“In an attempt to reduce the number of song bird window collisions in the Braun Garden [here at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West], Brandon & I will hang ‘feather guards’ along the outside of the windows.
These are simply strings of fishing line with feathers tied every few inches. The idea is that birds will see the floating, moving feathers as a signal that another bird has just met his demise there, so it’s best just to avoid the area.”
We here at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, received this e-mail from Melissa Hill, Assistant Curator for Live Raptors in our Draper Natural History Museum. She and assistant Brandon Lewis asked for help on feather guards.
“After a week trial run, the area that had feather guards had no avian fatalities to report,” Brandon reported. “The side without the feather guards had two.” Now, staffers have installed feather guards on both sides of the breezeway between two of our sculpture gardens.
Brandon and Melissa tell us that window collisions kill hundreds of millions of birds each year. Attaching the feather guards to our long, between-the-gardens breezeway, is a way for Center of the West to reduce these collisions.
Do you have problem windows at your home that seem to attract bird collisions? Try a feather guard or two; thanks to Melissa and Brandon, it’s working for us!
