Friday, April 5, 2019

Birdbrain behavior

Early this morning, I heard a tap-tap-tapping sound. Tracing it, I climbed halfway up the stairs and peered at the glass door leading to a tiny second-floor balcony.


I saw a (presumably male) robin perched on the balcony rail.


He was engaged in a long-term attack on his reflection in the glass.





This went on for hours. As I post this, he's still at it. It must be exhausting. He even looked like he was panting when I snapped these photos.


Ah, testosterone. What a birdbrain.

12 comments:

  1. Ahh, tiny roosters. They HAVE to be masters of their own territory. Now and then you see the same behavior in human roosters too. They make tiresome husbands.

    ReplyDelete
  2. And at first glance I thought you were talking about those people we put in gummint offices working for fed & state/local/county Instee-too-shuns... Silly me...

    ReplyDelete
  3. I tried taping newspaper inside my window with no luck. I think the trick is taping the newspaper outside the window so he doesn't see his reflection.

    ReplyDelete
  4. My neighbors started out with ONE a few years back now they have a few that do it all day everyday most of the summer...must be no time left for them to start families....

    ReplyDelete
  5. Good not to start families. The genetics for idiotic behavior will not be passed on

    ReplyDelete
  6. I've stopped that by cutting a cat shape out of paper with holes for the eyes and taping that on the inside of the window. Mr. Robin gone! Usually ..ken

    ReplyDelete
  7. The poor guy probably just discovered that Ms. Robin was a feminist.
    Montana Guy

    ReplyDelete
  8. Sure glad you added the pictures, for a short time thought you were talking about politicians .

    ReplyDelete
  9. "Stand by the grey stone when the thrush knocks, and the setting sun with the last light of Durin's Day will shine upon the key-hole."

    I'm sorry. I had to. Please don't hate me.

    This drove my stepmother crazy. She was always terrified the birds would knock themselves out and get eaten by cats. Shiny window stickys and sun catchers (ironically, in the shape of birds) solved the problem.

    ReplyDelete
  10. When we had a similar problem with a bluejay trying to fight his reflection in our car mirror and messing down both sides of the car, II copied a photo of a big horned owl and pasted it to the inside of the car windows. It stopped the problem.
    For flickers pecking on the buildings to the point of making holes, one of the plastic owls on the roof worked well.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I had the same thing happen with a robin at my window, every spring for 7 years. Persistent fella.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I had a mirror on the outside of a building for shaving (guys) and beauty applications (gals) and a robin kept it dirty with his head-banging antics. I finally draped an old T-shirt over it and only pulled the T-shirt out of the way for individual's use. Seemed to do the trick.

    ReplyDelete