Who’s That Tapping At The Window?

About a month ago, as I sat at my computer, I became aware of a tapping at the picture window. There would be a rap, and then an extended pause, followed by another rap. I finally got up to see what was going on. As I watched, a bright red cardinal flew out from the tree outside the window and up to the glass, giving it a peck with his bill. His own reflection had caught his eye and he was convinced he had a competitor.

He made foray after foray, attempting to dispatch his rival. I stepped outside to frighten him away, hoping that this diversion would be enough to make him forget about his competitor. It was not. As soon as I returned indoors, the cardinal was back.

We finally got out a plastic tarp to hang over the window. We left it up for a day or two, expecting the cardinal to move on. However, when we took it down, there he was again, back at it. In the end, we left the tarp up for a couple of weeks before removing it. That finally did the trick. Until this weekend, when he again returned.

This time, we hung some netting over the window. The cardinal looked this over carefully, and could still see that other darn bird, lurking behind the netting. He flew at the window a few times, but rather than rapping the glass, he landed with agility on the netting. Perhaps he was satisfied that, while he couldn’t get in, the other bird couldn’t get out from behind the netting, and was safely locked away. After a brief investigation, the cardinal departed, no doubt off to catch up with other pressing matters.

So that solved the problem. Until yesterday. He was back again and not giving up! He launched attack after attack on his window rival, pausing on the netting before returning to the tree to regroup. At least he was no longer hitting the glass.

So now the tarp is back over the window while we investigate the availability of non-reflective window film. Crazy bird.