Hi Paul,

I've had similar Song Sparrow behavior at my house in West Seattle,
presumably a male (or two?) attacking the sliding glass door window on our
deck and the driver's side mirror on my car. If I don't catch him in the
act, I can tell he's been around by the droppings he leaves behind. He has
been singing from a nearby perch lately. I have assumed he's just pumped
full of testosterone this time of year, looking to pick a fight with a
neighbor!

Cheers,

Kara Whittaker
West Seattle


On Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 1:59 PM, <pzfree-nature at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Hi Tweets,
>
> I am hoping someone might have an explanation for me..
>
> I have a home office and hanging right outside my window are three bird
> feeders. They are 4-5 feet from where I sit and have been there for about
a
> year and a half now.
>
> There are flocks of both chestnut backed and black capped chickadees that
> feed on the sunflower seeds and the suet. There are Juncos, Towhees,
> Nuthatches the occasional House Finch and a few Song Sparrows. About a
week
> ago, I noticed a song sparrow hopping around in a bush in kind of a
circular
> fashion and he was fluttering his wings. I looked up in the Bird
> Behavior handbook and identified this as male courting behavior. Seems a
> bit early but it has been warm... There was a female perched on a branch
of
> my apple tree close by watching attentitively.
>
> After that day, the bird began to land on the window sill and look into
the
> house. He would also peck on the glass a bit and fly up and down pecking
on
> the glass. I opened the window and the bird flew into my office about 3
> feet, turned around and flew back out. He did this 4-5 times over an
hour.
> I closed the window and sure enough he started fluttering at the window
> again.
>
> He feeds on the higher feeder and then flutters to the window and
> pecks/flutters up and down. My windows are a mess with smeared bird
> saliva/suet/whatever. He flies at the window from dawn to dusk hundreds
of
> times per day for almost a week now.
>
> He appears to be looking into the room when he does it and not looking at
> his own reflection which might be trying to drive another male bird away.
I
> would think the angle of light would make him not reflective at some times
> so this also discounts the rival theory, I think...
>
> The poor guy must be totally worn out from this game. I remember him
doing
> this last year too but not quite to this extent.
>
> Anyone help educate me on this behavior?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Paul Zoba
> Woodinville
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