Window Alert

I have tried many different methods to stop birds from striking my windows including sticking white label dots all over the window. I found these UV decals that go on the exterior of your window to be the easiest and most successful of any solution. Birds read the reflection of nature in your windows as real and think they are traveling towards trees or sky or another bird--whatever is reflected. The WindowbAlert decals are nearly invisible (so you can barely see them when looking through the window) but the birds see UV light reflected back from the decal, thereby deterring them from flying into the window. Before applying the decals I made sure to wash the window and used rubbing alcohol to remove any residue. It also helps if you place feeders and bird baths either very close to the window or away at an angle. --Terry Powell Window Alert U.V. Decals $7.00 Don't forget to comment over at Cool Tools. And remember to submit a tool!

• [facetedjewel]

  We’ve used ‘window hawks’ for years, in the half-round window in the livingroom and our bedroom window, that reflect the sky and are near the birdfeeder. They work very well. We rarely hear a hard thump against the glass heralding tragedy.

• [owza]

  Cats also work.

  • [Quiche de Resistance]

    A cat is fine too.

• [Anonymous]

  Magic! How does the kitty-corner redistribution and selective blindness of the actual bird occur?

• [Anonymous]

  Used to have problems with blue jays attacking their reflections in our tinted windows. Being woken up at sunrise with a *bam* *bam* *bam* skwaaaaak got old quick. Nothing short of removing the tint would deter those birds from attacking their evil reflections.

• [Anonymous]

  Curtains.

• [johnphantom]

  Oh wow I wish I had these 30 years ago, when I was a kid. My father’s house was one room after the other, in a strait line, with sliding glass windows down both sides on top of a mountain, and I really hated having to throw the dead bird’s bodies off into the bush…

• [Anonymous]

  would reflective tint work?

  that’s what office buildings have and seems like they don’t have birds flying into windows.

  Also, it helps in cooling and you can also see out.

  • [Anonymous]

    It would not work…and office blgs kill huge numbers of birds, particularly during foggy nights with the lights arbitrarily left on. It’s a huge downer to walk into one early and see a large dead flock of warblers on the ground before the property manager sweeps them all up, makes a crappy work day 10x crappier.

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/in-birds-vs-buildings-feathered-friends-gain-ground/article1572002/

• [yosemite]

  This might sound silly, but it’s still too conspicuous. I don’t want decals all over my living room bay window. Even a couple of these would draw my attention every time I looked toward the backyard.

• [Cool Tools]

  @yosemite,

  I imagine if you have a window that routinely collects dead birds the inconvenience might be worth it. However, if you’re willing to stomach the added expense Stewart Brand recommended a German company that released a product called Ornilux which has a feature similar to these decals but appears completely invisible to humans.

  Treehugger profiled the tech involved.

  –oliver h, editor, cool tools

  • [yosemite]

    Cool stuff! Didn’t see a price tag, so that means I probably don’t want to. (Maybe it was written in a super high-tech font that is invisible to cheapskates like me.)

    • [knappa]

      Wow, and I thought that I was cheap. It’s listed at $7.

• [franko]

  if it’s visible only to birds, HOW COME I CAN SEE IT??? O.o

• [Anonymous]

  You guys just have no regard for evolution! Just wait for another 2000 generations of bird populations losing some of them to window kamikazing and lo’: the improved bird, which either understands the glass concept, or has echo location, has a head like a glass-cutter, or somesuch.

• [mcoynesf]

  There’s probably a reason this wouldn’t work, but couldn’t they but this on the propellers of windmills to prevent birds from running into them? I guess it would work at night, but wouldn’t make the propellers look like a giant white reflective circle to the birds? Like a light on a bicycle wheel at night?

• [buddy66]

  Try a couple of sitting cat silhouettes. My daughter made one for my ”avian suicide window.” No more kamikazes.

• [Anonymous]

  Orright you lot…in summary:
  Sitting Cat Silhouette………….works…so does our live one
  Decals…hit and miss…………..depends on the bird species
  Reflective Tint…doesn’t work…..can make things worse
  Wooden storm shutters in winter….work
  Alcove window shades capable of hanging feeders in spring..work
  Bats…clean up rotting fruit..radar not foolproof..watch the claws if they land on your head..can be tamed..if you try..and try
  Blue Jays…territory defenders..that’s why they attack reflections
  If you’re really a bird lover and want to minimize the risk…put lots of bird edible plants in your garden…squirrel proof nesting boxes and feeders on free-standing poles away from windows…and the spectacle of nature will repay far more than the cost of a decal. Live with them..not against them. Ob1knowb.

• [Anonymous]

  …or get a cat.

  • [johnphantom]

    No a cat doesn’t do anything. I had some very agressive cats while I lived with my father, and they did not stop the sometimes multiple birds a day slamming into the windows.

    I hate that the birds died that way, I hate that I had to pick up their dead bodies, and I hate that I had to toss them off to decompose off in my bushes. What I really hated was to be startled while relaxing watching TV or woke from sleeping by a bird slamming into my sliding glass window.

  • [fatuousplatitudes]

    Like

• [Green Ghost]

  I put these on several windows and a sliding glass door. Can’t say for sure if they reduced the window hits but you can see where birds have hit the window just inches from the decal. And closing the drapes or blinds doesn’t work. Its the reflection of the outdoors on the windows that make the birds think its ok to fly there, so the drapes would have to be outside. As expensive as they are, considering what the manufacturing cost must be, I would not buy them again.

• [robulus]

  Birds are stupid. I had a bat fly into our living room through an open door a few nights ago, it just flew around at one foot below ceiling height in a perfect, silent oval. Because it uses sonar. Freakin’ SONAR. Suck on that, birds. Bats are cool.

• [tylerkaraszewski]

  Curtains.

  But then you can’t watch the birds, which is sort of the whole point of the bird feeder.

• [Antinous / Moderator]

  When nature wants to scare things off, she often creates the illusion of a giant eye.

• [Anonymous]

  We have these on my dorm windows. We also have 15 dead birds outside at the moment, all of whom ran into the damn windows. I wish they did work–it is so sad to see them all there.

• [Ito Kagehisa]

  A sharp-shinned hawk purposely drives birds into my in-laws picture window, then picks them up off the ground and flies off.