why do birds keep knocking on my windows?

[just-tracey]

Last year we had a thrush tapping its beak on my windows and it became a nuisance starting before it was light..
now i have a blackbird doing it..

why? how do i stop it?
it's going to become so annoying ( altho its nice to see them so close.. it's easy to tire of it )

[Hedge Witch]

Hi Tracey, I guessed they were seeing their reflections and then I found this:

This strange behaviour, however, has a less romantic, more scientific explanation. Birds attack shiny surfaces because they see their own reflections. In the case of a window, the bird does not see through the glass: it sees a reflection of the outside, possibly trees and the sky, and another bird of its own species. The real bird does not recognize itself and mistakes the reflected bird for a competitor for territory or mates. It attacks the image in the window, trying to drive the other bird away.

Possible solutions are to cover the outside of the window with something non-reflective or attach black silhouettes of hawks etc (again to the outside).

[diggleken]

Hi Tracey,
birds can also try for food(small insects etc) around the window edges, behind putty etc - certainly blue tits are well known for this - unless you are double glazed of course!
If it was window centre, reflections can cause this behaviour, usually at that competitive territorial breeding time of year though.
As HW says, try some hawk stickers.
Good luck
Ken

[photomaniac]

got same problem with magpies!

[just-tracey]

Originally Posted by photomaniac

got same problem with magpies!

oh please.. don't mention them!
there are magpies in the trees behind us, and magpies sit there making their stupid clicking noises lol..
i love wildlife, but magpies, pigeons and blackbirds seem to terrorise us lol

we've spent the day knocking on the window to scare the bird off, but the cheeky sod just goes to a different window


on the upside.. there's a buzzard that flies over all the time.. i can't get a pic of it tho cos it's too quick.. but it's a stunning thing to look at

[leveller]

Until I found this thread I was feeling quite sad for the blackbird pecking constantly at my window. Thankfully I now know how to stop the silly bird! I still have some misted transfers from when I had kamikaze birds trying to brain themselves on my patio doors, so I'll put a birds-eye height row of them to stop it seeing it's own reflection.

Until now the only way to stop it was to close the curtains! The house has never looked so dark!!