A bird flew into my window.

[propita]

I didn't know birds flying into windows was so uncommon as to be thread-worthy.

Scared the mess outta me for a second. It was a BIG boom. I wondered if someone was trying to kick the door in. That happened once to us. They kicked once, at 11pm. Now that was scary--no idea what, who, how many, etc. All nothing, but you don't know at the time.

I didn't think it was all that common, more retelling the same few stories.

 

[Melakon]

Back in the 60s, a bird hit my dad's church office window. He went out, found an unconscious but alive mockingbird on the ground. Since it was cold weather season, he put it in his office closet, and put his hat over it to keep it warm. He forgot about it and went home that evening. The next day, the church secretary heard this noise coming from his office and opened the closet door. The bird, probably now starving, panicked and started flying between the two rooms (scaring the secretary of course). They opened all the windows in the two offices and it took 30 minutes for the bird to find the exit.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

A pigeon got into the stockroom where I work once. At the front and up high are large windows looking out into the main center area of the building, which is quite huge.

The bird flew INTO one of the windows, not once, but twice, head-on. The building is quite dusty, so we had two very distinct & perfectly shaped pigeon shaped silhouettes on that window for a good couple years.


We also had a young blue heron in that main area. He flew in one of the open dock doors at the end. Took most of the day before he finally figured out how to get back out.

He was lucky since he came very close to any one of four 15' (Big Ass) ceiling fans while flying around in there.


Birds are stupid.

 

[Finn]

[animal geek] Birds aren't wired to recognize transparent solids aka windows. Calling them stupid or dumb is like calling a cat stupid for not noticing a little tan gecko being still on the wall. It's how their perception works and not indicative of their intelligence [/animal geek]

 

[DonIago]

My family got back from a vacation to the Caribbean one year to discover that a hawk had flown through one of our porch windows, then tried to fly out another porch window.

It didn't make it. The porch was a mess of glass and...hawk.

 

[propita]

When I worked in aerospace, we'd occasionally have to go test equipment onsite. I went to one lab, always joked around with the guy, and he said he though there was a bird trapped somewhere, in a side room, in a cabinet (lots of cabinets), but couldn't find it. I listened a bit, walked around the lab...and found that one computer screen in one cabinet had no image, but the sound was on...and it was tweeting. Seems the guy didn't like having the image on for no reason while it was processing and forgot that he set it to notify him of whatever!

 

[RJDiogenes]

I've had birds hit the window in a couple of office buildings I've worked in. But the weirdest thing happened when I was sitting in the passenger seat of a parked car one time, waiting for the driver to come back from inside the store. It was an old car and it had the long external antenna popping up from behind the hood right in front of me. As I sat there, a bird came swooping by, straight into the antenna. He bounced to a stop on the hood of the car, sat there for a few seconds shaking his head as the antenna slowly twanged back and forth, then got up, walked around in a circle to get his bearings and flew off. It was like a cartoon.

 

[propita]

Lol!

We had a bird dive bomb our antenna while on a freeway. Result was blood on the car and a dead bird.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

The glass sliding doors and windows facing my back porch are non-reflective, so we haven't had any birdstrikes. However, we do have a bird feeder on the porch which attracts a lot of birds (mostly house finches) and when we first got it one of the cats got so excited she sprinted after the birds and didn't put the brakes on fast enough to stop before face-planting into the sliding door. It was like something out of a Roadrunner cartoon with her forward momentum and the slippery tile floor working against her as her little legs tried frantically to stop. She was fine, but she learned to sneak up to the sliding door rather than rush at it.

 

[Emher]

I was cleaning some windows at work one time hen I just heard a huge "THWACK!" sound. A bird had gone full force into the window I was cleaning and was sitting down on the porch outside, trying to get his bearings back. Hope the little fella made it.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ A bird once hit the porch at a chalet I was staying at in New Hampshire and he got up and flew away. Animals are pretty tough, so if he wasn't going too fast he was probably okay.

We had a bird dive bomb our antenna while on a freeway. Result was blood on the car and a dead bird.

Ouch. I once hit a bird while driving down the expressway-- there was a rather unbelievable amount of feathers.

It was like something out of a Roadrunner cartoon with her forward momentum and the slippery tile floor working against her as her little legs tried frantically to stop. She was fine, but she learned to sneak up to the sliding door rather than rush at it.

At her old house, my mother used to have a screenhouse in the backyard. One of her cats, Max, was a little strange and often exhibited cartoon behaviors. He couldn't seem to grasp the concept of the screen and if anything startled him when we were out there he would inevitably try to run right through it, fold up like an accordion and go bouncing and rolling backward. This was the same cat who eventually had an identity crisis and became a horse.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

When I was a kid birds flew into our window all the time.

My mother was a birder. Life list person. Every damn bird that died at the pane of our glass she wrapped up in foil and put in the freezer. To admire the plumage.

It was seriously fraught to look for leftovers.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Ouch. I once hit a bird while driving down the expressway-- there was a rather unbelievable amount of feathers.

I was going about 75 on the interstate, just over the Wisconsin border when a pheasant flew down and decided to cross the road on foot.

Like you said, a lot of feathers, plus a tumbling bird corpse and a slightly out of whack exhaust connection.

 

[Pingfah]

I mean INTO the window. The window being closed at the time.

I was at the computer and heard a huge BOOM, then silence. I got up, opened the front door, and saw a pigeon fly off, losing lots of those little soft feathers. I looked at my window and saw a circular smudge with a bit of blood.

What the hell was that bird doing flying INTO a window? What, did it not see the house sitting there?

Anybody else have this happen or know why a bird would do this?

Were your children born with full heads of hair?

 

[J.T.B.]

As it happens, a yellow-rump warbler flew into my sliding glass door just a couple of days ago. It did not survive. I felt pretty bad because winter is hard enough for those little guys.

I have hit probably a dozen birds while driving, and always mourning doves. The go out with an explosion of feathers and leave a gray smudge on your vehicle.

 

[Squiggy]

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaY5-LGYJKc[/yt]

 

[Melakon]

I was going about 75 on the interstate, just over the Wisconsin border when a pheasant flew down and decided to cross the road on foot.

I hit a pheasant driving home from dad's graveyard service. Shook me up so badly (thinking it an omen), my friend had to drive the remaining 150 miles.

 

[propita]

I mean INTO the window. The window being closed at the time.

I was at the computer and heard a huge BOOM, then silence. I got up, opened the front door, and saw a pigeon fly off, losing lots of those little soft feathers. I looked at my window and saw a circular smudge with a bit of blood.

What the hell was that bird doing flying INTO a window? What, did it not see the house sitting there?

Anybody else have this happen or know why a bird would do this?

Were your children born with full heads of hair?

????

Oh, and...no kids anyway. But I'm not getting the reference. I tend to literalism. And obliviousness.

 

[Avon]

update from my parent's house: a silhouette failed to prevent the tragic death of a 'brown looking bird'.

 

[bigdaddy]

Might have been drunk.

A local library had to cut down a small tree because they figured out the birds were eating the fermenting berries, getting drunk and flying into the windows. Killed a couple dozen a year before it was so bad they had to do something.