Stuck In The Mirror

Robin fighting his reflection (photo by Charlie Hickey)
Robin fighting his reflection (photo by Charlie Hickey)

On Throw Back Thursday:

This is the time of year when birds go mad and fight with car mirrors and windows. They don’t realize that the angry bird who won’t back down is a reflection of themselves.

Though some birds become obsessed with particular locations it’s a temporary problem while they’re establishing their territory.  Unfortunately the obsession could last for weeks!

If you’ve got a problem bird, cover the reflection for a few days so the bird can’t see itself.  Your car will look funny with plastic grocery bags on the side mirrors but the bird will give up.  Massachusetts Audubon has some helpful tips.

In 2013, this robin wasted a lot of time fighting his “challenger” on Charlie Hickey’s front door in: Tapping At My Chamber Door.

 

(photos by Charlie Hickey)

7 thoughts on “Stuck In The Mirror

  1. Haha! Back in the mid-90s I worked in an office where we had large windows along Chartiers Creek. My co-worker and I shared the bank of windows in the corner of the first floor. He had the corner office and I had the one next to his. For about 5 or 6 years every spring a male killdeer would peck at his windows for about 3 weeks and drive him (and me) nuts from the random but continuous pecking and head-butting. The weird thing was the killdeer never moved to my windows but I could hear him pecking. Killdeer would start nearest my office and walk the sill, pecking and head-butting. He’d fly away, turn and then bang into the window. It got so we had to move our engineering meetings to an interior conference room because it was so hard to concentrate. Makes me laugh now.

    Any ideas if the 4th peregrine egg will hatch?

  2. Having nothing to do with this post, I am very concerned about C3. S/He is not moving and didn’t respond to feeding time at 9:48AM. I am fearing the worst.

  3. Having nothing to do with this post, I am concerned about C3. S/He hasn’t been moving and didn’t respond to the feeding. I am fearing the worst…

  4. hoping we would see a nest full of babies this year. Didn’t see any movement earlier. Perhaps C4 will hatch and C1 will have company.No video now. many peregrine nests around the country have had successful hatches for this wonderful breed. Rochester NY is fun to watch. 4 little ones.

  5. I have a chickadee who is obsessed with mirror in my garden. I hung a towel over it cause I was getting worried it would forget to eat, mate.. etc. It does not seem angry though, more like dancing trying to entice the mirror image to dance with it, and done pretty song with it as well.

    file:///var/mobile/Library/SMS/Attachments/96/06/B3D46B97-AE38-4834-909F-B94CE26E8FD7/IMG_0756.MOV

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