Deb,
I use a colander and a quite and warm place in my house until they have recovered.
The upside down colander works great.

However, I was getting some four of five hits a week, until I got some window decals
from the Wild Bird Unlimited store in Spokane. These decorative decals are not the
regular black plastic ones, but white and break up the reflection better than
black. They have Chickadees, Butterflies and Hummingbirds, and very realistic.
These are really neat and reduced my window collisions to nearly zero (now I still
get one a month, maybe, and have not had a dead bird in over a year).

I asked the Bird Feeders of America how many birds are killed by windows each year
and their answer was over 50 million each year. Anything I can do to lower that
number is good.

John Miller

Deb Beutler wrote:

> I need help from the rehab people on the list. Is there some way to
> protect birds that are momentarily stunned by impacting on windows from
> being eaten. I feed birds in my yard and about once, a bird (ususally House
> Finches, American Goldfinch, or Pine Siskin) slams into my front window.
> Most birds give it a glancing blow and fly off. A few are killed instantly
> and they are donated to the museum here at WSU to go into the collection.
> However, a significant number are too stunned to fly but some have
> recovered. Usually I put them in a tree to keep them from the cats, then
> keep an eye on them the best I can. They usually disappear within half an
> hour. I have always assumed they flew away but yesterday I started to doubt it.
> About 1000 PST, I heard the sickening thud and raced outside to get
> to the bird before a cat did. It was an American Goldfinch. It was still
> alive but was relatively unresponsive. I picked it up and held it in my
> hand to keep it warm. It seemed to perk up a bit and I tried to put it in
> the tree but it wouldn't grab the branch so I set it on top of the bird
> feeder. I went back in the house and tried to keep an eye on it. I saw a
> Black-billed Magpie fly into the yard and before I could get outside to
> scare it away, the magpie grabbed the goldfinch in its bill and flew off. I
> felt really sad that the goldfinch died anyway.
> I was wondering if there was something I could keep them in,
> temporarily, until they revive enough to fly away. Should I keep them in a
> bird cage, box or what. Should I leave them outside or bring them inside.
> Please respond to me personally.
>
> Thanks
>
>
> Deb Beutler
> Department of Zoology
> P.O. Box 644236
> Washington State Univerisity
> Pullman, Whitman Co., WA
> dbeutler at wsunix.wsu.edu