How To Stop Birds From Destroying Window Screens

Acopian BirdSavers on a residential picture window. Photo courtesy of Acopian BirdSavers. — Acopian BirdSavers on a residential film window. Photograph courtesy of Acopian BirdSavers.

Every bit we reported earlier, birds typically collide with a window during the daytime for one of two reasons:

Either the window is reflecting the surrounding habitat, and birds tin't tell the difference, or the window is transparent, and birds run into through information technology to appealing objects on the other side.

Fortunately, a number of products are now on the market place that will make the windows of your house less unsafe to birds without substantially reducing your ability to see through the drinking glass from the inside. These include UV-reflecting glass, tapes, decals, and liquids and antireflective vinyl or polyester films and decals.

Read well-nigh antireflective vinyl or polyester films.

Acquire near UV-reflecting drinking glass, tapes, decals, and liquids for home windows.

Below are links to manufacturers of bird-protecting strings, nettings, and screens that you can apply to the exterior of the windows of your home. Netting and screens put a barrier between the window and the birds, preventing those that fly into it from striking the glass. Strings create a curtain-like visual deterrent that birds meet and try to avert.

Acopian BirdSavers
Ingenious and bonny, BirdSavers consist of 1-8th-inch-diameter nylon cords that dangle about 4 inches apart in front of a window'south exterior, where they are visible to birds, which avoid them. Velcro secures the hanging cords to the summit of the window. Recommended by Contributing Editor David Sibley and Daniel Klem Jr., professor of ornithology and conservation biology at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania, who has been studying bird-window collisions for more 20 years. Instructions on the website draw how you can build your ain. Proceeds support conservation programs at the Acopian Center for the Environment.

Bird Crash Preventer

Image courtesy of the Bird Screen Company

A preassembled curtain of taut monofilament lines strung three inches apart and five inches from the exterior of a window or sliding-door side panel. Birds run across the lines and avoid them, while the space between the lines and drinking glass gives birds that bear on them a chance to spread their wings and brace themselves. Available in dark brown and white.

Bird Netting

Bird-exclusion netting made from durable, lightweight polypropylene. Useful for keeping birds out of eaves or open spaces. Secure with cyberspace clips, hooks, or a staple gun. Hang the netting tightly at least two inches from the glass to provide a firm barrier that volition keep birds from hitting the window.

Learn more about Nixalite's bird netting products on Amazon.

Bird Screen

An attractive transparent black fiberglass screen that hangs loosely in front of a pane of glass, providing a gentle cushion for birds that strike it. Spiral hooks and suction-cup brackets, included with buy, secure the screen to a window or sliding door. Custom sizes available.

Five bird deterrents that don't work

one. Militarist silhouettes: I window decal in the shape of a hawk volition not frighten birds. Shape is non important.

2. Unmarried window decals: Affixing a unmarried decal to a window volition not deter birds. To lessen the area of exposed glass and assist make a window visible to birds, use multiple decals (even multiple decals in the shape of a hawk).

three. Plastic owls: Birds learn quickly that a motionless plastic owl is not a threat.

iv. Dissonance deterrents: Mutual noise deterrents — loftier-frequency ultrasound, noise 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 avert the surface area. Magnetic fields are not effective at protecting birds from window collisions.

Source: Bird-Window Collision Reduction: Tips and Techniques for Residents, Fatal Light Awareness Program

This mail was excerpted from the article "Surefire Ways to Make Windows Friendly to Birds," which appeared in the April 2013 issue of BirdWatching magazine. Read the full article and download a PDF.

Learn more than about the Fatal Light Awareness Programme.

Originally Published September 10, 2013