Window Decals Can Save Birds
Question: Two years or so ago you answered a question about birds seeing their reflections in windows and mentioned that sometimes they fly into the windows and kill themselves. While visiting friends in Denmark, I noticed on their windows black decals of hawks diving. They explained that most birds are afraid of hawks and that decals of their image kept smaller birds from flying into windows. You can also make them out of black contact paper and put them on the outside of the window. It works so well I thought I should write to you. I don’t mind the decals on the windows; in fact, I enjoy looking at them. You can wash the windows without harming them and they are easily replaced.
S.S.
Huntington Beach
Answer: You’re right about the decals working, but it’s not because the bird sees the hawk as a predator. What it sees instead is something in its path rather than the thoroughfare the glass once appeared to be. In the case of a bird pecking at its reflection in a window, the hawk decal helps minimize the area of reflection.
Any shape will work, but the hawks have been a popular way to market and explain the presence of decals on windows.
I’ll be happy to send copies of the hawk pattern you’ve so kindly included in your letter to readers. Please send a self-addressed stamped envelope to Andrea Kitay, P.O. Box 2489, Camarillo, CA. 93011.
Bird Feeder Sets Up No-Win Cat Dilemma
Q: Although cats aren’t strictly wildlife, they are much more of a problem to me than opossums, skunks and raccoons that live in my area. My neighbor allows her cats to roam. I asked her to keep them inside or at least put bells on them, but she seems to think that would hurt their free “spirit.” I like to feed the wild birds, and I have found scattered feathers and wing parts underneath the feeders.
There isn’t any place to hang the feeder that is completely cat-safe. What recourse is there? Why do some cat owners refuse to recognize that their free-roaming pets kill birds?
D.M.
Covina
A: This difficult subject might be better left to psychologists than biologists to advise. But I can arm you with the facts and point you to a few sources should you decide to persist in your campaign to enlighten your neighbor.
To begin with, stop feeding the birds until your yard is safe again. Your feeder has become a deathtrap and it would be better to let the birds find their own food for now.
We’ve all heard the list of reasons to keep the cat indoors. They’ll live three times as long, they’re less likely to contract diseases and parasites and they won’t kill backyard critters.
But there are other reasons. Since they eat the same food as owls, coyotes and bobcats, they’re actually competing with them.
Naturally, cats are neither particular nor politically correct, so they’ll kill threatened and endangered species as well as abundant ones. And, as most wildlife rehabilitators will confirm, attacks on young fledgling birds--vulnerable as they are in the first few days as they leave the nest and flutter around on the ground--constitute a great percentage of their patients.
As for collar bells, cats can learn to stalk silently even with bells. Besides, what’s a tinkling bell to a nestling or lizard?
For more information, visit the American Bird Conservancy’s Web site at https://www.abcbirds.org. It has several recommendations for containing cats, including enclosures, leashes and a netting that attaches to the top of an existing fence. I haven’t seen these in action but they could allow you to safely feed the birds in your yard.
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Send your queries to wildlife biologist Andrea Kitay at P.O. Box 2489, Camarillo, CA 93011, or via e-mail to andrea@livingwithwildlife.com. Please include your name and city. Questions cannot be answered individually. Visit https://www.livingwithwildlife.com to see answers to frequently asked questions.
