This evening we found a bird lying in the grass in our backyard. Unfortunately, it was dead. Even more unfortunately, it was a warbler.
The spring migration has begun and these beautiful little birds are making their way to the boreal forests in northern Canada. They eat insects and as such they are not birds you would see at your bird feeders. Each species has its own specialized niche in the forest. Some stay close to the trunk, others feed at the tops of trees and still others tend to forage in the underbrush.
The boys were quite sympathetic with the bird. "We didn't wanted him to be died, we wanted him to be alive." was the BlueJay's sentiment. It was mine too.
It was a female black and white warbler. They creep along the trunks and branches of trees.
Here is the cause of her death. Birds see the reflection of the sky and the trees in the glass, and don't realize there is a window there. It doesn't help that we have a small tree near this window. A number of birds have met their end at this window.
This happens on a much larger scale with the windows on the large office towers downtown. If the lights are on at night, the birds don't see the glass and fly right into the building. This is a short article about FLAP, the Fatal Light Awareness Program. They have recorded over 41,000 bird collisions in Toronto since 1993.
I suggested to the boys that we could make hawk silhouettes to put on the window, hoping that this would help.
The boys enjoyed the activity. It is always good to feel proactive. I was a little disheartened when I read on the FLAP website that they don't really work. They did have a list of suggestions, (look under the section 'Being Bird Friendly'). I'll talk about them with the boys and we can decide on the best one for our yard. Hopefully we can learn from this and the black and white warbler's death at our window will be the last.
8 comments:
What an excellent way to help your kids process the death and do something about it!
Jenna
What a sad way to learn about this! We have had birds fly into our windows a few times, but we haven't found any dead birds from the collisions; I never even thought about that before. Thank you for the information and link.
I enjoyed your HOTM article earlier this week!
~another Andrea
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/andijeane/536748/
We had a female cardinal fly into our carport door! I think a hawk scared her, she flew under the carport and thought she could go through the door. We actually used it as a teaching experience (My kids were younger, like maybe 3 & 4). We put the bird into the freezer and once she was frozen hard, we were able to look at her, feel her wings and beak, etc. We also did the same with a barred owl that somehow got hurt on our property then died. That was a sad day, let me tell ya. The poor little thing looked like he wanted to recover, but I think whatever scared him into running into the house, he just flew into it too hard.
Awww...poor birds...so sweet! Great project!
Thanks for the comments everyone! I like the idea of putting the bird in the freezer. I couldn't quite decide what to do with it.
We looked at our hawk silouettes from outside the window, and the Nuthatch pointed out that the birds couldn't really see them, and there was still a lot of reflection. We're going to try putting some strips of shiny ribbon in front of the glass and see if that helps. Hopefully the wind blowing the ribbon will help keep the birds away.
My children have their own little birdie graveyard from all the ones they've found on our lawn too.
Great way to get them involved and feel they are doing something to help!
That is really sad. We've had some birds hit the window, but I've never noticed that any have died. It's neat that your boys could do something to help.
That is sad. I do like the way you handled the situation though - - I will keep it in mind.
Thanks for sharing!
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