BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.

Subject: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: jacqui.c
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 09:25 AM

Every day a male Cardinal lands on the bottom of the upper window frame knocks on the window pane and looks us over, then flies away.

This happens at various times during the day but there doesn't seem to be a particular pattern to it. We keep the feeders at the back of the house well supplied but the window he sits at is at the front. He doesn't seem to do this at any other window in the house.

Anybody got any ideas as to why he is doing this?

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: Ron Davies
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 09:28 AM

At least he doesn't attack his own reflection. Birds can and do hurt themselves doing this. Sounds like your window is too clean--can anything be done about that?

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: jacqui.c
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 09:31 AM

The window actually needs cleaning - He seems deliberately to perch there for some reason.

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: open mike
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 11:33 AM

does he want to get in out of the cold?

there are not cardinals west of the rockies,
but i heard that some were smuggled into a
place in southern california and there is a
whole flock of them there now! maybe he wants
to join them there..

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: artbrooks
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 11:35 AM

Jacqui, get rid of that nightie with the cardinals on it!

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: Bill D
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 12:57 PM

this is probably just part of his survey of "his territory". He may do the same think in other spots that you don't notice so easily.

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 01:28 PM

I wonder if Liz the squeak has the same trouble with her tits?

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: gnu
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 01:56 PM

Well! Imagine that! He is drawing attention to your window needing cleaning? Hang out a little bottle of Windex and a rag for the cheeky wee bugger!

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: kendall
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 02:35 PM

He also attacks the mirrors on the cars.

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 03:31 PM

If he knocks on the pane, I think he has seen his reflection and thinks there's a competitor there. When he knocks the glass, he feels its hard surface and knows the "other" bird isn't real. Then he flies off.

Cats and dogs do something similar - when they see their reflection in the mirror, they poke the mirror with their noses, then lose interest.

Once when I was waiting for a bus, I watched a male cardinal investigate his reflection in a side-view mirror. Every time a car passed, he fled, and then when the street was quiet, he returned. The bus came, so I didn't get to see how it all turned out.

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 03:35 PM

A birdie with a yellow bill
Hopped upon my windowsill
Cocked his shining eye and said
"Ain't you shamed, you sleepyhead!"

(SRS channeling RLS)

Mom edited it before shouting this up the stairs to us, or she mis-remembered it. She used to finish it "Get up get up you sleepyhead!"

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: ranger1
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 04:55 PM

Jacqui, it's territorial behavior. King of all he surveys, and all that. Especially if he sees his reflection. Then again, maybe he's people-watching.

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: Cluin
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 05:07 PM

He's casing the joint.

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: Cluin
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 05:11 PM

A yellow bird with a yellow bill
Was sitting on my window sill.
I lured him in with a crust of bread
And then I crushed his f__king head.

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: Joybell
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 06:30 PM

We have a number of Australian birds that exhibit this behavour. Blue Wrens are among the most obvious. I once watched a male Blue Wren in a shallow water dish. He couldn't allow his mate to bathe in the dish because of the rival male he saw under his feet in the bath.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 07:12 PM

Cardinals always do this when they see a house that needs to be tidied.

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 07:17 PM

Watched a couple of robins indulging in some spectacular mid-air territorial battling this afternoon... not in my garden I hasten to add, that's too full of tits to be interesting to MY robin... but the pecking reflection behaviour does seem to be territorial. Put a sheet of black paper where he habitually pecks and you may have a different reaction!

Alternately, get Kendall to clean the window!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: jacqui.c
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 07:21 PM

I rather like his visits. Sometimes he sits there for a few minutes, occasionally tapping the glass.

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: JennieG
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 09:23 PM

Joy - we were told recently of a blue wren who keeps admiring himself in a car mirror - the owner of the car is getting disgruntled because the bird doesn't only admire himself. He leaves a mess on the car.

If he doesn't like it then he could try covering the mirror.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: Slag
Date: 14 Jan 07 - 12:51 AM

Thank God it's only a Cardinal. If it were an Ordinal, that would be your first problem.

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: EBarnacle
Date: 14 Jan 07 - 01:02 AM

If it were a Pope, there's be even more of a problem.

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: Cluin
Date: 14 Jan 07 - 01:10 AM

Now THERE's a strange bird.

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: JennyO
Date: 14 Jan 07 - 10:03 AM

Would a Pope leave a mess on the car?

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: Paul from Hull
Date: 14 Jan 07 - 10:14 AM

Nah, the Pope sh*ts in the woods....

Oh hang on...

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: RichM
Date: 14 Jan 07 - 12:07 PM

Paul, that comment *bears* repeating!

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: Slag
Date: 14 Jan 07 - 02:54 PM

Never let a Cardinal get into the habit! It makes the wild Pope Catholic!

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: JennyO
Date: 14 Jan 07 - 10:40 PM

No - surely it's the bear that's Catholic.

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: jacqui.c
Date: 15 Jan 07 - 12:11 PM

Update.

Kendall pulled down the window blind and there was no visit from the cardinal. It is now up again but he has 'perched' a fake parrot given to him by his daughter (don't ask!) just inside the window where the cardinal lands. The Parrot is as red as the cardinal.

I think he's trying to give the poor little thing a heart attack but, based on the thump when it taps the glass, we may find that it has pecked its way in to deal with the rival!

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: EBarnacle
Date: 15 Jan 07 - 01:10 PM

Actually, the Pope was an automobile about a century ago.

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 15 Jan 07 - 01:49 PM

An amusing list of song errors in films.

BIRD SONGS Out of Place

Field Guide to Hollywood Song Birds

BY: Robert Winkler

http://pages.cthome.net/rwinkler/hollwood.htm

History of Cardinals

The Status of the Cardinal in California

BY: Alden H. Miller

The Condor, Vol. 30, No. 4 (Jul. - Aug., 1928), pp. 243-245

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0010-5422%28192807%2F08%2930%3A4%3C243%3ATSOTCI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Y&size=LARGE

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 15 Jan 07 - 03:55 PM

Oh now Kendall... that was very naughty, putting another bird in the window... that's a cardinal sin.

LTS







See you in the cellar.

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: Little Hawk
Date: 15 Jan 07 - 04:01 PM

Is it a Norwegian Red?

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: kendall
Date: 15 Jan 07 - 04:14 PM

Beautiful plumage

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: kendall
Date: 15 Jan 07 - 04:41 PM

I was curious to know if the Cardinal was interested in us or if it was just being territorial. When I pulled the shade it is not able to see into the room, so if it continues to land and batter the window, it's because it is being territorial. I removed the parrot.

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 16 Jan 07 - 03:04 PM

Advice to a birdwatcher...



Get a new Hobby

CHEERS
Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 May 20 - 01:45 AM

The Birdspotters Guide to Folk Songs

Subject: RE: BS: Advice from a birdwatcher please.
From: gillymor
Date: 25 May 20 - 08:42 AM

I had an A-frame house in Delaware with glass sliders spanning the front and fixed glass panels all the way to the ridge and birds were constantly flying into the glass and stunning themselves. I wrote the Audubon Society and the sent me some black bird decals which I fixed to the glass, problem solved.