anyone know why Male Magpie larks fly at windows - we have 2 rows of 3 windows at the back of the house (doubt that there is ever any reflection) which a silly bird use to fly into many times a day - i hung some wind chaser up to stop him as i was frightened he would hurt himself cause he just crashed into the window (hitting always with his legs though)- it worked for a while but now he has worked out that he can land on the top of the security grill that covers the 3 bottom windows only
then to his heart's content he pecks at the top windows - scares the hell out of me sometimes - it's like knock knock let me in or knock knock i'm here :P He just sits there and looks in nothing seems to scare him - smart birds but strange lol
Well something I've noticed is that magpie-larks are very interested in reflections, I always see them looking at themselves in shiny cars (which I saw today), and yesterday one was flying outside the tafe which had reflective windows just flapping its wings to keep level with it and keep on looking at themselves. In fact just "google" magpie larks reflections and it will come up with a whole range of pages on the issue which I just found out.
Quote: "Magpie-larks (Pee-Wee), and some other birds, will sometimes attack their reflection in a window. This is usually a territorial behaviour, which occurs mainly in the breeding season: the bird sees its own reflection in the glass as a rival.Their determination to drive away the intruder makes them difficult to deter. Scaring them away isn’t effective as the impulse to find the rival and chase it out of the area is powerful. The window needs to be covered, on the outside, with material (old sheets, curtains, blankets, tarpaulin, etc.). You can also try confusing the bird, when it is off-site, by moving around any outdoor furniture, placing them in different positions and angles to the house. Some people have had success by covering their window with inflated balloons. Owl faces, cat faces and plastic snakes are not normally successful. If your attempts to trick the bird fail, it will, over time, eventually stop of its own accord"