A little bird hit our kitchen window today..

Rocker

.. and when I looked outside, the bird was on the concrete path and appeared to be dead.  I picked it up, it was alive and in a minute or two was able to stand up on my hand.  My wife identified it as a Goldcrest, the smallest bird I ever saw.  In comparison, a robin is quite large!  By now the bird was moving its head from left to right and as it was not opening and closing its beak, I concluded that it was merely stunned and not in major pain. I brought it over to our lavender hedge and stood the bird up underneath one of the bushes.  Lavender is a well known stimulant and it helps recovery as well as providing some shelter and cover from aerial enemies.

Half an hour later the bird was gone.  It appears that it had recovered and had flown, hopefully none the worse for the unplanned adventure.

richardhomer

I had a similar thing will a pigeon flying into my bathroom window over the Summer - though it was lying in my front door step, entirely bereft of life afterwards.

This presented me with a considerable dilemma; my bin had just been emptied - so I didn't want it rotting in there for nearly two weeks.

Fortunately, my neighbours - who I'm none too keen on - were in France for a fortnight and some deft action with a shovel soon ensured it was laid to rest on their side of the bondary fence....

lasermonkey

The goldcrest (and close relative the firecrest) is the smallest bird found in the UK. They really are tiny. The first time I saw one in my garden I first thought it was a massive bee!
 I'm glad the wee thing recovered.

ICBM

Rocker said:

Half an hour later the bird was gone.  It appears that it had recovered and had flown, hopefully none the worse for the unplanned adventure.

I hope so…







http://www.blogpub.com/Content/files/hiding_8e9d-8060.jpg

Not my cat, but he does like hiding under bushes. He's also a tabby and he's so well camouflaged that sometimes it's hard to tell he's there unless you see his eyes.

We've had wood pigeons fly into the kitchen window a couple of times - they make a huge bang and leave a sort of 'angel' imprint on the glass. I wondered why they were so stupid until I went outside and put my head down at pigeon height above the ground, and looked at the window. It's so reflective it looks like a tunnel straight through the house with the sky behind.

thecolourbox

My girlfriend accidentally killed an owl a few weeks ago when it flew into her case windscreen whilst she was driving 40mph in the opposite direction

JezWynd

Many years ago we had a kingfisher fly into the patio window. Due to the long beak its neck broke, very sad.

breakstuff

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/68/50/82/685082b96191c4f53b4273886850ab83.jpg

Bygone_Tones

JezWynd said:

Many years ago we had a kingfisher fly into the patio window. Due to the long beak its neck broke, very sad.

Kingfishers also fly very fast.

A few years ago we had a goldcrest fly into our kitchen. We dont see many of them round here normally, so was a bit of a rarity. I think it must have been making its way through the ivy on the wall of the house. Once we managed to get it out it hung on the wall for a bit whilst it gathered it's thoughts:

 

CHRISB50

I did a track day at Castle Combe a few years back. There is a field in the middle of the track that is rather popular with crows.

I was in a Subaru Impreza doing about 140mph when they all took off across the track. One of the poor bastards went straight into the windscreen. Not pretty. He / she went to the big corn field in the sky. I lost about 10 years off my life. 

axisus

I had exactly the same thing about 24 years ago when living with my parents. A Goldcrest hit the window. I picked it up and it was tiny in my hand, and totally stunned. I went into the house with it and showed my mum and dad, the got my old 35mm camera and took a few shots of it sitting there, then went outside and sat with it for 20 minutes as it gradually perked up. Eventually it flew into a bush about 2 meters away. It turned around and spoke saying 'I am prince of the Goldcrests and you have done a great thing for my people, from this day henceforth never fear a Goldcrest attack'. I said thanks, but I didn't actually fear Goldcrests. There was an awkward silence then he flew off.



artistic licence may have embellished this memory.

57Deluxe

They get winded or break their necks. So is always wise to let them come too quietly before binning them...

Hootsmon

57Deluxe said:

They get winded or break their necks. So is always wise to let them come too quietly before binning them...

what...you bring 'em round then throw them in the bin?

Rocker

This morning I saw a goldcrest at the bird feeders. I hope/expect it is the same bird that is the subject of this post.

Hootsmon

Rocker said:

This morning I saw a goldcrest at the bird feeders. I hope/expect it is the same bird that is the subject of this post.

did it have a little bandage on it's head?

Sarge

A few years ago when we moved into the new house I was locking up the old, empty house when my cat brought me a starling,  a half dead half eaten starling so obviously I had to put it out of its misery in a timely fashion , but how with a completely empty house ?  a lone half-brick in the garden my only apparatus of destruction . . . . so I laid its wee head on a paving slab and did the deed with said brick. . . . only it didn't break the skull as I winced like a girl upon impact,  took 2 more attempts . 
God that was awful,  should have let the cat do what he does really. . 

strumjoughlamps

we get robins in the house all the time, here is one on a pot of hair gel in the bathroom

Rocker

hootsmon said:

Rocker said:

This morning I saw a goldcrest at the bird feeders. I hope/expect it is the same bird that is the subject of this post.

did it have a little bandage on it's head?

It might gave had but the little wheelchair kinda obstructed my view.

Chalky

axisus said:

I had exactly the same thing about 24 years ago when living with my parents. A Goldcrest hit the window. I picked it up and it was tiny in my hand, and totally stunned. I went into the house with it and showed my mum and dad, the got my old 35mm camera and took a few shots of it sitting there, then went outside and sat with it for 20 minutes as it gradually perked up. Eventually it flew into a bush about 2 meters away. It turned around and spoke saying 'I am prince of the Goldcrests and you have done a great thing for my people, from this day henceforth never fear a Goldcrest attack'. I said thanks, but I didn't actually fear Goldcrests. There was an awkward silence then he flew off.



artistic licence may have embellished this memory.

That line had me in stitches...

AliGorie

On the subject of birds flying into windows - this is an excellent time to introduce u all to Gerry Anderson RIP phone-in

http://dai.ly/xlt24

Gerry Anderson played bass in a ‘Showband’ in Ulster in the sixties and seventies and went on to host a show on bbc radio Foyle aired week days @ 1030 - 1200AM , I could get in the car on the medium wave and often when listening I’d have to ‘pull over’ for fear of an accident at some of the unbelievable ‘phone in’s’  discussions.
They became almost cult status and an animation studio decided to put ‘visuals’ to the actual broadcasts phone-ins.
I used to tune in week days 10.30 till twelve to Radio Foyle which was / is available on the MW in the car and often had to ‘pull over’ with tears in my eyes at the outlandish conversations.
heres some examples which lead to more, thankfully some people have put them on the net for all to enjoy -it 

e.g. -


and a follow up -