Timiskaming Birds Forum

 Just wanted to let you know that unfortunately a male cardinal died in my hand today after hitting my living room window. We had a female stay for over a month about 6 years ago, but this was the first, hopefully not last, male. Does anybody know if they travel as a pair? Also, we're looking for suggestions to prevent window deaths. We've tried a few which wern't successful. Eileen Fisher

Hi Eileen. Thanks for joining our group. Sorry to hear about the cardinal - we get so few here that it's a shame to lose one!  If you don't mind letting me know what town you live in, I'll note this encounter on the cardinal species page.   I don't think that most of the cardinals observed here are breeding residents, because most of our recorded sightings are late fall / early winter sightings. Cardinals are believed to be monogamous during the breeding season, but pair bonds are seasonal, especially in areas where they are not year-round residents, as in Timiskaming. So it is unlikely that you will have a pair together at this time of year in this part of Ontario.

Regarding window collisions, the main problem is reflections of the sky in the window.  If you have some old window screen that you can stretch over the outside of the window frame, that is probably the most effective solution, as it will not only interfere with the reflection of the sky, but will soften any impacts that might still occasionally occur.   Images of hawk silhouettes in the windows don't seem to work that well, especially if placed on the inside of the glass.  Especially dangerous is when a feeder is placed close to but not right at the window.  When a real hawk comes by and the birds scatter in a panic, they are not that attuned to the difference between a reflection and the real sky, so one thing that will help is to move any feeders farther from the window and closer to escape cover like medium height shrubbery.

That is the saddest thing i have heard in a while Eileen you should fill mike in on the other cardinal sightings you were telling me about welcome to the site

I found that having the feeder very close (3-4 feet) to the window is not bad too.  Scared bird doesn't go fast enough to injure itself when hitting.

 One of my neighbors hangs outside de window a kind of spiral that slowly moves most of the time with light wind.  He didn't have dead bird since.  Downside is you have to find something not too ugly to hang out...

 Hi Mike,

Sorry it's been so long since my first cardinal message. Things got crazy here in Englehart and I haven't been able to get to it. I taught with your wife when she was tehe librarian at EPS a few years ago. I live just outside of town on the road to Kap kig iwan. The house is surrounded by trees all planted by my family, so we usually get a lot of birds here. My mother was a very active birder and started doing the Temiskaming bird count with my father, then with Jean Wallace many years ago. Unfortunately, the cardinal was not in a feeder but sitting in our large hawthorn tree when it took off and hit the window. I may try hanging a shiny object as Joe F. suggested. Wn't hurt, I hope it doesn't frighten others away.

Thanks for your answer. Bruce suggested that I fill you in re. our ther cardinal experiences. I believe it was in the year 2000 (although it just seems like yesterday) we had a female cardinal here, again in the hawthorn tree, in the month of December. She stayed till early  February, disappeared and returned the next year (we assume it was her). My neighbour called me one day in January to tell me that Esmeralda was back. I assumed she meant a relative of hers until she told me she could see her sitting in the tree outside her window. Anyway, we haven't seen 'Esmeralda' since that winter unfortunately. We also had a large flock of waxwings come through last week and strip the remaining berries from the hawthorn that the flock of robins had left, so no food for the grouse that usually visit us in January.

Again, thanks for the letter,

Eileen Fisher