Date: 5/18/26 7:55 pm From: Shelf Life Community Story Project via Tweeters <tweeters...> Subject: [Tweeters] Bird strike question
Hi all
Last night, at about 10:30 pm, a bird hit our kitchen window. It was stunned and sat on the window sill for a couple of seconds and then flew away. That gave us the opportunity to see that it was possibly a song sparrow or white-crowned. It was dark out and the bird didn’t stick around, so we didn’t get a great look, but that’s what we thought we had seen.
I have lived in this house for 20 years and not once had a window strike (that I know of). I have anti-strike decals on all windows. We’re in Seattle’s Central District, in a small house sandwiched between two much larger duplexes, and the kitchen is on the first floor facing one of the duplexes, so a bird has to really go out of its way to fly anywhere near our kitchen window. There’s only about five feet of space between our house and the taller buildings on either side. Birds would have to fly around those buildings that are on either side of us, then make a 90 degree turn, just to get to the kitchen window. In short, what I’m describing is not a window that is directly in anybody’s path.
I know indoor light can still confuse a bird, even if they’re not migrating or in a hurry to get somewhere. But who is out flying around at 10:30 pm other than migrators passing over? We mostly see the usual suspects around here (in the daytime) Bewick’s Wrens, Song Sparrows, White Crowned and Golden Crowned Sparrows, House Sparrows, Juncos, Chickadees, Robins. Would any of them be cruising around, in unlikely places, at high speeds, at 10:30 at night? And why flying so fast in such an unlikely place? Are coopers active at night? Would owls hunt song birds at night?
There are few sounds I hate worse than the sound of a bird hitting a window. Somehow knowing more makes me feel like I have some control over it not happening again. Educate me!
