We are at the tail end of a deadly season for migrating birds. Every spring and fall, there are more birds around, because they are migrating to and from, and every year, many birds die after hitting a window it didn’t know was there.

The executive director of Living Sky Wildlife Rehabilitation says particularly in the fall, the birds begin their lives in the boreal forest and then head south for the winter, but they have never flown in cities and towns before, so the juveniles have never experienced windows. Jan Shadick explains that from the outside, particularly when the sun is shining, the reflection from a window makes it looks like the bird can fly through.

Unfortunately, adding sun catchers and other objects to the inside of your window doesn’t help.
Shadick says because of the reflection, birds can’t see anything on the inside so if you want to prevent window strikes, you need to apply something on your window. Although see-through decals can be more picturesque, they aren’t effective unless they cover much of the window, so the wildlife rehabilitator suggests tiny dots that you can get to put on the outside or if you are a renter, you can use soap in the spring and fall.

Shadick believes there have been more reported bird strikes this year because people are spending more time at home because of COVID-19, so when a bird hits the window, it would be heard.
Otherwise, a cat or other predator could take it away, or the injured bird would hop off elsewhere to recover or in many cases, to die.