News Should I Keep My Bird Feeders After a Tragic Woodpecker Accident?

[Danger]

I think you're making assumptions about bird behaviour. It may be plausible, but I'm not entirely convinced that the only effect of the ribbon is to act like as a barrier to flight even a symbolic one.

An alternate hypothesis: when one (human and bird alike) looks at anything, one sees objects and automatically brings them into focus. If those objects are two dozen yards away, that's where one focuses, which will have a tendency to blind one to something one dozen yards away if it's virtually invisible.

Possibly the purpose of the ribbon is to draw one's attention to the plane of the window instead of focusing on whatever is a dozen yards behind the window.


They do put big X's on glass doors in buildings for people. They're not to make you walk around them, they're to draw your attention to the fact that there's a plate of glass there.

Your entire post makes a lot of sense, Dave... and you have no idea how much it irritates me to acknowledge that fact.
On a more serious note, I'm not making assumptions about avian behaviour; rather, I am referencing past experience in a heavily bird-laden environment and combining that with stuff that I've read in SciAm. That, to me, means that my approach is an educated guess as opposed to a supposition. While I could very well be way wrong, I did at least put some effort into my opinion.
As an amusing (or maybe not) side-note, I'm very well aware of the hazard that glass doors present. During my 17-year sentence as owner and sole employee of Lock Ness Security, preventative measures against injury were part of my educational talks. We didn't use large X's, since aesthetic concerns were paramount in the opinions of many clients. Strategically placed tape, however, was encouraged.

 

[OmCheeto]

This problem really needs to be solved. Reasonably of course. I looked up bird vision and ran across the following:
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It appears that birds have an extra color detecting cone which allows them to see in the near UV. So the unreasonable solution would be of course to smear sun screen UV blocker all over your windows. The other solution, which Astro stated, was to lower your venetian blinds during the day. This unfortunately is somewhat annoying when you are at home as it makes the house somewhat darker.

So, my solution is to add sheers*.

If you ignore their UV sense, birds probably see much the way we do. Looking at the image of my bird stunner window above, you can see I've added a dollar store clothes hamper, bottom center(I have no sheers). Without the sheers, being that it is much darker inside the house, the window becomes a pretty good mirror.

Or, you could go with option #4, and just get a huge American flag to hang in your window.

* It took me 10 minutes of googling to figure out how to spell that. Shears? nope. Sheres? nope. Lacy window curtains like grandma had? nope. grrrrr...

 

[Danger]

Or, you could go with option #4, and just get a huge American flag to hang in your window.

Are you nuts?! That would get me killed instantly. (Even if it has to be suicide.)

 

[OmCheeto]

I don't have any feeders.

This was one that smacked into my front window one day:

I had a small lemon tree below the window, and somehow, it grabbed onto one of the branches on the way down. It was hanging upside-down with one foot, and wings outstretched when I arrived to investigate who was throwing things at my window.

I picked her up and massaged her little head. Then a couple of minutes later, she flew away.

Sorry about your woodpecker, Physics Girl.

Kerplunk.

Investigate.

Massage.

Dead.

All the compassion in the world can't fix a broken neck.



Audubon
http://web4.audubon.org/bird/at_home/SafeWindows.html"

 

[Evo]

No sad posts about animals!

 

[edward]

No sad posts about animals!

 

[DaveC426913]

Why??

 

[edward]

Why??

See above.

 

[Evo]

See above.

I thought that was a nice song for the vulture.

If it's head was covered with feathers, it would be a magnificent bird.

 

[turbo]

Here's a happy ending for Evo. This female hairy woodpecker knocked herself out, but eventually, she came around and flew off.

 

[edward]

I thought that was a nice song for the vulture.

If it's head was covered with feathers, it would be a magnificent bird.

Yep beauty is only skin (or feather) deep.

 

[OmCheeto]

Yep beauty is only skin (or feather) deep.

But pooping on your own legs? Logical maybe, but totally disgusting.

I don't care how much inner beauty that bird has, you'll never catch me trying to revive a stunned vulture.

ps. I tried to feed my dead bird to my new feral cat, but my friends showed up before she could eat it and said; "Starting a maggot factory Om?"

Miss Feets Up was buried alongside Lucy yesterday, the most adventurous of all my fishies.

Moral of the story:

Live life to it's fullest, because you never know when an invisible barrier will take you out.

Be creative, compassionate, healthy, wealthy, and wise.

As one day, someone, other than yourself, will chose the icon on your gravestone.

or

 

[leright]

While I am sorry for the loss of the woodpecker, I am glad you weren't talking about RedBelly98.