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(ERich10983) wrote in message ...
Didn't Seinfeld do a bit about birds flying into mirrored windows?

"You'd at least think the bird would swerve to avoid hitting the other
bird!!"

My theory is that when the bird flies into a window, what it is seeing is a
reflection of the sky or distance woods.

I think they sometimes see their reflection and try to chase it away;
many birds are territorial around their nesting sites. For two summers
in a row, there was a small bird that kept smashing into our
living-room window over and over again for hours when light conditions
were such that it could clearly see its reflection. Eventually the
window got plastered with little feathers and blood, but the stupid
little bird kept attacking its reflection every time it woke up from
the last attempt. I'm not sure if it finally died of natural causes or
from the repeated concussions, but one day we noticed that the window
was no longer going "boink" all the time.

BTW, power lines kill so many birds that foxes have pretty much
stopped hunting for food around here. They simply patrol along the
power lines, and eat what they find. What I think happens is that the
birds' eyesight is focused so far away when flying in open terrain
that nearby powerlines become a misty blur. At least, I can't think of
any other explanation for why sharp-sighted eagles and hawks manage to
hit such obvious obstacles; a sea eagle can spot a dead fish from
miles away, but I've found dead eagles beneath power lines.

--
Aamund Breivik