Kamikaze Bluetits

The don't bash into our downstairs windows, but they do peck a lot at the window seals and nooks and crannies on the walls. They seem to be able to spot a miniscule insect from a far distance!

Sometimes it sounds as though they're trying to peck their way into the house!

They see their reflections in glass and think it's someone trying to pinch their territory, so they go into attack mode! It often takes a while for the penny to drop!

Sorry I should have read your post properly!

It is because they see their reflection and they think they've got a rival. I hate it when it happens. I have an awful bird phobia. One came inside my partially opened bedroom window. Luckily he just had a go at fighting himself from the inside and then buzzed off. Luckily it only happens in the Spring when the sex hormones go into overdrive. I have been known to pin a bit of net curtain up until the one for it passes. That does stop it. Robins can do it all through the Summer.

I heard the first one start yesterday. [shudder]

time for it

Draw the curtains so that the reflection from the sky does not make the windows look like open space.
Look at your windows on both sides of your house with the curtains open and thwn shut and you will see what I mean.

I think I have very weird birds round here as they do it with the blinds/ curtains drawn too. Nothing seems to put them off.
I'm beginning to think Alfred Hitchcock! I am not crazy about birds too near me but I don't have a phobia.
We had a magpie come in through the dog flap a few years ago. Apparently they will watch rabbits going into borrows & go in to take the babies. They must have seen the cats coming in & out & thought there were rich pickings. The mess it made it the kitchen was awful. The noise made me think we had intruders as I was upstairs at the time & all 3 cats & dog were cowering in the hall.

Very weird birds.

We have the same with lots of birds, not just bluetits. 2 years ago- one chaffinch hit hte kitchen door so hard- it died, twitched for a while with blood coming out of its mouth. I felt truly terrible.

We've since bought some sticky bird shapes we've stuck to windows near the feeders- and this doesn't happen any more, thank goodness. Why not ask your local RSPB or pet store.

craftycat I posted a thread a while back about one of my cats bringing in a magpie, and regretting it!

RSPB sell two types on their website btw.

We had a swallow sitting on the kitchen windowsill (inside) a few years ago; it must have come through the top opener. I had never seen one close up before - they are very pretty - and it was quite nerve-wracking trying to reach across it and open the big window to let it out.

A starling used to regularly fall down the chimney into our sitting room (and frighten my mother who couldn't move very well!). We had a cowl put on the chimney pot and he/she didn't appear after that. It seemed to be the same one time and again, with a dazed expression and so scared it used to poo everywhere.

What a good idea about the sticky bird shapes for the windows - perhaps they do one of a sparrowhawk?

We've got the sticky bird shapes, and yes one shape is a hawk which I put high up on the window like it was diving in. Four windows in our sun room and one bird shape on each window has been enough to stop them. For us it was the blackbirds which were worst - and they did knock themselves out!

We have a real Sparrow Hawk sometimes. Scary seeing them go for small birds.
I hadn't thought of shapes but have just ordered some- thank you- I KNEW someone would have the answer.

Funnily enough just tis morning one of the blue tits started eating out of the feeder which makes me suspect that my very weird birds also read GN posts.

I won't use one of those shapes. Seems unkind somehow. Frighten the little things.

A year or two ago, I was staying with a friend when there was an almighty bang which sounded as if someone had thrown a rock at the window. Outside, on the path, we found a very dead pigeon. At the moment I don't have a problem as my feeding station is at quite a distance from my windows. Some time ago, jackdaws had to be evicted from my chimney where they were attempting to find a ledge on which to make a nest. They had dropped all sorts of stuff down, including a four inch iron bolt - ambitious nest builders! I now have a bird guard.

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It's usually wood pigeons here but last week I was a female woodpecker. She survived but dizzy. DH spent a while standing in te rain making sure the local cats didn't have a feast. She flew off rather drunkenly

It not me

Oh poor thing!

jingl would you rather they died?

Don't be silly. I am talking bluetits and the window pecking thing. Doing that doesn't harm them. I would hate to scare all the birds away from the apple tree outside my bedroom window. As a cutout of a sparrow hawk would.

They'll not just sitting on the window sill pecking their reflection jingl, but flying full tilt into the glass.

Only one shape is hawk shaped, two are blackbirdy/sparrowish and one definitely a swift. I think it just tells the birds the glass is there. RSPB also sell butterfly shapes which apparently work just as well.

you can buy shapes of other birds- any shapes in fact and it works. Have a look at the RSPB on-line sales. Our bird feeders are close to the window near the settee where I read, watch tv and spend too much time on line - and it really does work.

Birds use to fly into the window at great force and knock themselves out- and at times died. I hope that woodpecker would be OK, but some of the brain damage caused means they won't recover and die later. Best frighten them a bit- and keep them safe. Our feeders today, near the shapes- had sparrows (both kinds) chaffinches, bramblings, goldfinches, bullfinches, a great spotted woodpecker, several kind of tits- and even some starlings ...

as said, have a look at RSPB website to see what is available.

We do have a visiting sparrow hawk or two- so they get feed too- somehow, but that is nature.

We have a bluetit (assume it's the same one) who goes frantic, pecking and flying at all the windows, at this time each year. Goes particularly mad with the car wing mirrors, so it must be reflection issue and he seems to stop after a few weeks - I assume once the mating season is over. Doesn't seem to hurt himself so we have named him Flathead and quite look forward to his return as a welcome sign of spring.

We have a chaffinch who has been dive bombing into a downstairs window for several weeks. We had a blue tit do the same some years ago. It is very disconcerting. I am interested to hear it is hormones in the Spring! I know it will eventually stop - might try pulling blind down....