Thursday 18 February 2016

Bird leaves Imprint on Glass Window


We woke to another frosty morning yesterday, but it was not only the frost that had left its mark. As you can see, it looks as though a bird collided with the glass in our sliding door. I have only seen these imprints on a couple of previous occasions. One was on the window at a house in Swansea, and was clearly made by a large bird, perhaps an owl.

I was relieved that there was no other evidence of yesterday's accident, but I have no means of knowing if any real damage was done. Judging by the size of the imprint (something that the photo does not show well), I would guess that the bird was about pigeon-sized.

These imprints or images seem (in many cases) to be caused by 'powder down', which you can read about here - or, if your server allows access, here.

Richard Heeks began a Flickr group for sightings of bird imprints. He suggests that head-on images may be caused by birds who mistake their own reflection for a rival or enemy. I have certainly watched a Blue tit pecking away at its reflected self in my wing mirror.

Here is some sound advice from the RSPB: it looks as though we need to buy some hawk silhouettes.


 The photos below show the frost, which looked rather beautiful in the morning light.





2 comments:

Anonymous said...

We often get bird imprints on our windows, but luckily never find a bird below it. Like you I suspect it is the pigeons that are fooled by the glass. A good article by the RSPB - it sounds as if our bedroom mirror could be half the problem. The window stickers are a really good idea to stop it happening. Thanks for the link.

Andrea said...

Hello Caroline, how are you. I haven't been here for a while. I pity the birds that accidentally bumped on glass doors, they might have been strongly affected by the impact. Glass doors are beautiful for us, but maybe birds will not bump on wooden doors!