I hadn’t intended to keep writing blogs about things that make our lives “interesting,” but strange things keep occurring. Now we have another animal creating a problem.
I’ve always admired the beauty of bluebirds with the male’s dark blue backs/wings and bright orange breasts.
But recently a particular male bluebird’s behavior has created this situation.
A little over a month ago, this bird began pecking at the glass in our back door. He would repeatedly fly up from the patio concrete and peck at the door glass with his beak. From inside, we could clearly hear his audible “knock” from his beak hitting the glass. He then moved to a window on the second story of our house back.
We had no idea why the bird would suddenly start pecking the glass.
We had heard stories that sometimes a bird or other animal will do something to get attention because a possibly bad event has happened or is about to happen. We ourselves had a situation a few years ago where a bird began pecking at another window right after a close relative died. Coincidence or not? That lasted about a week, then stopped. (We’ve tried to remember what kind of bird it was, but we’re not sure.)
protected gutter
Now for the rest of the story. We have a piece of gutter overlaid by a small corner of the roof so it is a protected region from direct rain and the overhead Sun. I had seen a male and a female bluebird fly into that area a few times. I saw them together on the edge of the gutter once. On one occasion after a while, I thought I heard some chicks cheeping. Apparently this bluebird pair selected that gutter to build their nest. That would seem like a really smart choice, but …
We had some work done on the house exterior in that area earlier this year to repair a problem. When the workers finished, they apparently left a piece of plastic attached on or near that gutter on the outside of the second story. We didn’t notice it until after they had finished and left, or we’d have had them remove it.
Then nature seemed to play a role here. Strong winds (we’ve had more than our share this year) began flapping that plastic in and out of the gutter.
Around this time, the male bluebird began its pecking at the patio door. In thinking about it, I wondered if the flapping plastic might be a problem for them. I have an extension ladder, so I put it up to try and help them by removing the plastic, but it wasn’t long enough. I couldn’t get to the gutter to remove it.
The pecking then moved to the second-story window where it became more aggressive. He would land on the window frame bottom and peck the glass with his beak. Then he would fly up the window some distance and peck at the glass again. I managed to catch him in the act on video one time from the inside. (I’d include it here, but for some reason this page won’t accept my mp4 file, even though that format is said to be supported. I’ll work to resolve that and put it here later.) I’ve tried to record him doing it when I was outside, but he never did it when I was out there. He would perch on a roof ridge or other places, but would never execute his maneuver on the window.
At first, we wondered if it might be something like what we’d seen previously with the other bird. But this has persisted for over a month.
We also noticed that when he does this, he empties his cloaca. We have a collection of his excrement on the window glass, the window frame, down the outside house wall, and on the patio concrete below. It doesn’t clean off easily. (The image shows the streaks of excrement on the glass, and outside wall below.)
The bird’s knock has become annoying. It can begin at dawn and go into the evening. It isn’t constant all day long, but does happen periodically throughout the day. We figure the bird’s beak and head have to hurt from all the impacts. But he keeps it up.
We’ve tried to figure out why he continues. There is something very intentional about this activity. I got an email from an acquaintance. She said that bluebirds will defend their young like fighter jets. The only conclusion we’ve come to so far is that he has gone psycho over the pair’s failure to grow their young. Is he blaming us for the loss of his offspring?
We are going to have to take some drastic action soon because of the excremental damage he’s doing to the wooden window frame and outside wall.
But the first step would have to be “arresting” the bird. We’re not sure how to do that.