What are you doing, birdie?

Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share (MPSIMS)
#1

Tenacious bird.*

This bird has been at this for at least a couple of days. The assault ends once it gets darks, but starts up again the next morning. Is she fighting (or trying to mate) with her reflection? Does she want to get into my laundry room for some reason? What’s going on? And more importantly, how do I make it stop? It’s driving me crazy! The dog isn’t too happy about the situation, either.

  • For those who can’t watch the video, it’s a bird repeatedly flying into my laundry room window and then sitting on top of the screen incessantly pecking at the window. And a dog whining about it off-camera.
#2

Last year a pair of birds decided to make a nest in the tree right by my living room window. They were constantly “defending” the nest against their reflections. It must have been incredibly stressful for them, always being in attack mode like that. It lasted a couple of weeks, then they were gone; they abandoned the nest. I wonder if they relocated or gave up for the season.

#3

When animals do things like this, it is usually about either feeding or f@cking.

You could always open the window, catch the bird once it is in your place (towel or fishing net), put birdie in a box and relocate it.

#4

Maybe she wants the dryer lint. Some of them build nests out of that stuff.

#5

Are you sure it’s not a male? Male cardinals will do stuff like this here - windows and car mirrors are favorite targets. Just put something over the window for a few weeks - it he can’t see his reflection it’ll stop.

#6

Haha! I’d be amazed if she can see the dryer lint in a paper bag on the floor next to the dryer. But maybe I’ll put some out for her and see what she does with it.

BTW, am I correct in assuming this is a female? She doesn’t have any bright coloring and she looks like a blue jay according to my admittedly poor bird identification skills.

kayaker, I don’t think I can open this window easily (if at all), but I’d be afraid of hurting her or inadvertently letting the dog get a hold of her, anyway. Hopefully, she tires of this behavior sooner rather than later. Chasing her away doesn’t seem to work. :frowning:

#7

I can’t see the bird too clearly but it looks thrush-like, they aren’t usually too colorful. I’d guess that it’s a male from the behavior. Cover the window outside before he kills himself. You only need to have a blocked view for a couple weeks until he settles down.

#8

Not a blue jay. It looks like a robin to me (though a pale one), and the males and females are similar in color. They seem dumber than the average bird. We’ve had individuals attack our windows before; they usually hang around for a couple of days and then give up. You could cover the window as advised here, but do it from the outside to eliminate the reflection.

#9

Boy, he or she sure does look like a robin, or something thrush-shaped. Lighting is iffy in the video – is there a blush of red on the breast or is it all cream?

#10

I think you may be right. The song does sound so familiar, especially the horse whinny part. It’s gone for now, so I suppose this would be an excellent time to cover the windows.

#11

If you don’t want to block your light you could probably get some opaque window film. Again you’d have to put it outside so there would be no possibility of a reflection in the glass and it might eventually loosen up if it gets wet but it should last long enough for the bird to move on.