Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0014523, Thu, 28 Dec 2006 22:16:36 -0500

Subject
Shadow of a bird image
From
Date
Body
> Well, I've certainly experienced --- not often, but more than once ---

> seeing, or hearing, a bird fly straight into an upright glass
> windowpane, and then falling either dead or stunned to the ground
> outside. There would have to be a clear reflection of the sky in the
> pane for the bird to be so deluded.

For what it's worth Department:

Territorial male birds drive potential competitors from the environs

of their nesting sites during the courting and nesting seasons.
Believing that their own reflected image is a male invader, they attack
the reflecting surface, generally glass or polished metal. Cardinals
are extremely persistent; not using a dive bombing technique, they may
struggle with their adversary for weeks at a time. Smaller birds which
use flight speed in the encounter are in greater danger. Robins and
Bluejays don't seem to care. I have no information on Waxwings; they
visit us in flocks only in late spring to strip the cherry trees.

Interestingly, birds, like many humans, do not inhibit this
instinctive behavior in response to life experience - reflection being
absent from their learning strategies.

Sandy Drescher

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