The General Chat Thread (2025)

TastyReuben said:
I remember ticking my SIL off something awful. We were due to leave and meet my wife/her sister for lunch, and a hummingbird had gotten into the garage and, being that they’re not all that smart, kept focusing on the rather small, rectangular closed window as a potential exit instead of the wall-sized open garage door it came in through.

“Wait, I gotta get that hummingbird out before we leave.”
“Why? Will it mess up the garage or something?”
“No, but it’ll exhaust itself trying to get out, overheat and die.”
“So.”

🤨

I made her wait (my car, my rules) while I patiently waited for it to land on the end of a broom and then gently walked it out and let it go…took a good 20 minutes. She. Was. Pizzed!
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Good on you for saving the bird! As you know, I dabble a little bit in bird conservation as part of my job (mostly, doing projects to add markings to windows so that birds don’t hit the glass and die). I’ve learned a little bit about te science behind this - birds simply don’t see glass. That’s why it didn’t fly through the open garage door. They can’t understand that glass is a solid surface - window collisions are actually the second-most common human-caused reason for bird deaths (cats are #1).
 
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Barriehie said:
Spiders, snakes, things that haven't evolved in a million years... I'll stay right here.
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Funny thing is, for me it’s really just the spiders - I’m not scared of snakes at all (although we don’t really have any dangerous ones around here). I had the opportunity to pet a reticulated python once, and happily gave her some scratches. I have a photo of myself at the museum at 8 years old holding one of those giant hissing cockroaches.

Spiders though? Nope. I don’t know what it is about them, but they terrify me!
 
Herbaceous said:
Good on you for saving the bird! As you know, I dabble a little bit in bird conservation as part of my job (mostly, doing projects to add markings to windows so that birds don’t hit the glass and die). I’ve learned a little bit about te science behind this - birds simply don’t see glass. That’s why it didn’t fly through the open garage door. They can’t understand that glass is a solid surface - window collisions are actually the second-most common human-caused reason for bird deaths (cats are #1).
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Small birds hit my windows and it kills them the bigger birds it breaks a wing and the dogs get them. I put these CD's in front of them.
1000046697.jpg
 
Barriehie said:
Small birds hit my windows and it kills them the bigger birds it breaks a wing and the dogs get them. I put these CD's in front of them. View attachment 137910
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There’s a good amount of research on what works best to prevent bird-window collisions. For maximum effectiveness, you need to place high-contrast (i.e. white) markers on the outside of the window, 2 inches apart. I use Feather Friendly DIY kits. They’re fairly inexpensive, but the weather does need to be above 10 degrees for maximum adhesion.

The CD probably helps, but you really want the markers to reduce collisions as much as possible. I did my patio door and haven’t had a collision on this glass since:
IMG_0693.jpeg

This cost about 20 bucks in materials and roughly an hour installing it with my husband.
 
SoCalZone10 said:
The birdshot my window but still fly away afterwards, no dead birds found yet.
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There’s also quite a bit of research on this too - unfortunately, most of these birds probably fly away and die a short while later. Head trauma, injuries, and internal bleeding often causes them to die even after flying away from the initial strike.

That’s why treating windows to prevent strikes is so important! I really do encourage everyone to treat your windows if you can - the last study I read estimated about 1 billion birds killed by windows annually in the US alone.
 
Herbaceous said:
There’s also quite a bit of research on this too - unfortunately, most of these birds probably fly away and die a short while later. Head trauma, injuries, and internal bleeding often causes them to die even after flying away from the initial strike.

That’s why treating windows to prevent strikes is so important! I really do encourage everyone to treat your windows if you can - the last study I read estimated about 1 billion birds killed by windows annually in the US alone.
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Strange but I have never had this happen. I've lived in the country as well as towns. Is it for some reason more prevalent in the US?
 
Morning Glory said:
Strange but I have never had this happen. I've lived in the country as well as towns. Is it for some reason more prevalent in the US?
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I’ve lived in the middle of farmland surrounded by birds (a LOT of birds) since forever and while I have had wild birds (and bats) come in my house they’ve always come in through an open door or window (and exited the same way).

I can only surmise British birds are a bit brighter than your average bear… flying for cover faster than a peregrine falcon 😂
 
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SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
I’ve lived in the middle of farmland surrounded by birds (a LOT of birds) since forever and while I have had wild birds (and bats) come in my house they’ve always come in through an open door or window (and exited the same way).

I can only surmise British birds are a bit brighter than your average bear… flying for cover faster than a peregrine falcon 😂
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Yeah, I have on rare occasions had them come indoors, but not hit a glass window.
 
Herbaceous said:
There’s a good amount of research on what works best to prevent bird-window collisions. For maximum effectiveness, you need to place high-contrast (i.e. white) markers on the outside of the window, 2 inches apart. I use Feather Friendly DIY s. They’re fairly inexpensive, but the weather does need to be above 10 degrees for maximum adhesion.

The CD probably helps, but you really want the markers to reduce collisions as much as possible. I did my patio door and haven’t had a collision on this glass since:
View attachment 137917
This cost about 20 bucks in materials and roughly an hour installing it with my husband.
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I haven't had any collisions since installing those and the windows are probably a lot dirtier now too. When they were new the reflection of the woods off them looked pretty real...
 
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