Rogue Cardinal Hen Terrorizing Home
Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2005 4:22 pm
Love is in the air at the Po Monkey estate, at least with respect to the birds. There are cardinals, robins, sparrows, and doves mating, nesting, and hatching chicks throughout my yard.
Of particular interest is a cardinal hen that has become quite a pest. For the past two weeks, this bird has been perching in an ornamental tree outside the front window of our house, and every now and then flys into the window, striking it with her short and apparently very hard beak. She will do this about three to four times in a row, then stop for a few minutes, and then repeat. She strikes the window with such force that you think that the window could break and are amazed that the bird did not knock itself out cold.
When my wife and I first noticed it, we thought "how cute", that cardinal does not realize there is a window there ---hoping she would not injure herself. However, after about the third or fourth series of her banging against the window, we were thinking "how annoying" ---how can we get rid of this dang bird. As indicated above, this bird has continued this behavior now for about two weeks. Were it not for the likilihood that the bird has a nearby nest and is incubating eggs or feeding and nurturing newly hatched chicks, she would be dead at this very moment.
We have tried scaring her away with objects hung in the window ---- a fake owl, a Macardi squirrel, the cover of a MS Woods and Water mag depicting a turkey, etc. ---nothing works. At first the bird sheepishly pecks at the window, and then when she sees nothing bad has happened, she resumes her annoying routine, ignoring the faux predator in the window.
When she is not flying into the window, she is sitting on the bottom ledge of the window looking at us with those beedy little eyes. If we move toward the window and the nearby front door, she flies off. She leaves every now and then for several hours (presumably to tend to her nest), and then returns to resume this routine.
At first I thought that she might be seeing her reflection in the window, and attacking it to protect her nest, thinking it was another bird. But, that theory has gone out the window(no pun intended) since the bird will bang against the window in the early morning hours before sun up and in the evening after it is getting dark.
Does anyone on this board know what is going on with this crazy booty bird? I have never seen anything like it, or as annoying. Not even a woodpecker is this bad.
Of particular interest is a cardinal hen that has become quite a pest. For the past two weeks, this bird has been perching in an ornamental tree outside the front window of our house, and every now and then flys into the window, striking it with her short and apparently very hard beak. She will do this about three to four times in a row, then stop for a few minutes, and then repeat. She strikes the window with such force that you think that the window could break and are amazed that the bird did not knock itself out cold.
When my wife and I first noticed it, we thought "how cute", that cardinal does not realize there is a window there ---hoping she would not injure herself. However, after about the third or fourth series of her banging against the window, we were thinking "how annoying" ---how can we get rid of this dang bird. As indicated above, this bird has continued this behavior now for about two weeks. Were it not for the likilihood that the bird has a nearby nest and is incubating eggs or feeding and nurturing newly hatched chicks, she would be dead at this very moment.
We have tried scaring her away with objects hung in the window ---- a fake owl, a Macardi squirrel, the cover of a MS Woods and Water mag depicting a turkey, etc. ---nothing works. At first the bird sheepishly pecks at the window, and then when she sees nothing bad has happened, she resumes her annoying routine, ignoring the faux predator in the window.
When she is not flying into the window, she is sitting on the bottom ledge of the window looking at us with those beedy little eyes. If we move toward the window and the nearby front door, she flies off. She leaves every now and then for several hours (presumably to tend to her nest), and then returns to resume this routine.
At first I thought that she might be seeing her reflection in the window, and attacking it to protect her nest, thinking it was another bird. But, that theory has gone out the window(no pun intended) since the bird will bang against the window in the early morning hours before sun up and in the evening after it is getting dark.
Does anyone on this board know what is going on with this crazy booty bird? I have never seen anything like it, or as annoying. Not even a woodpecker is this bad.
