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There’s nothing quite like a thump on the window to ruin a beautiful spring day. Maybe you see a bit of feather stuck to the pane. Maybe a stunned bird is sitting or lying just outside. Maybe it’s a dead bird. Or maybe you see nothing and are left to wonder how the bird is doing.
If you have windows near trees and shrubs with bird activity, as I do, you may hear these thumps occasionally. They are no fun.
So for a few years I looked at options to prevent bird collisions. The white dots seemed to show up a lot, but from what I can tell they are pretty expensive and not so easy to install. (Imagine trying to line up those little dots on a big pane.) I also worried about washing the window around the little bumps, and about having them on year-round, when at least in my yard the bird madness is worse at certain times of year. What if I didn’t like them?
Every year or two I would look into the dots, but they didn’t seem to get any cheaper or any easier to install.
In a fit of desperation, after hearing a suggestion from a bird enthusiast, I went with post-it notes for the spring of 2024 and 2025. They worked pretty well, but they were not exactly unobtrusive from inside. And to my surprise I did have a bird hit where there was a bit of a gap. They also didn’t work so well with sliding doors, which could peel them off. The post-it notes were better than nothing, but …
This year I tried something else for my windows, and so far I am super happy with them. They are Acopian BirdSavers, invented by an engineer in Pennsylvania named Jeff Acopian based on a prototype his Dad made in the 1980’s out of hanging beads. Jeff’s solution is a sparse curtain made of paracord that hangs on the outside of your window. They are easy to install, either via screws or adhesive velcro pads. It is simple to clean the windows—the cords just brush aside and then fall back.
The BirdSavers can be hooked to the side, like curtains, when bird activity is low, or removed altogether if for some reason you don’t like them. They work great with sliding doors, swaying out of the way and then falling back in place. And they are easy to order, reasonably priced, and with a clearly explained DIY option for even lower cost.
Best of all, they are quite unobtrusive. They are a dark olive green in color, which blends well with the shaded reflection of greenery. They sway slightly in the wind, so some people to refer to them as “Zen wind curtains”. And they blend in great with the vertical siding on my Eichler! They are spaced at just over 4 inches, and studies show them to be very effective at keeping birds away from the windows.
Jeff started making them available for sale, along with free DIY instructions, in 2010, and has sold 11,608 of them to date, not including the DIY. (1) The website has clear instructions for measuring them, even for trapezoidal windows. The packaging is great, with everything clearly labeled and arranged for simple installation.
Here you can see how the small screws attach to a wooden frame. It takes maybe two minutes to measure, and then another two minutes to hang.
If you don’t have any wood near your window, or you don’t want to drill small holes, you can use the velcro/adhesive style, as shown below. Again, very simple to install, though Jeff warns that over time the velcro will stop working.
Trapezoid windows are no problem, you just need one extra measurement. They are clearly labeled when they arrive so you know which side goes where.
You may be wondering what these look like from the inside. They don’t do much to disrupt the view, and they can even be vaguely soothing when they sway gently in the breeze.
Jeff emphasizes that BirdSavers work even for hummingbirds despite their small size. Something about the three-dimensional aspect of the paracord curtains helps the birds to see them and avoid them, just as they might recognize and go around a thicket of branches.
I asked Jeff if the adoption of BirdSavers makes him more hopeful about the fate of birds. He acknowledged that “unfortunately, the number of BirdSavers (and other solutions as well) actually in use is infinitesimally minuscule in relation to the number of windows that are killing birds.” But still he persists. “Habitat destruction is another huge factor in the decrease of bird populations. I don’t know how to stop habitat destruction in the world. But I DO know how to stop birds from dying at the world’s windows. So that’s where I put my energies; trying to get the word out. If everyone who had windows that were killing birds made BirdSavers for those windows, the problem could be solved very quickly.”
We can all do our part. I think these are a good fit for small residential installations. Give them a try if you have issues with bird collisions. I’d also love to hear of other solutions you have tried and are happy with.
Notes
1. Jeff is an engineer in his “spare time”, and that comes through in many aspects of the product, the website, the packaging, and the documentation. I mean, there is a 23-part FAQ for the BirdSavers! I know that some of you will appreciate his attention to detail.
2. On that note, Jeff keeps a list of where BirdSavers have been installed. I see 9 installations in Palo Alto, a whopping 48 in Los Altos Hills and 24 in Portola Valley, but only 3 in each of Mountain View and Menlo Park, and none (!) in Woodside. For those in the East Bay, there are 9 installations in Danville but none in Pleasanton. So there’s room for more….
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From meteorologist Daniel Swain: The March heatwave was “meteorologically astonishing, and its impacts will be felt long after it ends in terms of record low snowpack, sharply increased wildfire risk, and extreme low watershed runoff/streamflow into summer and beyond.”
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