recoup without a chance of self injury. In approx 20 min. it seemed alert so outdoors it went in the accompanying tube without the outdoor cats knowing. Now that's a feat in itself. Freed the bird and it ran off into the timber as if drunk and didn't know it had wings to fly but I believe it lived to be a fine healthy Robin.

My experience with bird strikes is, if they are going to die, they seem to do so very shortly after impact, perhaps within a minute. If they survive past that they usually recover if kept safe from predators. They seem to just sit still, blinking; like they are waiting for the stars to stop circling.

 

[SeniorSitizen]

Immediate death is probably a broken neck.:vs_mad:

 

[Missouri Bound]

Pulling the shades usually works. And if you have bird houses, keep them farther away from the home. I couple of years ago I put up a bluebird house on one of the posts on the front porch. As soon as it got occupied the birds got very defensive. They would sit on the window and peck at the glass. If we parked the vehicles outside they would sit on the mirrors and peck and crap on them. I made the mistake of leaving the window open on my truck. I walked by to see a bluebird sitting on the steering wheel taking a dump.
Moving the bird house made the problem go away.

 

[CaptTom]

..I walked by to see a bluebird sitting on the steering wheel taking a dump...

Clearly not the "bluebird of happiness."

 

[DoomsDave]

Clearly not the "bluebird of happiness."

Beat me to it!

Maybe the Poo Bird of Unhappiness. :devil3:

 

[Oso954]

For a moment there, I thought you were going to tell about the Foo Bird.