For the past 3 days a male cardinal has been flying up to my bedroom
window, perching there, fluttering against the glass and tapping on the
window sill or the window. When I approach the window the bird backs off
to a hedge (6 feet away) dances around and stares at me.
My first thought was to check my feeders to see if they were empty, but
they were all at least 2/3 full and have been kept filled throughout this
period. The bird continues.

What is he trying to tell me? He'd like a change in menu? Different
waiter? Anybody have any ideas?

Thanks
Martin Donoff
grey at netaxs.com

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From: keith reid-green <kreid-green at ROSEDALE.ORG>

Martin:

Your cardinal is exhibiting territorial behavior. He is trying to chase away
the cardinal he sees in the glass. The only way I know of to stop this
(we've had two cardinals do it and they go on for days) is to get some wire
screen and tack it to the outside of your window. I used the plastic screen
wire that you can buy at the hardware store--the same stuff that is in your
screen doors and windows.

Keith Reid-Green, Princeton, NJ
kreid-green at rosedale.org

=================================

From: hir <hir at CC.BELLCORE.COM>

Well, I had a male cardinal do that every day for 18 months. At first
it was one window, and I closed the blinds to change the reflection
pattern. That didn't work. So I put a screen on the window. That at
least changed the sound from THUNK to SPROING! Ultimately he attacked
almost every window in the house. He would hit the windows so hard that
there would be small feathers and blood spots stuck to the glass. I don't
know when he had time to eat. He would start at sunrise, and would attack
pretty much throughout the day. One day I tried leaving open the window he
was attacking. That confused him for a few minutes, but then he flew down
to the window sill, looked inside the house, and then flew straight up and
banged into the glass. Nothing placed inside the window seemed to make any
difference. After a year he was a pretty ratty looking bird, with lots of
gray underfeathers showing through the red. All this started one spring day,
and went through the fall of the following year, when he disappeared.

Hope you have better luck than I did. Birdchat wasn't available to me then,
and no one I talked to had any ideas as to how to stop him. Hopefully there
will be someone in Chatland who can provide some answers.

From: Rocky Rothrock Internet address: hir at cc.bellcore.com
Holmdel, NJ 07733 Work telephone: (908) 758-2136
Home telephone: (908) 264-9119