There is a small greyish bird with a reddish beak trying to get into my house. OK, maybe that isn’t the intent, but it spends most of the day flying up against several different windows.
It kind of looks like a Rose Breasted Grosbeak, but isn’t as colorful, and the beak definitely has a red tint. (I don’t get a close look, because it flies away when I open the drapes.)
Any idea what it may be?
Second question: How do I get the little bugger to go away? It has been doing it for years, but it has finally gotten on my *last *nerve.
My first thought was house finch, although the beaks aren’t usually red, just the area around the beak. They are very common in your area. As for repelling them, I don’t know.
That is very similar, but I have definitely seen a reddish tint to the beak. I have tried to capture a picture, but have not been successful.
I hate to kill it, (and am probably not patient enough to sit in wait for it anyway) but damn, I am tired of the nearly constant thunk of it hitting my windows.
That is *very *similar in shape and color of the beak.
I will try and see if it has a crest - although I too think I would have noticed. (But I wouldn’t bet you money…) OTOH, I only get a quick look at it when I part the drapes, so maybe I never caught it.
I used to have a window air conditioner in my office (during the summer the upper level gets warmer than I like, and I hate to turn the whole-house air back low enough to keep the upper level as cool as I want) and it would “attack” that as well.
Have any construction paper lying around? Can you cut out a hawk or owl silhouette and tape to the window for a couple days? Doesn’t have to be an art project, just a quick fix that might scare it away.
Never saw a female cardinal with a RED beak. They have very definite orange beaks and I don’t see how that could be mistaken for a “reddish tint.” I also thought of house finch, but they don’t have red tinted beaks, although the OP may have mistaken the general reddish tint of the bird for the beak. Time for Colibri to show up.
p.s. - you can get a pretty good idea of what female cardinals and male house finches look like if you go to Google images.
When I read the OP, I thought a female cardinal was the obvious answer. If I were to describe one, I would probably say something like “ruddy gray with a red beak.”
So you’re saying the beak is orange but not exactly red? Against the gray bird, it looks close enough to red that I’d use “red” to describe it.
ETA: see this picture from Wikipedia: File:Northern Cardinal Female-27527.jpg - Wikipedia
Maybe so, but I’ve seen an awful lot of female cardinals and they’ve all looked to have orange beaks. I saw the link you posted, but I’d direct you to the Google images of female cardinals for a broad set of pictures that, to me, anyway, show pretty much all of them with orange beaks. None of them, as I said, have a beak with a reddish tint.
Nope. If you’ve never seen one then maybe you don’t know, but they are definitely not greyish birds, and they don’t have a reddish tinted beak. They are jet black birds with bright white underbellies and a large, bright red triangle on their chest. If the OP missed those “details” then we’re off on a wild chase here.
A picture is the only thing that’ll help here… even a bad one. Trying to identify birds from a vague description is an exercise in futility, in my experience.
Since the OP has said so far that the bird is sort of like a Rose-breasted Grosbeak, sort of like a House Finch, and sort of like a female Cardinal, at this point we need a picture. There’s too much conflicting information to make anything other than a guess.
Take a picture. Even a bad one will eliminate some possibilities. It would also help to know your location.
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Never saw a female cardinal with a RED beak. They have very definite orange beaks and I don’t see how that could be mistaken for a “reddish tint.”
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Personally, I would describe a female Cardinal as having a red or reddish beak.
I won’t join the ID debate without a picture, but the OP asked how to stop its behavior and for this I may have an answer. We get “bird attacking window” queries all the time. Almost always it is a territorial defense behavior. The bird sees its reflection in the window, believes it to be an interloper, and attacks. The behavior is often self reinforcing. Every time the bird patrols that spot in its territory, dang if the interloper isn’t there! Which causes the bird to return more and more often
The solution is to break the self reinforcing cycle by blocking the bird’s view of the competition. One simple technique is to mix dry laundry powder with a small amount of water to make a thin white-ish ‘paint’. Paint this on the outside of the windows and let it dry. It will prevent a reflection from being visible to the bird. Leave it for several days so the bird forgets the habit of finding a rival at your window. Then hose it off. You should have clean windows and a cured bird problem. Rare recalcitrant individuals need their mirrors dulled for a week or more.
Is it possible that cardinals in the midwest have more orange beaks than, say, those in other parts of the country? There’s a world of difference between red and orange, in my view, and around here, the females definitely have orange beaks.
Location: Southern Pennsylvania. (doesn’t the location display for others? I see it right under my screen name.)
I very much appreciate the input. If I sort it out I will report back.
I accept your input that we can’t know without a picture and so will accept the guesses as close enough.
**CannyDan **- I’m a bachelor and would have thought that the windows were dirty enough to prevent the mirror affect already! Thank for the advice, I’ll give it a go. The little bastard woke me up this morning banging against the window.
Yeah, it isn’t black and white, that I’m sure of.
Thank for the advice, I’ll give it a go. The little bastard woke me up this morning banging against the window.
