There's A Big Push Statewide to Start Using Bird-Safe Windows

Have you ever seen a bird fly into a window so hard, that you apologized to the bird?

At my house, one of the windows has a little patch of feathers stuck to the glass where a bird slammed into it at full force. Our front yard gets super bright in the morning, making the windows look like dark caverns of escape. At least once a month, I have a bird slam into it.

If we have the curtains drawn, it's never a problem. There's just enough there for them to see it. But if it's a beautiful day and we have the windows and the curtains open, we run the risk of a bird flying right into it. We do our best for them to not hit them. But it's so unpredictable.

There's a movement statewide to bring attention to bird-safe windows.

According to the Press Herald, large corporations like LL Bean have started installing bird-safe windows after seeing tons of collisions, and even birds driving themselves kind of crazy trying to chase off their own reflections. And if you think bird collisions aren't that big a deal in the grand scheme of things, guess again.

Bird collisions are the highest cause of bird fatalities. More than 350 million birds die each year from collisions. Now obviously, big corporations can afford fancy window panes that make the panes visible to birds, but what about you and me?

You can take steps at home to become safer for birds as well.

For the most part, what you need to do is make the windows visible. Or even just really "busy". Things like wind chimes and decals help. You can tape strips onto your windows. You could even put a light net in front of your windows for them to bounce off of if they get too close.

The Humane Society has a ton of tips right on their website. Ultimately, it's up to us to help the little birdies out. It's not like they can come up and tell you what they need. Even though I've had some pretty pushy hummingbirds when the feeder was empty. But that's a story for another day...