Crazy bird.. a robin. Anyone else ever experienced this?

[Mynyel]

We have a crazy robin. He (she?) sits outside my dd's window and comes at it. Flys at it and pecks the glass. All. Day. Long.

 

From morning till bird bedtime. This has been going on for the last 5 or 6 days.

 

The bird was sitting on the broken screen and had easier access. We moved the screen and now it sits on the plants that are outside the window.

 

The dang thing is nuts.

 

Anyone else ever see that in a bird?

[MomatHWTK]

He or she is probably seeing a reflection of some sort in the glass that they perceive to be a threat. Maybe you could hang something over the glass for a day or two and see if that helps?

 

Spring time madness for birds. ;)

[MeaganS]

I don't, but my in-laws do. They've named him Enrique and and has been attacking their house for about 3 years now, for 4 or 5 hours a day. He attacks different windows, and none of the other houses on the street, just theirs. He's some sort of red bird, maybe a robin, I'm not sure. He does attack their house incessantly, though. We have all sorts of theories about why he is out for my in-laws, but really we have no idea.

 

ETA: He disappeared once for about 4 months and we thought he was dead. He returned, though, and is back to his daily routine.

Edited April 11, 2012 by MeaganS

[MinivanMom]

We were dealing with the same thing last week, but with a blue jay. He kept beating and pecking at our kitchen windows. We finally figured out that he and his mate are nesting in our backyard. We have some flower boxes on our back deck that are filled with straw. Everytime his mate would come to gather more straw for the nest, he would fly at the kitchen windows as if he was trying to keep us at bay. It stopped once they were done building the nest. I saw a squirrel get too close to the nest a few days ago and that blue jay nearly pecked his eyes out. I think it's just nesting season, so more aggressive behavior is natural.

[Belacqua]

Our issue was with a crazed squirrel. He spent about two months perched in a tree right outside our window, yelling at us. I never knew what sounds a squirrel makes until this lunatic started up; it was a near-constant, shrill, piercing chirp.

 

Then we made the fatal error of appeasement. We had some squirrel treats from the bird store, and we put a little out in a gesture of peace. He grabbed it immediately (with the most baleful, hostile look I've ever seen, human or animal) and ran back to his tree. Every day after that, he chirruped mercilessly until we ponied up the seed. Yes, I am embarrassed to admit that we were ruthlessly blackmailed by a squirrel.

[Sophia]

I have a robin who follows me around when I do yard work. He starts pecking the ground I've cleared of brush, feasting on the bugs that had recently been hiding.

My neighbor saw the robin following me and said the bird had been following him around the previous weekend. It's so funny, because he even waits for me when I take a break, then rejoins me when he sees me get my rake.

 

I've lived here ten years and never had a bird pay any attention to me until this one.:lol:

[Amy in NH]

SIL has had a robin attacking her 3-season porch for ~4 years. He comes back every spring.

[LauraKay28]

We have a crazy robin, too! This is the second year in a row. He sits in a bush right outside our front door, or on my husband's rear-view mirror, and comes and attacks our window in our door throughout the day! I can't figure it out, it's so weird! Especially to come back and do it again after the winter!

[Janie Grace]

We have a crazed female cardinal who has been doing this all day long, dawn to dusk, for about three weeks. She actually wakes us each day, as our bedroom seems to be the windows she hates the most. Our hunch is that she has a nest near our bedroom and thinks she sees another bird in our windows. But it's systematic... she flies from a tree, to one window, to the roof between the windows, to the second window, and back to the tree. AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN all day. My dh is always laughing, wondering what mama cardinal duties she is neglecting will all of this obsessive window-pecking. I will be so happy when she gets over it!

[Lolly]

I had one bird who did that. Until I discovered the little bug he was trying to eat that was on the inside of the glass. Once I got rid of what he wanted for dinner, he quit attacking the glass.:lol:

[fhjmom]

I have had a female cardinal hat would do that, but she hasn't been around the past couple of years. It is usually because they see their reflection and think they are attacking another bird. You can put silhouettes of birds of prey on the window or cover it so it isn't as reflective to get them to stop .

[lisamarie]

Yup. I have robins that do that. My mom had one bird that wouldn't stop until she bought a decoy owl to put up by the window. It worked. At the zoo they put up tape stripes on the window so the bird could see that it's glass. You could try some masking tape stripes to see if it helps.

[elegantlion]

Yes, we have that robin too. Pecked on the basement window glass. He did it for days last week, it's very reflective. It's also very annoying.

[lcelmer]

Print this out & tape it to the window in question, This worked really well when I was a kid.

 

http://birdsandbloomsblog.com/2011/05/31/stop-birds-from-flying-into-windows/

 

We had one silly bird that WOULD NOT STOP bashing himself on the window till we tried this.

[joannqn]

I had a robin flying into our windows repeatedly on one side of the house. I had to cover the windows with newspapers, on the outside, to cover the reflection. I left them up for a while to make sure he had time to move on.

 

My guess is that he is either seeing a bug on the inside of the window or reacting to a reflection. Covering the window with help either one.

[MtnMama]

This happened to us a couple weeks ago, and it really did a number on the window and the front porch. We put a couple of dollar-store helium balloons in front of the window it was attacking. Not sure if it was the color or the movement or both, but our problem was solved! Haven't seen the bird since.

[walkermamaof4]

We had a crazy blue jay. It did the same thing. One day when my husband came home it was sitting still on the front stoop with a pool of what looked like berry juice below it and its mouth open. Just sitting there. My husband went to the back door. So very weird!

[Happy]

Cardinals do that every spring at our house. Some years it's the big bathroom window being attacked. This year it was a window on both my husband's and son's cars....they just love the bird leavings down the side of their vehicles--NOT.

[Pippen]

When I was a teenager we had a woodpecker that had a favorite corner of our old farmhouse.

[MtnTeaching]

That is wild! We have been having the same problem for about the last week with a woodpecker. He is a BIG bird and has been attacking the metal fireplace piping on our roof. It sounds like machine-gun fire.

 

Dd shooed him away at least 7 or 8 times today. We named him Elwood and he's a total pest.

[mumto2]

We had a bird that started flying at the window early every morning. I had to get up and put a very realistic dog statue in the window. He would then stop. Dog couldn't be set up the night before. That bird was bonkers. He actually would knock himself out sometimes! Summer came-- he stopped. We only lived there one year.

[lakotajm]

That's hilarious!:lol:

 

Our issue was with a crazed squirrel. He spent about two months perched in a tree right outside our window, yelling at us. I never knew what sounds a squirrel makes until this lunatic started up; it was a near-constant, shrill, piercing chirp.

 

Then we made the fatal error of appeasement. We had some squirrel treats from the bird store, and we put a little out in a gesture of peace. He grabbed it immediately (with the most baleful, hostile look I've ever seen, human or animal) and ran back to his tree. Every day after that, he chirruped mercilessly until we ponied up the seed. Yes, I am embarrassed to admit that we were ruthlessly blackmailed by a squirrel.

[EKS]

Yup, we had a robin do this for a couple weeks.