I just hung a sheer curtain

[sorefeet]

outside my big window that birds keep flying into. It takes the reflection away and I still get light for my plants inside. It should work and I'll take it down when the leaves change I guess. I just hate seeing the birds get hurt or killed.

[irisblue]

1. good on you!

[Arkansas Granny]

2. Great idea. Let us know if it works.

[MADem]

3. If it doesn't work, try these....

http://www.birdsavers.com/

Acopian BirdSavers need to be installed on the outside of the window. This is so that birds flying towards the window will see the cords, avoid them, and therefore not fly into the glass. Acopian BirdSavers consist of 1/8 inch diameter nylon cords (olive-colored parachute cord, available in many places) hanging four and one quarter inches (4-1/4˝ ) apart. Any method you use to achieve this will significantly decrease the number of birds that are hitting a problem window. The bottoms of the cords don’t need to go all the way to the bottom of the glass. Most people like the look of the cords when they stop about 3 inches above the bottom of the glass. There are various ways to attach the BirdSavers cords to a window. See our webpage for example photos, or invent your own method! What you will use to support the vertical “hanging cords” depends upon your particular window’s situation. You will achieve a 90 to 100 percent reduction in bird-window collisions by installing Acopian BirdSavers.

Order Online – Acopian BirdSavers
If you decide to order Acopian BirdSavers, instead of making your own, the top attachment “support cord” will be made of parachute cord. These types of BirdSavers are a little more difficult to make than any of the other versions shown on the website. You will achieve a 90 to 100 percent reduction in bird-window collisions by installing Acopian BirdSavers.

You can make your own out of pretty much anything--they have to hang outside the window to work, though.

[In_The_Wind]

4. Another thing that works to save bird strikes is a light inside the window.

[lunatica]

5. What I used to do which worked quite well

was also decorative.

I took long thin wooden $2 dollar rods that I put across the tops of the windows (on the outside) and tied long streaming thin satin ribbons to them at set distances from each other and at the ends of the ribbons I put small cork tops. The result was that it looked like a mobile and it was a perfect deterrent to the birds from flying into the glass. The corks at the bottom ends were good to keep the ribbons straight and if the wind blew the corks wouldn't break the glass. The length of the ribbons only need to be long enough so that the birds who confuse the reflection of the sky on the windows with the real sky see there's something in the way.

It really looked nice.

[hunter]

6. I hung ordinary window screen loosely a few inches in front of the glass.

It's held by a rod at the top, and a rod at the bottom that acts as a counterweight. The bottom rod is very loosely tied to the house to keep the screen from flapping about on windy days.

A also painted the screen white with spray paint. From the outside it looks more like a wall, and less as open space, as reflected in the glass.

The birds still hit the screen sometimes, but it acts like a blanket.

For a long time I had trouble with a hawk who would swoop in on birds enjoying our kitchen garden, scattering them wildly. Inevitably one or two terrified birds would stun themselves hitting the glass, and end up as lunch for the hawk. I began to think the hawk was doing it on purpose.