Female cardinal banging on my window... how to stop?

[jgradyc]

There are a pair of cardinals looking for a nest that keep banging on my car windshield and upstairs windows. Any idea on how to stop this? They're pooping on my car and deck.

Yeah, I could shoot them, but the only trespassers I'd be forced to shoot are coyotes and humans. 

[gregintenn]

12 gauge

[bersaguy]

My daughter had the same problem with 2 cardinals that keep pecking on her bedroom window every morning. She had tried several different ways to stop them but nothing has worked and finally I told her to put a good size mirror in the window so they could see their reflections and it stopped them. This might work in your house but have no clue how to stop the car windshield issue.

[gregintenn]

Is your car red? I once had a red truck, and the red birds would fight the mirrors all sad every day. They'd poop all over the truck and scratch the paint. Dispatching them was the only remedy I found.

[peejman]

They see their reflection.  Fix that and they'll go away. 

[Sam1]

2 hours ago, jgradyc said:

There are a pair of cardinals looking for a nest that keep banging on my car windshield and upstairs windows. Any idea on how to stop this? They're pooping on my car and deck.

Yeah, I could shoot them, but the only trespassers I'd be forced to shoot are coyotes and humans. 

tape a cd or something that shines/glittery in the window.  I have the same problem with the large windows in my kitchen, robins fly into it full speed trying to mate with themselves all spring.  Put a couple of old cd's up and poof they stopped doing it instantly.

 

[mikegideon]

 

 

[analog_kidd]

I've got the exact same problem. There is a cardinal that pecks on my windows ALL DAY LONG. It starts at sunrise, and quits at dusk. I'm surprised it hasn't injured itself yet. It pecks on the sunroom for a while, then heads around back and pecks on the back room windows, then goes to the side of the house and pecks on the side room windows. It will land near the window, then fly at it in attack mode, wrestle with itself for a moment, then land again. Repeat that over and over and over. I'm sure it's going after it's reflection, but we have waaay too many windows to try and cover them up with anything. 

[Garufa]

Ignorant cardinals and robins pecking on windows beats the hell out of woodpeckers going to town on the gutters!  I have no ideas what those demons think they'll get out of aluminum on Saturday or Sunday mornings when I'm trying to sleep.

[dralarms]

0 had all my windows done in mirror tint. Now all spring birds are beating on my windows. 

[Johnny Rotten]

G Rated

 

[Oh Shoot]

I've only seen male cardinals exhibit that behavior.

We had one particularly persistent one once, left beak specks on damn near every square millimeter of one picture window, went on and on.  Don't see how he ever had enough time to eat enough to stay alive.

- OS

Edited May 11, 2017 by Oh Shoot

[Ronald_55]

The drive to breed can be a powerful thing

[Ugly]

Damnedest thing these birds and windows. I had a crow doing that as well and it would go to town on the sill, he hasn't been back since we had a little talk. He left plenty of damage though. 

i also have a problem with Hawks coming in for a snack while the birds are at the feeder, occasionally they fly in to the window and break their neck. Had two doves do it one day and the hawk came back for them. Watched him grab one dove and drag it to the other one. Then proceeded to start plucking feathers to get to the meat. It was impressive to see as he was only about 4 feet away from me. 

The cds do work, it's the movement that spooks the birds. 

[Ronald_55]

I have not had this issue, but most of our windows have screens.

I do have the woodpecker on the gutters sometimes though. Mine is always early in the morning on a weekend too.

[peejman]

14 hours ago, Garufa said:

Ignorant cardinals and robins pecking on windows beats the hell out of woodpeckers going to town on the gutters!  I have no ideas what those demons think they'll get out of aluminum on Saturday or Sunday mornings when I'm trying to sleep.

Probably using the gutter as a hard surface against which to open seeds or nuts. Same at my house as well, though it's not always woodpeckers. Some other seed eating birds will do the same thing. 

As mentioned, CD's, pie pans, strips of foil... anything reflective will help keep them away. 

 

8 hours ago, Ugly said:

Damnedest thing these birds and windows. I had a crow doing that as well and it would go to town on the sill, he hasn't been back since we had a little talk. He left plenty of damage though. 

i also have a problem with Hawks coming in for a snack while the birds are at the feeder, occasionally they fly in to the window and break their neck. Had two doves do it one day and the hawk came back for them. Watched him grab one dove and drag it to the other one. Then proceeded to start plucking feathers to get to the meat. It was impressive to see as he was only about 4 feet away from me. 

The cds do work, it's the movement that spooks the birds. 

Our resident Cooper's hawk snacks at our feeders pretty regularly too. It's cool to see. 

One thing you might do to help with the window impacts is to move the feeders a bit. The hawks will dive from a high point toward the feeders.  They're also very prone to target fixation and simply will not see what's beyond their prey. If your windows are in line with the feeders and tall trees or other high points, they will come crashing in.  Moving the feeders even a few feet could help that considerably. 

[jgradyc]

Let's see if this works.  It's a smartphone suction mount with zip ties to hold the CD far enough away from the car to rotate in the breeze. 

Edited May 11, 2017 by jgradyc

[Garufa]

2 hours ago, peejman said:

Probably using the gutter as a hard surface against which to open seeds or nuts. Same at my house as well, though it's not always woodpeckers. Some other seed eating birds will do the same thing. 

As mentioned, CD's, pie pans, strips of foil... anything reflective will help keep them away.

I'm not turning the outside of my house into Fred Sanford's place just to chase off the occasional gutterpecker. 

Edited May 11, 2017 by Garufa

[Ronald_55]

1 hour ago, Garufa said:

I'm not turning the outside of my house into Fred Sanford's place just to chase off the occasional gutterpecker. 

I suggest a Red Rider BB gun then. Lol

[Shorty]

Life like rubber snake. Make sure to secure it though or a larger bird may try to fly off with it.   Worked for me when I had birds trying to nest on my window siles.  Took a few go arounds.

[gregintenn]

A more perplexing problem for me at least, is how to keep crows out of the garden.

[Ronald_55]

6 minutes ago, gregintenn said:

A more perplexing problem for me at least, is how to keep crows out of the garden.

Uhhh...How about a SCARECROW.......Sorry couldn't resist.

[peejman]

25 minutes ago, gregintenn said:

A more perplexing problem for me at least, is how to keep crows out of the garden.

A cat?

[gregintenn]

19 minutes ago, Ronald_55 said:

Uhhh...How about a SCARECROW.......Sorry couldn't resist.

I've seen crows sitting atop our scarecrow.

[gregintenn]

1 minute ago, peejman said:

A cat?

I'd prefer the crows. Not much of a cat person.