Strange Situation With A Robin

[TanDL]

The past couple of days we’ve had a robin flying into our North windows, like he/she is trying to get into the house. We occasionally have had birds fly into our windows over the years, but not one so consistently. It doesn’t seem to be experiencing a damaging collision, but it just keeps banging into the windows. I saw it fly into the windows on my neighbor’s deck this morning and talked to my neighbor who told me he was experiencing the same thing, hearing constant pings on his deck windows. At one point the robin sat on a deck chair by the window, looking in and tapping on the window. I taped an “X” in our North facing windows and now the bird just flutters in front them, but doesn’t seem to be bonking into them at least. Anyone experience this before? Any clues to what might be happening here?

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[22blades]

Texting & flying…

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[seaopgal]

It’s not uncommon for robins and other birds to do this especially during mating season. Both males and females. It may start when they see their reflection and assume it is a rival robin, but they can also become obsessed and fall into repetitive behavior. It’s helps to do as you have done to disrupt the reflection (tape, commercial bird deflectors, close the shade, etc.) but it may also be necessary to disrupt the behavioral loop in other ways — such as making noise or opening the window, going out and shooing away — as soon as s/he starts up.

Here is a rather amusing account of one Oregon man’s attempt to fix the problem. I hope your robin will not be so persistent! http://hinessight.blogs.com/hinessight/2011/04/how-we-stopped-a-robins-pecking-at-window-glass.html

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[Sunuva]

We have the same problem every spring with the Spotted Towhees. As explained above, during mating season they attack their reflection thinking it is a rival bird. They also attack our car mirrors and poop all over them in the process. For the windows, we’ve set up fake garden owls to scare them away, and in some cases bird tape has worked for a bit of time. We also have to push our mirrors in on our cars so they can’t get to them. It is an annoyance to us, but it is also not healthy for the birds, so hopefully you can find a solution.

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[TanDL]

Thanks for the information and funny Oregon story. Today, the tape on the windows seems to have worked and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it will be the permanent solution. I appreciate all the great information. If it comes back texting, I will also confiscate its little cellphone. :)

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