Deranged bird

[Catch-up]

For the last 4 days now we've had a robin dive-bombing our windows. Not doing it head on and hurting itself thankfully. Just flying up and kicking and pecking at the windows, or trying to land on the outside frame. My sister thinks it's because he sees his reflection in the windows and is trying to chase away what he thinks is a competitor. I'm open to theories that don't involve me having to clean the windows though. He's driving me nuts!! The cat is in heaven. Any ideas/suggestions?

[Jan Van Quirm]

Robins are v. aggressive despite their size so it is most likely threat tactics as I think they're also trying to attract mates/nesting this time of year, so get even more territorial than usual. Hopefully that means it'll calm down in time when it's less pumped up with testosterone...

Aside from letting the cat patrol the window concerned constantly (and possibly getting lucky eventually) there's not an awful lot you could do short of letting the windows get so dirty they don't reflect too well

We had trouble here in the past as we're beside a wood and lots of birds around - what we have is cutouts/silhouettes of hawks stuck on the inside of the windows - not too big and reasonably decorative (on our bedroom windows so it's not too dominant when the room's in use). That seems to deter the little blighters fairly well

[Quilpusha]

.


. . . for some years, we were driven mad each summer by the noise from a family of house martins nesting in next door's eaves.
Then we bought a life size plastic owl, and mounted it on the corner of our roof. Job jobbed.

[Tonyblack]

I used to get attacked by a deranged seagull every day I walked through the local cemetery. It used to come in low screaming and go for my head. I believe it had a nest on one of the roofs nearby, but it was pretty scary the first time it happened.

I should point out that American robins and European robins are really quite different birds.

Susanne, the American robin is the state bird for Michigan - you should be proud.

[Jan Van Quirm]

Yep - they are v. different in appearance and the US robin is larger but they're both thrush family so same ecological 'niche' and similar habits as a result.

The European robin is now thought to be more closely related to some flycatcher strains but their dietary/hunting habits are as like the Song Thrush as makes no real difference.

[Batty]

I used to get attacked by a deranged seagull every day I walked through the local cemetery. It used to come in low screaming and go for my head. I believe it had a nest on one of the roofs nearby, but it was pretty scary the first time it happened.

My sister and I used to be attacked by a kamikaze pigeon when we used to walk to our Primary school. Just like your experience, Tony, it would fly at great speed directly at our heads, and we had to duck out of the way. This wasn't an isolated incident, as it would happen day in, day out.
I've no idea what happened to the pigeon in the end, but we were really pleased when we left that school and could walk to the new school via a different route.

[Tiffany]

I agree, the Robin is seeing it's reflection in the window & thinks it's a rival male.

The solution might be to stick a silhouette of a bird of prey on the area the Robin goes for, if it's always in the same place, if it goes for different areas, several silhouettes. You can get those reuseable ones & when he stops doing it just take them off.

Just noticed Jan has already suggested this, serves me right for not reading previous posts properly But it could work.

We had a Pied Wagtail that did this on the cars wing mirror, just one side, he'd land on the arm & give the mirror a lot of stick. We moved the car & he stopped doing it.

[chris.ph]

dont look at me i cant even spell ornithologist

[Catch-up]

The deranged seagull and kamikaze pigeon stories made me laugh out loud!

Strangely, the bird has left the house alone today - so maybe he's moved on. If he comes back, I'll try putting up some bird of prey pictures. That's a great idea, thanks guys! And, thankfully, our cat is strictly an indoor cat so she can't harm our tormentor.

[Tonyblack]

:lol:

The deranged seagull and kamikaze pigeon stories made me laugh out loud!

Strangely, the bird has left the house alone today - so maybe he's moved on. If he comes back, I'll try putting up some bird of prey pictures. That's a great idea, thanks guys! And, thankfully, our cat is strictly an indoor cat so she can't harm our tormentor.

Get the cat to sit in the window.

[Catch-up]

:lol:

The deranged seagull and kamikaze pigeon stories made me laugh out loud!

Strangely, the bird has left the house alone today - so maybe he's moved on. If he comes back, I'll try putting up some bird of prey pictures. That's a great idea, thanks guys! And, thankfully, our cat is strictly an indoor cat so she can't harm our tormentor.

Get the cat to sit in the window.

It didn't work!! I guess she didn't look like much of a threat.

[Tonyblack]

:lol:

The deranged seagull and kamikaze pigeon stories made me laugh out loud!

Strangely, the bird has left the house alone today - so maybe he's moved on. If he comes back, I'll try putting up some bird of prey pictures. That's a great idea, thanks guys! And, thankfully, our cat is strictly an indoor cat so she can't harm our tormentor.

Get the cat to sit in the window.

It didn't work!! I guess she didn't look like much of a threat.

I've watched magpies attacking cats before now.

[Catch-up]

When I was little a blue jay dive bombed one of our cats. Knocked her right off the top of the folded down camper. Poor thing looked so shocked!

[Tiffany]

I've seen Magpies giving a cat the run around too.

[Jan Van Quirm]

I had a 'Real' cat - a ginger tom (fixed fortunately - gods only know what he'd have been like if he'd been 'entire') called Tigger... You don't know how they'll turn out when they're kittens do you? He was a lovely cat but an outstanding hunter and no pet rabbit or rodent was safe from him - the wild ones either.

The zenith of his hunting days were 2 very impressive kills - a grey squirrel and then a magpie about a week later - he even had a go at a seagull once but that one got away minus a few feathers which is how we knew what he'd been up to. Lovely character but he was better looking than Greebo and of course had little interest in the lovely lady cats...