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The glass at McCormick Place in Chicago is a lethal obstacle for birds

theguardian.com

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Re: The glass at McCormick Place in Chicago is a lethal obstacle for birds

#51

Post by amelius »

nicolaslem wrote: post #4

I highly encourage anyone who had birds crash on their windows to install white dot stickers. I installed some last spring on my windows and not a single bird crashed on them since. At first they look a bit odd, but after a week they were almost invisible, turns out the brain is really good at hiding things we don't care to see. They are a bit of a pain to install but it is well worth the effort.

> the brain is really good at hiding things we don't care to see

This is why my desk looks like a mess to other people ;)

Re: The glass at McCormick Place in Chicago is a lethal obstacle for birds

#52

Post by civilitty »

dinkleberg wrote: post #17
civilitty wrote: post #11

[flagged]

I think it is safe to say, regardless of the total population, that 1000 birds dying in a single day as a result of an architectural decision is unfortunate.

It is “unfortunate”

Re: The glass at McCormick Place in Chicago is a lethal obstacle for birds

#53

Post by mactavish88 »

nicolaslem wrote: post #4

I highly encourage anyone who had birds crash on their windows to install white dot stickers. I installed some last spring on my windows and not a single bird crashed on them since. At first they look a bit odd, but after a week they were almost invisible, turns out the brain is really good at hiding things we don't care to see. They are a bit of a pain to install but it is well worth the effort.

We find that, while this deters birds, it seems to attract bees. They fly and land on many individual dots before eventually flying away.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Re: The glass at McCormick Place in Chicago is a lethal obstacle for birds

#55

Post by ant6n »

wizzwizz4 wrote: post #43
ant6n wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to be a prick, but this is HumanNews.

It's actually Hacker News. There's nothing inherently human about being a hacker.

Hacker News: 1000 bird hackers unsucessfully attempt to circumvent Chicago Convention center glass-wall.

Re: The glass at McCormick Place in Chicago is a lethal obstacle for birds

#57

Post by gus_massa »

xoa wrote: post #38
dtgriscom wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UV stickers sound interesting, but is there a (human-)visual indication that they've stopped working? If not, there'll be a whole lot of useless dots on windows, making owners feel better but not actually helping anything.

Unless you have a UV camera then no, there is no indication to humans [0]. Though as sibling said, if nothing else you'd have the obvious direct grim evidence if they had failed. But at the same time I've not found it a concern in practice, there's plenty of stuff in a household that simply needs to be replaced/renewed on an annual or semi-annual basis with no particular indicator before failure. Just part of buildin…

A few years ago, my wife was taking photos of spectral lines of a mercury lamp with our normal camera and she noticed an additional line in the photo. It was an UV line that was visible by the camera but not by the eye.

[IIRC a Cannon camera, not very expensive or fancy. It was very good taking photos of dark rooms during birthdays.]

Edit: Fixed typo IV -> UV

Re: The glass at McCormick Place in Chicago is a lethal obstacle for birds

#58

Post by _y5hn »

nicolaslem wrote: post #4

I highly encourage anyone who had birds crash on their windows to install white dot stickers. I installed some last spring on my windows and not a single bird crashed on them since. At first they look a bit odd, but after a week they were almost invisible, turns out the brain is really good at hiding things we don't care to see. They are a bit of a pain to install but it is well worth the effort.

We have success with post-it notes. Very cheap, and provides respite from birds breaking their necks outside our windows.

Re: The glass at McCormick Place in Chicago is a lethal obstacle for birds

#59

Post by fbdab103 »

sinuhe69 wrote: post #34

In one migration day, not every day, as I initially thought what the title suggested.

Similarly, but then I realized I had never heard anyone warn me, "Stay off of Canal street. By 1pm the stench of the hundreds of bird carcasses really starts to hit you. Dead bird retrieval does not happen till 7pm."

Re: The glass at McCormick Place in Chicago is a lethal obstacle for birds

#60

Post by chimpanzee »

sandworm101 wrote: post #44
nicolaslem wrote: post #4

I highly encourage anyone who had birds crash on their windows to install white dot stickers. I installed some last spring on my windows and not a single bird crashed on them since. At first they look a bit odd, but after a week they were almost invisible, turns out the brain is really good at hiding things we don't care to see. They are a bit of a pain to install but it is well worth the effort.

Also for deer. Deer are idiots, the males even more so during the rut. They will see similarly-sized deer in any vertical glass surface (their own reflection) and charge the window antlers-first. They break through the glass and now you have a deer running around inside your house or school. A few stickers won't stop them from seeing their reflection, but it will put an "object" between them and thereby stop the char…

> I'm surprised they all don't drown every time they see rival elk inside a calm lake.

They probably figure the rival elk is already drowning, so why bother.

Whereas a rival elk inside a car or house is just plain aggravating. Who does he think he is? A human?

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