One thing you may have encountered during your life is the unfortunate event of a bird colliding with a glass window. Obviously, with glass being see-through in most circumstances, you can see why a bird might fly into it. But why exactly does this happen?
Within this article, we will tell whether birds can in fact see through glass or not, and why this happens to be. So please, read on if this is something that you have wondered about.
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Why do birds fly into glass?
Birds, in fact, can most certainly see through glass. The problem of them colliding with glass is much the same as humans might have with walking into a clear glass window or sliding door (come on, we’ve all been there). Whereas a human will come to realize where glass is usually locating within a building and what the areas commonly surrounding glass will look like, a bird has no concept of what a building is, or indeed what glass is. This makes it impossible for a bird to properly contextualize what glass is in the way that humans can.
If a bird is lucky enough to survive its initial impact with glass whilst flying, they may only be stunned for a while instead of killed, then they will most likely learn to avoid the area.
This does not mean they understand what glass is, only that they know that there is a danger in that area to avoid.
What can I do to help stop bird hitting the glass?
Whilst the issue of birds colliding with glass will never truly go away, there a few things you can do if you want to look out for your feathery friends.
If you have a problem with birds commonly flying into your windows at home, you can try to draw the blinds or curtains as often as possible, this will help to show the birds that the window is solid and they cannot fly through it, and so will avoid any injury on their part.
Adding patterns and designs to windows can also help to indicate that to a bird that they cannot fly through a window, the bird may perceive these patterns as obstacles and choose another path.
Final Thoughts
To conclude, birds can in fact see through glass, they just have a little trouble understanding what glass is and that they cannot fly through it.
You can help them out by making your windows seem solid to them by drawing your curtains or giving them some other kind of texture.
Hopefully, this article has been useful in answering your question and giving you some tips to help avoid any birds colliding with glass.
