The South Will Rise Again Window Decal
At commencement glance, information technology looks like an insanely prolific morning of birding: 4,136 Song Sparrows, 3,632 Nighttime-eyed Juncos, 3,362 Swamp Sparrows, 2,532 White-throated Sparrows, and ane,417 Hermit Thrushes.
Only the numbers don't stand for living birds. They tally the birds that died after colliding with i Chicago building from the fall of 1978 to 2004. And a frightening number of birds of other species were likewise killed. In all, 31,705 individuals from 141 species were found dead at the building.
The story is similar beyond the country. Standoff with manmade structures ranks second among causes of decease amidst migratory birds in Northward America. (Habitat loss is No. ane.) Approximately 100 1000000 birds dice in collisions every year — some experts put the number as high equally one billion.
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This article originally appeared in the April 2013 issue of BirdWatching. Scroll downward to download the commodity as a PDF.
Production listings and prices updated October 2017.
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Alpine urban buildings aren't the only obstacles migrating birds face, though. Most of the windows birds collide with belong to houses. According to George Fenwick, erstwhile president of American Bird Conservancy, a dwelling may kill a dozen or more than birds a year without the possessor being aware.
Daytime bird collisions typically occur for one of two reasons:
i. The window is reflecting the surrounding habitat, and birds can't tell the departure.
2. The window is transparent, and birds encounter through it to appealing objects on the other side.
Even if the impact doesn't kill a bird immediately, it may exist injured or stunned, making it vulnerable to predation later. Night presents its own challenges. Many birds migrate and so, using natural light from the moon, stars, and setting sun as navigational tools. Our brightly illuminated cities and neighborhoods interfere with this behavior by letting artificial low-cal leak into the atmosphere. The glow draws birds in, and they can get trapped. Once in a beam of lite, they may exist reluctant to fly back out, or become disoriented and pulled off class. Confused and exhausted, they oftentimes collide with buildings, homes, or each other.
Only it doesn't accept to be that mode. Toronto, New York, San Francisco, and other cities take started lights-out programs aimed at persuading building owners to plow off lights from dusk to dawn during migration season. Results are promising. Lights Out Chicago, for example, has saved 10,000 birds annually. Y'all tin practice your office to brand the skies friendly for migrating birds by deterring window collisions and minimizing light pollution at your dwelling house. Below are some of the all-time products on the market for doing but that.
three simple ways to preclude birds from hit windows
Taking the uncomplicated steps listed below — in improver to deploying the products described on this folio — will dramatically reduce the chance that birds will be harmed in collisions at your home.
one. Movement feeders close to your windows — ane.v anxiety or closer. From this distance, birds won't be able to build upward plenty momentum to hurt themselves if they do fly confronting the glass.
2. Close curtain and blinds when possible to break up the illusion of clear passage or reflected habitat.
3. Motion houseplants away from windows. Birds may view them every bit refuges and attempt to perch on them.
Employ Netting or Screens
Barriers to mount in front of a window to preclude birds that fly into it from striking the glass.
Bird Screens
An attractive transparent black fiberglass screen that hangs loosely in front end of a pane of glass, providing a gentle cushion for birds that strike information technology. Screw hooks and suction-cup brackets, included with purchase, secure the screen to a window or sliding door. Custom sizes bachelor.
Cost: $22-$26 for windows, $24 or $26 for a sliding door screen
Spider web: www.birdscreen.com
Bird Netting
Bird-exclusion netting made from durable, lightweight polypropylene, sold as PollyNet and Woodpecker Netting. Useful for keeping birds out of eaves or open spaces. Secure with internet clips, hooks, or a staple gun. Hang the netting tightly at to the lowest degree two inches from the glass to provide a firm barrier that volition continue birds from striking the window.
PRICE (PollyNet):$125.95 for Premium (fourteen′ ten fifty′), $65.95 for Lightweight (17′ x l′)
Spider web:nixalite.com/pollynetbirdnetting, nixalite.com/nettinghardware
PRICE (Woodpecker Netting): $l for three-quarter-inch mesh (fourteen′ ten 100′)
WEB: absolutebirdcontrol.com
Bank check the price and availability of PollyNet's Premium (xiv'x50′) netting on Amazon.
Anti-reflective Window Films
Antireflective vinyl or polyester films to apply to the exterior of a window to make it visible to birds.
CollidEscape
Covers the entire exterior surface of a window, reducing its reflectivity and transparency substantially, while thousands of small perforations in the film permit calorie-free to laissez passer through to the interior. Ten percent of the purchase goes to the Fatal Light Awareness Program (FLAP) to help fund research to reduce bird-window collisions. Can exist custom-printed.
PRICE: Varies depending on size and product.
Spider web: world wide web.collidescape.org
Check the price and availability of CollideEscape products at Amazon.
Window Dressings, Etc.
"Glass fine art for windows," these patterned films stick to any shine surface, decrease glare and UV low-cal, and reduce reflections and the illusion of clear passage. Take care to select a blueprint that offers adequate coverage.
PRICE: $54 for 36″ x 76″
WEB: windowdressingetc.com
Decals and Paint
Vinyl decals and paint to employ to windows to minimize areas of articulate or reflecting glass.
Whispering Windows Anti-Standoff Window Decals
White static clings y'all can place on the inside or exterior of a window, where they dissimilarity with night reflections of trees and surrounding scenery. Choose from a multifariousness of nature-themed designs. Piece of cake to apply and reusable. Bachelor at your favorite birding-supply store or garden center.
PRICE: $6.99 for pack of viii decals
Spider web: world wide web.wpines.com
Etched-Glass Window Decals
Vinyl decals that give windows, window corners, sidelights, and doors the appearance of etched glass. Available in a diversity of natural, sporting, and artistic patterns.
PRICE: From $3.50 to $32 depending on size. $75 for a total door.
WEB:windowdressingetc.com/decals.htm
Tempera Paint
Widely bachelor, long-lasting, and rainproof tempera paint tin can be applied with a brush or sponge. Make your own stencils, purchase them from your neighborhood art-supply store, or download them for free from www.spraypaintstencils.com or other websites.
3 tips for using decals and pigment on windows to prevent bird strikes
one. Use multiple decals; create a pattern that covers the window uniformly. Elements arranged in columns should exist four inches apart. Elements placed in rows should be two inches apart. This is often called the 2 x iv Rule.
two. Elements should be at least one-eighth inch in width and should dissimilarity as much as possible with the windowpane.
three. Patterns tin can be placed on the within or outside of a window that is transparent. If information technology is reflective, the design must be practical to the exterior.
Source: Fatal Calorie-free Awareness Programme (FLAP)
Birds Avoid Strings and Cords on Windows
Curtains of nylon cords or monofilament lines to hang over a window's exterior. Birds see these cords and endeavor to avoid them.
Acopian BirdSavers
Ingenious and attractive, BirdSavers consist of i-eighth-inch-bore nylon cords that dangle about four inches autonomously in front end of a window's exterior, where they are visible to birds, which avoid them. Velcro secures the hanging cords to the elevation of the window. Recommended past Contributing Editor David Sibley and Daniel Klem Jr., professor of ornithology and conservation biology at Muhlenberg Higher in Pennsylvania, who has been studying bird-window collisions for more than 20 years. Instructions on the website describe how you tin build your ain.
PRICE: Varies with glass width. $24 for 5 cords (for drinking glass 21.25″-25.5″ wide). Gain support conservation programs at the Acopian Center for the Environment.
Spider web: www.birdsavers.com
Bird Crash Preventer
A preassembled drape of taut monofilament lines strung three inches autonomously and five inches from the exterior of a window or sliding-door side panel. Birds see the lines and avoid them, while the space between the lines and glass gives birds that touch them a take a chance to spread their wings and brace themselves. Available in nighttime brownish and white.
Cost: $27.95 for 36″ broad (12 lines), $29.95 for 48″ (sixteen lines)
Spider web:santarosanational.com
Translucent Record
Translucent tape to adhere to a window's outside. Birds see information technology and are warned of the glass, but light still passes through.
Feather Friendly Do-It-Yourself Tape
Minor white markers are transferred from the tape to a window's exterior, leaving an attractive, unobtrusive grid of dots that brand the glass visible to birds while providing more than 98-percentage-clear viewing from inside. Similar markers were recently practical to the exterior of the Consilium Place function complex in Toronto, the subject of a lawsuit over bird strikes terminal twelvemonth. Each residential kit comes with 100 feet of marker tape, two measuring strips, and installation instructions.
PRICE: $xv.99 (Canadian) each for 1-ii rolls; $14.99 each for 3-6 rolls; $13.99 each for 7-12 rolls (plus shipping)
Spider web: www.featherfriendly.org
ABC BirdTape
Designed and tested past American Bird Salvation, BirdTape alerts birds to the presence of glass while withal assuasive light to laissez passer through. Available in three-quarter-inch and three-inch widths. Simply cut to the desired length, remove the backing, and utilise to a window's exterior.
PRICE: $19.95 for three-quarter-inch record (50 anxiety), $24.95 for iii-inch tape (50 anxiety), and $27.95 for three-inch record pre-cut into squares (30 anxiety)
Web: www.abcbirdtape.org
UV Engineering science
Decals, liquid, and specially coated glass that reverberate ultraviolet calorie-free, which birds can see only nosotros can't.
WindowAlert Decals
Decals cling using either static electricity or a low-tack adhesive. Each has a coating that reflects ultraviolet lite, which birds can run across only we can't. When placed on a window'southward outside using the 2 x 4 Rule (come across tips for using decals in a higher place), the resulting glow pattern deters window strikes. Cull from hummingbirds, butterflies, maple leaves, and other shapes. Bachelor at your favorite birding-supply store.
Toll: $six.45 for 4 decals
WEB: world wide web.windowalert.com
Check the price and availability of WindowAlert Decals on Amazon.
UV Liquid
An easy-to-utilise liquid that can be daubed on a window'south exterior and dries clear, leaving marks that birds can see. Use alongside decals for the best coverage and protection confronting bird strikes. Available at your favorite birding-supply shop.
PRICE: $19.45 for 1.5 oz.
Web: world wide web.windowalert.com
Ornilux Bird Protection Drinking glass
Tested by the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Germany and at American Bird Conservancy'southward flight tunnel at the Powdermill Avian Research Heart in Pennsylvania, Ornilux glass is laminated with a UV-cogitating, patterned coating that is virtually transparent to our eyes but visible to birds. Available for new structure and window replacements as either laminated glass or a double-glazed insulated unit of measurement.
PRICE: Contact Arnold Glas N.A. for a quote.
Spider web: www.ornilux.com
Five bird deterrents that don't work
ane. Hawk silhouettes:
One window decal in the shape of a hawk will not frighten birds. Shape is not important.
two. Unmarried window decals:
Affixing a single decal to a window will not deter birds. To lessen the area of exposed drinking glass and help make a window visible to birds, use multiple decals (even multiple decals in the shape of a militarist).
3. Plastic owls:
Birds learn quickly that a motionless plastic owl is not a threat.
4. Noise deterrents:
Mutual noise deterrents — loftier-frequency ultrasound, dissonance cannons, and recorded distress calls — are ineffective at preventing birds from colliding with windows.
5. Magnetic fields:
Some deterrents emit a magnetic field said to disrupt birds' geomagnetic orientation and encourage them to avoid the expanse. Magnetic fields are not constructive at protecting birds from window collisions.
Source: Fatal Light Awareness Program (FLAP)
Bird-Friendly Lighting
Shields, bulbs, and other items that prevent light from shining into the night heaven, where birds migrate.
Removing unnecessary lighting
This is one of the simplest ways to reduce nighttime collisions. Ideally, you would turn off all lights between dusk and dawn, especially during migration season — that is, from mid-February to the terminate of May and from mid-Baronial to the end of November.
When that'south not possible, you tin can still take steps to control when and where calorie-free shines:
one. Use fixtures that are shielded, instead of globe-type models that spew light everywhere.
2. Choose downlighting over uplighting to keep from directing low-cal into the night sky.
3. Use motility sensors to avoid steady-burning lights, and timers to ensure that lights aren't left on longer than necessary.
4. Wait for products that have been approved by the International Dark Sky Clan, a nonprofit arrangement that works to preserve and protect the nighttime environment through environmentally responsible outdoor lighting. You lot tin can find lists of IDA-approved fixtures on the association's website.
Another effective step to consider is decision-making the color of the low-cal produced by your domicile.
When it comes to the furnishings of light on birds, not all wavelengths are created equal. Cherry calorie-free and white light (which contain visible long-wavelength radiation) disrupt birds' geomagnetic orientation. Blueish and green comprise less long-wavelength radiation and are much less disorienting.
Jennifer Horton is a freelance writer who lives in Greenville, South Carolina. She has besides written for us about learning to bird by ear .
American Bird Salvation's resources for preventing drinking glass collisions Originally Published
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Source: https://www.birdwatchingdaily.com/gear/preventing-bird-window-collisions/15-products-prevent-birds-hitting-windows/
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