Birds Attacking My Windows

First, one last Crow story, then some talk of birds that repeatedly attack windows.

I've been taking a close look at the American Crow in recent posts: The Intelligent American Crow, Amazing Crow Stories, and How to tell Crow from Raven. While I was walking my dog today, I came across a Crow family that seemed to be hanging around a particular area. As I got closer, I saw a mangled heap of black feathers in the middle of the pavement - probably this year's fledgling, not yet accustomed to the violence of automobiles. The rest of the family sat in nearby trees and cawed loudly as the dog and I passed. It seemed as though they were keeping watch over their fallen family member.

Last year, in July, I wrote in my bird journal: "It is the third day of the Vireo. The bird has been visiting us every morning at about 5:45... At first, I thought it was a demented Finch that hadn't long to live..." Actually, that wasn't quite true: at first I thought it was some malicious spirit out of a horror movie, come to destroy my sleep and my peace of mind. You see, someone, or something, was knocking on the window directly over the bed, waking me and my husband at a few minutes to six every morning. That window is a full three stories above the ground.

It takes a certain kind of wakeful sleep to spring up and get a look at whatever is thumping at your window, but we eventually managed to confirm that our visitor was a bird (but what kind of bird?). I got my first good look at it later in the day when it attacked the dining room window, one floor down and directly below the bedroom window. It was a Red-eyed Vireo.

We tried various tactics to discourage our feathered alarm clock, but finally gave up and learned to ignore him. Eventually, he went away. A few days ago, while sitting at my keyboard, I heard the familiar thump thump again - oh no! not the Vireo back to haunt us for another season! This time, however, the noise was coming from a ground floor window. Again, it took some sneaky surveillance to get a look at the visitor, but I finally did it. Surprise. A Song Sparrow has caught the bug.

Watch for my upcoming article on birds that attack windows to find out why they do it and how to stop them.