el acres Ue Ue DrOuNe BULL Biel N 13 
Are Your ‘Picture’ Windows A Problem For Birds? 
Text & Picture by WILLIAM E. SPROAT 
Birds used to fly against our picture window, believing that it was a 
“fly-through-hole” because of the peculiar reflection of the surrounding 
trees and shrubs. A few were killed, but many were simply dazed by 
the impact, recovering after a short time, but learning little by the 
experience. 
Borrowing from the “early warning system” used by the railroads 
proved to be our solution. As you have seen, railroads have short ropes 
or wires suspended from a frame to gently warn trainmen to “duck, or 
else’, when they are riding atop a freight car and approaching an over- 
hanging obstruction or tunnel. 
Our warning to the birds (we don’t know what to name it) is simply 
a series of articulated quarter-inch dowel rods, suspended at six-inch 
intervals from our roof overhang. With these dimensions, birds in flight 
can’t get past. These rods needn‘t have been articulated if a four-foot 
length had been a sufficient depth, but we needed five-feet-plus. So, the 
extra foot was added by interconnecting two small screw-eyes inserted 
in ends of both dowel sections. This articulation, however, allows a certain 
freedom of action that serves both as an added cushioning effect and 
also—if the birds happen to hit the rods—a “visual-signal’” movement to 
them. 
The entire visual effect of the “remedy” is really not unattractive 
to viewers. It looks rather decorative, especially now that the birch dowels 
have weathered to a silvery gray that matches the bricks of our house. 
The pay-off to us, if not the birds, is our chance upon occasion to describe 
the contraption as each new visitor asks us, ‘““‘What’s that thing?” 
—2788 Roslyn Lane, Highland Park, Ill. 
