Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Reflections don't leave, however, and they don't countersing. To drive the reflected
birdaway,thecardinal getsintofullbattle mode,lungingattheglass.Butratherthanfly-
ing away or engaging in a normal “chase,” the reflected bird matches every aggressive
posture, and when the real cardinal hits, the window is unyielding. The real cardinal gets
so intent on driving the reflection away that he may waste weeks fighting with it.
It's not too hard to solve the problem if the cardinal is fixated on just one window.
Just soap the outside of the window or cover it with screening or newspapers for a few
days. Unfortunately, sometimes when a reflection disappears from one window, the car-
dinal searches for and finds it in other windows.
Sometimes you can scare a bird away by taping helium balloons or shiny streamers
on the window. Their unpredictable movements may scare birds from approaching close
enoughtoseetheirreflection.Usuallybythetimetheheliumisgoneandtheballonssink,
the bird will have moved on. Some people recommend using Great Horned Owl decoys
to scare birds away, but I once saw a bird using one of those as a perch from which to
more conveniently continue to attack the window.
MIRROR, MIRROR, ON THE WALL
Some birds,
especially in the crow family, can probably recognize that a mirror re-
flection is just that, not a real bird. One experiment showed that magpies marked with
bright yellow or red on the throat reacted to their mirror image by scratching at the
colored area on their own body; birds marked with black matching their throat feathers
didn't react that way. This ability to recognize oneself in a mirror isn't known to occur
in other animals except primates, dolphins, and elephants. It's unfortunate that cardinals
and robins don't share this ability!
No matter what you do, the cardinal won't attack your windows forever; he'll usually
lose interest when the breeding season advances and passions aren't running so high.
