Hi,
no need to be course, but I will be anyway… here’s a profoundly deep queston for anyone in the know. I own an oxford white Mx-6 … as the south is regaining some of it’s southern charms shaking off most of the winter months. I one day noticed what looks to me like the back of my car journeyed through a FN bi-rd sanctuary in my absence… Being the beautiful person I am, i simply shook my head, issued a few garbled profanities, and got to work removing the whole mess before the stuff started to damage my finish.
F/FWD to after I finished Cleaning up the back of it and on to the next day where again the birds not only did just as good of a job, but seemed to do a better job thi-s time introducing: patterns, various colorations, bigger sizing and wider distribution… do I need to tell you about the day after? Yeah- AGGGGAINNN… >sniff<… … …
Now about the time I was in my borderline schizo moment, I turned around to see my wife’s silver Protege basically “just-washed” clean… I’m sure my state-of-mind interfered a bit with my memory, but still what’s wrong with this picture?
Even when the birds aren’t feeling so “generous”, I notice flies congregating about my car… no jokes please… now I would never try to eat straight off the car, but I d-o wash it when it becomes obvious… Why the hell can’t the natural world leave my damn car alone??? :mad:
Now if silver cars stay clean and my car (white) has such trouble being free of …err,“grime” then even with such a small sample group…does anyone know what’s going on?? Does white “Attact” all this itself? Do certain colors appeal more to animals/insects? I thought most had no sense of color at all!..
I don’t think it’s so much that silver cars stay cleaner, but rather that your average kind of road dirt doesn’t contrast as sharply against silver paint as it does against white or solid colours.
Ah, but the point of this thread isn’t referring to “average road dirt” in fact my mother when she drove, own a buick century limited about the same white and this one although dirty (the average road dirt + never washing it) seemed a great deal cleaner than my father’s then light metallic blue Chrysler.
Contrast is easier to shrug this off when it’s mud, dirt or just plain neglectful car ownership, I’m talking about excrement here Mangey-old-bean. White car flies and bird poo- silver car: road dirt and maybe two foul momentos (pun intended)
There has to be something that is attracting all this to my car- it does no-t smell, it’s fairly clean (daily driver clean ) the only thing that comes to mind is color… in fact, the dirtier my car gets (with dirt outside) the more things seem to leave it alone, but the minute I get it that blinding white (well, it seems that way since it’s 3 or so shades lighter) that’s when all hell breaks loose and no it’s not because I am thinking about my car more because of the recent investment in time more… I observe my car relatively constant with the average amount of attention… I can honestly say that it’s got to be a color thing or perhaps like bats are attracted to shiny objects etc… some-thing… what about the flies? huh? I had a red Celica before this one, nev-er saw flies commuting to my car to whore it up with each other… this one under what restraint I have is driving me crazy- I can’t put this one away, I need better than “average road dirt” my friend…
Many birds can see into the ultraviolet. This means that a car that looks white to you, may look quite different to a bird. Perhaps birds enjoy pooping on certain, non-human-visible colors. Judging from this story:
where the birds prefer pooping on a red car to pooping on a white car, it doesn’t seem that a car’s visible color is a big factor.
Hi Squink,
Thanks for taking this seriously, I realize 3 days in a row could still be coincedence, but not “regularly” . Normally the frequency of incedence is less; the flies unfortunately are not… Hell, dogs have preference to where they “land one” why not birds (yeah, I know different brain size and all, I’m talking about instinct) . Btw, i had no idea birds saw full-color, I guess I learned something else. I sure wish I could validate this theory though so that I might move forward to see what I can do to not appear so “dedicated” to my car… I was daydreaming of teflon-infused exterior paint the other day watching all the birds trying to mess my car again only it all kept sliding off to the ground… well, I did say day-dreaming alright? I mean, if it’s infused with teflon how’s the paint gonna stick to a car eh? LOL …anyway, slow but steady I wait for a “permanent bird solution” hahaha
Just one last thing, … sigh yes car covers work, in fact so well, I have not on-e birdy nugget on there to say to myself “good thing I used this” … I’m la-zy ok? Is it what you wanted to hear, lol… I don’t want to put the car cover on and off everytime I get in and out of my car… in some places to park, this kind of behavior could even be described as “unusual” … maybe someone will break the window through the car cover and dive inside with all the time in the world to get what they want out … dunno… . that’s why I’m the Thinktank heh-heh… later all!
… … … …(oops) And the unrelated comments of people that have no interest in the topic, but feel inclined to draw attention to themselves regardless- thanks for the bump back up to the top board anyway, lol
As the progenitor of this thread; this time around anyway- I found some …err not exactly evidence, but supporting information to the theory as it unfolds…please note most is for sheer entertainment value, but through the different stories (available once you use the links on the site you are sent to; one can conclude, colors are indeed a motivation involved with the all too common “mana from heaven incidents” made possible by our generous feathered friends. Also interesting to me is the actual sense of smell birds possess.
The second link is included for amusement purposes since the damn thing had me tearing-up from laughter and I felt like sharing; sure my sympathy is to the unfortunates who were involved… but the Franksteinesqe type of reaction of the people and the particulars have got me ho-ho’n like Santa Claus, lol…
White paint contains titanium dioxide, which absorbs in the UV region. I have personally observed white and light colored cars by means of a CCD with a UV pass filter, and they are indeed somewhat dark in that region of the spectrum. FWIW, insects are also capable of seeing UV.
) the only thing that comes to mind is color… in fact, the dirtier my car gets (with dirt outside) the more things seem to leave it alone, but the minute I get it that blinding white (well, it seems that way since it’s 3 or so shades lighter) that’s when all hell breaks loose and no it’s not because I am thinking about my car more because of the recent investment in time more… I observe my car relatively constant with the average amount of attention… I can honestly say that it’s got to be a color thing or perhaps like bats are attracted to shiny objects etc… some-thing… what about the flies? huh? I had a red Celica before this one, nev-er saw flies commuting to my car to whore it up with each other… this one under what restraint I have is driving me crazy- I can’t put this one away, I need better than “average road dirt” my friend… 
…anyway, slow but steady I wait for a “permanent bird solution”