Just had a talk with my kid's science teacher that changed my whole view on window decals

Honestly, I was at a school thing last week and got chatting with Mr. Benson, my son's 7th grade teacher. He's a big bird guy. I mentioned my new window stickers, the ones with the little hawk shapes. He just shook his head and said, 'Those are too far apart. Birds will try to fly through the gaps. The pattern needs to be dense, like 2 inches apart, or it's just decoration.' That hit different because I'd spent like 30 bucks on them thinking I was doing the right thing. He showed me a picture on his phone of a proper setup using white tempera paint dots in a tight grid. It looked messy, but he said it works. Now I feel like I've been giving myself a false sense of security while birds are still at risk. Has anyone else switched from decals to a painted grid or something similar and seen a real drop in strikes?

3 comments

3 Comments

norag552mo ago

We switched to using white soap markers on our big windows last fall. The grid looks a bit odd but we haven't had a single thump since we put it up. It's a cheap fix that actually works.

wells.brooke2mo ago

My cousin in Seattle tried soap grids for a year and still found three dead warblers on her patio. Maybe you just got lucky with slower local birds.

jake_hall882mo ago

Is it really that big a deal though? I mean, my neighbor has those spaced-out decals and I've never seen a bird hit his place. Maybe some birds are just smarter than we give them credit for.