Time to chime in with my bird rehabbers suggestions for *preventing* window
strikes, since our experience with helping birds recover from them is that: most
don't. Especially among birds smaller than a waxwing, brain swelling usually
kills them within 5 days, although they might look quite chipper and normal
until the last minute.

If you have a window at home or at work that seems to be rising up and smiting
quite a few birds, you can hang strings down over it by stapling them to a strip
of cardboard and stapling the cardboard to the top of the frame. Something about
the thickness of braided fishing line will work. You need to weight the bottoms
of the strings so they don't blow around and tangle.

The black plastic netting sold to cover your berry bushes and protect them from
birds would also work if stretched tight across the window frame, a couple of
inches from the glass surface.

I have heard, but not tested, that placing a life-size picture of a human head
in the window will warn birds away from it.

They say that tests done with hawk silhouettes (sp?) pasted to windows show
little effectiveness.

If the killer window provides a see-through of the whole house, it can lead
birds to believe they can go right through. Keep shades drawn on the other side
of the room.

Good luck and try something. Mortality from window kills is as significant as
from cat predation.

Chris Maack
Bird Treatment & Learning Center
Anchorage, AK
73201.3124 at compuserve.com