During Spring when temperatures fluctuate the most, birds are more prone to flying right into windows.
“Some of these birds have flown all the way from South America, so it’s been a two-month journey for them to arrive here,” said Sherrie Versluis, owner of the preferred perch bird supplies store on St. Mary’s road in Winnipeg.
Each day, 6 to 8 million birds die from flying into windows in North America, according to Versluis.
Nicola Koper is a professor of natural resources at the University of Manitoba. She studies why birds act this way.
“We do get a very large number of birds flying into windows during the migration period, I find, particularly in the spring. And it may be that birds are tired from their flight, but also very busy and anxious to get going to start breeding.”
Koper says that makes them particularly vulnerable to potential accidents.
“We lose so many birds to window collisions that we do think that it can affect the actual population trends of many species. Particularly songbirds, warblers and a variety of other species at risk as well.”
Birds cannot see past the reflection, so having all your lights off inside is the best way to help flying creatures avoid a crash.
Versluis sells plenty of products that can assist in reducing bird-on-window collisions.
“These are the silhouette devils of a bird of prey. So as the birds are flying into your window, it’s going to look like they’re about to be caught by predators. So they’ll swerve to avoid.”
“These are a more a non-intrusive type of decal. It’s a clear decal that to the human eye is just a shadow. But there’s an ultraviolet film on these,” she continued.