Preventing bird strikes on screens

[DaveC426913]

I am installing screening around my roofed deck. This is special stuff that's virtually invisible.

My deck is well-shaded among dense trees, so that makes it even harder to see the screening.

Birds visit my yard all the time, partly because of the foliage, and partly because I have a pond with waterfall that they visit.

I am pretty sure I'm going to have birds flying into my screens.

I thought I'd stick raptor sillouettes on my screening but apparently that is ineffective. Apparently, most common methods of preventing bird strikes are ineffective.

If I read that website correctly, it seems the only effective way of preventing them is to fill the area with obstacles so that the birds simply do not see the area as an opening large enough to fly through.

I went to great lengths when building my roofed deck to ensure that my view was undisturbed; I am loathe to fill that all up with obstacles.

Advice?

 

[BillTre]

Aquaculture uses things like movement detectors and horns or water sprayers to keep fish eating birds away.
Probably not the kind of birds you are concerned about though.

Would they be scared off by a flashing light?

 

[strangerep]

I am installing screening around my roofed deck. This is special stuff that's virtually invisible.

What type of screening is it? I have a florida room, fully screened with ultra-fine SS mesh. I've never once experienced a bird strike (although there were a couple of near misses from golf balls).

Could your birds potentially see through the screen, to windows on the other side? I.e., might they think it's possible to fly all the way through? I had that problem with my previous house. A window on the south side was directly opposite a window on the north side. For while after I'd cleaned the windows I'd get the occasional parrot knocking itself unconscious on the clean glass as it tried to fly through.

 

[OCR]

I am pretty sure I'm going to have birds flying into my screens.

Yeah, I think so too... we have windows that they hit on occasion, but a lot are nonfatal strikes...

My deck is well-shaded among dense trees, so that makes it even harder to see the screening.

Actually, one of our problem windows is getting more and more tree limbs growing in front of it, and that seems to lessen the strikes, so maybe the foliage might help ?

This window gets hit once in a great while, but there are no trees or limbs in front of it to warn them...

Lol... the bear doesn't count...

If you look hard at the upper left corner of that picture, you can just make out another house... an enormous hawk flew through a double pane window on it one time, and ended up inside... uninjured! My brother and I removed the very luck hawk, with the benefit of proper PPE ... welding gloves...

Advice?

None, other than... fill the area with obstacles so that the birds simply do not see the area as an opening large enough to fly through, and that's a real small opening... or, it might save some birds, by install the screening as slack as possible? ..

 

[DaveC426913]

What type of screening is it? I have a florida room, fully screened with ultra-fine SS mesh. I've never once experienced a bird strike (although there were a couple of near misses from golf balls).

It's ultra fine fibreglass.

Could your birds potentially see through the screen, to windows on the other side? I.e., might they think it's possible to fly all the way through?

Nah. The lines of sight on my property are very short due to all the trees and shrubs.

Actually, I guess that's probably the saving grace. Birds wouldn't be able to get up any kind of speed in the space.

 

[berkeman]

Birds wouldn't be able to get up any kind of speed in the space.

And is the screening relatively soft? If so, the birds will likely just gently bounce off...?

 

[berkeman]

Maybe it's time for Falcon McFalconface...

https://sports.yahoo.com/athletics-...alconface-seagull-scaring-kite-145957752.html

 

[DaveC426913]

And is the screening relatively soft? If so, the birds will likely just gently bounce off...?

It is soft. This had occurred to me. Still, don't want to break the necks of the little buggers.

 

[strangerep]

[...] don't want to break the necks of the little buggers.

I think you might be over-worrying about that.

Once in Malaysia, a swift (I think) crashed headlong into my apartment window. Those birds fly really quick. You can barely follow them with your eye when they're coming out of their cave. It lay unconscious on my balcony floor for maybe about 15 mins. Then it woke up and managed to take off again, although the line of its departure was like a drunk staggering home from the pub. I would have laughed if I hadn't felt so sorry for the little guy.

Similarly at my previous home, at least 2 lorikeets and a few others crashed into my back kitchen window, thinking they could fly through and out the other side. None of them actually died. One lorikeet must have reflexively clamped its claws on the way down -- and ended up hanging unconscious upside down by one claw from a bush below the window. That was funny. But after an hour or so, it recovered and flew away.

 

[DaveC426913]

Yeah, maybe you're right.

Realistically, I should be more worried about coons and squirrels tearing their way in.

 

[berkeman]

Falcons won't scare away coons. Coons never bother to look up (why should they?). You need Python McPythonFace! I'm on it...

 

[Nik_2213]

IIRC, utility companies sometimes put hi-contrast 'bobbles' and 'tapes' on power lines to prevent big migratory birds (geese etc) colliding with them and causing arc-overs. Yeah, yeah, their priority is preventing 'trips', but littering property with dead geese is bad PR and certainly zaps their 'green' aspirations...

Um, such may be used near pigeon lofts, too...

Hmm. Have you seen the 'one-sided' ads in taxi windows ? IIRC, they're a sheet of opaque but heavily perforated plastic, a sufficient density of small holes to appear transparent but tinted. Outer side is printed with 'hi-vis' advert, inner side is a neutral grey. A couple of strips of such might suffice...

 

[Tom.G]

A couple years ago we lived in a second floor apartment with a central courtyard. There was a walkway to get to our apartment with the requisite railing to keep drunks kids from falling over the edge. My wife is a bird aficionado so we hung a Humming Bird feeder on the railing outside the Living Room window. Lots of Hummers year 'round. For three years, in the Spring, the feeder would attract a family of Orioles, parents and two offspring. One day I was watching from just inside the window when all four of them visited. One of the youngsters, after having its fill, flew straight at me, bounced off the window, and flew away. That youngster was so fast that he was already out of site before I realized what had happened. Later I realized that without the window I would have had a puncture wound in my face. Unfortunately on subsequent visits it was a family of only three. Conclusion: Fatalities are not always instantaneous.

 

[Noisy Rhysling]

Give them a hint that there's something there. I use stickers to let the local birds know the patio doors have glass in them. Wind chimes and/or mobiles have worked for me in the past. A hotel I stayed at in Thailand had "decorative" curtains of bamboo that hung a foot or so down from the eaves.