A few weeks ago I was servicing one of my clients and they had a major problem with birds crashing into the windows, or bird strikes as they are referred to. This happens to be a very common problem. Before you go thinking this is how someone came up with the wildly popular Angry Birds game title let me explain why this phenomenon happens.
A human views things with a 3 cone or tricromatic retina whereas a bird has a 4-cone tetrachromatic retina. There is an exception for some women as you can read in this article. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06256/721190-114.stm (This explains why most of us guys couldn't put together an outfit that matched to save our lives.)
A human uses 10,000 color vision cells per square millimeter and a bird 120,000 cells per sq. mm.
A bird's eyes take up about 15% of their head while a human only 2%.
Birds also have more than double the amount of low-light rod cells averaging about 500,000 cells per sq.mm.
What does all this jargon mean? In short birds see the world in HD without glasses or some fancy screen. Have you always wondered why you can't sneak up on a bird very well, or how the term birds-eye-view came into slang? Now you know.
I still need to answer the question on why birds are going kamikaze into your picture window though. Well it has a lot to do with these factors.
1. A bird sees a huge piece of glass and thinks he can fly right inside your home. A lot of the time right after we clean windows the bird strike frequency increases. This is because it looks to them like your living room is prime real estate.
2. Another high increase in bird strikes happens in the bird mating season. Male birds see themselves in the reflection of the glass and are not smart enough to figure it is them they are beholding and end up attacking a mirror image of themselves. They are being territorial against other males. The speed at which they hit can be in the 20-40 mph range. Fast enough to cause concussions or death.
It is estimated there are over 100 million bird fatalities in the United States each year. This doesn't even factor in the ones that are stunned and become prey.
So how can this problem be remedied?
There are many different solutions out there. Some work better than others. It really depends on the species of bird native to your region. Here in Ohio we are talking about Robins, Cardinals, and blackbirds. Some of the common items or methods used as a deterrent include gels, fake owls and hawks, decals, metallic streamers, tinting your windows, putting up blinds, placing wind chimes outside, ultrasonic noisemakers, and making sure to place your bird feeders within 3 feet of your window just to name a few.
There is no need to say "bye bye birdie". Together we can preserve the view of both human and fowl.
A human views things with a 3 cone or tricromatic retina whereas a bird has a 4-cone tetrachromatic retina. There is an exception for some women as you can read in this article. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06256/721190-114.stm (This explains why most of us guys couldn't put together an outfit that matched to save our lives.)
A human uses 10,000 color vision cells per square millimeter and a bird 120,000 cells per sq. mm.
A bird's eyes take up about 15% of their head while a human only 2%.
Birds also have more than double the amount of low-light rod cells averaging about 500,000 cells per sq.mm.
What does all this jargon mean? In short birds see the world in HD without glasses or some fancy screen. Have you always wondered why you can't sneak up on a bird very well, or how the term birds-eye-view came into slang? Now you know.
I still need to answer the question on why birds are going kamikaze into your picture window though. Well it has a lot to do with these factors.
1. A bird sees a huge piece of glass and thinks he can fly right inside your home. A lot of the time right after we clean windows the bird strike frequency increases. This is because it looks to them like your living room is prime real estate.
2. Another high increase in bird strikes happens in the bird mating season. Male birds see themselves in the reflection of the glass and are not smart enough to figure it is them they are beholding and end up attacking a mirror image of themselves. They are being territorial against other males. The speed at which they hit can be in the 20-40 mph range. Fast enough to cause concussions or death.
It is estimated there are over 100 million bird fatalities in the United States each year. This doesn't even factor in the ones that are stunned and become prey.
So how can this problem be remedied?
There are many different solutions out there. Some work better than others. It really depends on the species of bird native to your region. Here in Ohio we are talking about Robins, Cardinals, and blackbirds. Some of the common items or methods used as a deterrent include gels, fake owls and hawks, decals, metallic streamers, tinting your windows, putting up blinds, placing wind chimes outside, ultrasonic noisemakers, and making sure to place your bird feeders within 3 feet of your window just to name a few.
There is no need to say "bye bye birdie". Together we can preserve the view of both human and fowl.
