Rockin’ Robin

Birds, Reflections

I will start by saying that my husband and I have a great appreciation for wildlife lest you get the wrong idea while reading this post.

For the last several years the maple tree outside our bedroom window has been the spring/summer home for a pair of robins. We have been mostly aware of this because one of the robins (the early bird) starts singing very loudly each morning – hours before the sun comes up.

From a distance this Robin’s song may be a soothing sound somewhere in the background of our dreams but from fifteen to twenty feet away, even through a wall/window, it sounds like and dance tune coming on with the speakers at full volume. I don’t think I know anyone who wakes up ready to dance at three or four o’clock in the morning. We certainly don’t.

I do understand that the early bird gets the worm but why is it that only this one feels the need to announce it to the whole world???

Last year one of the Robins started a new annoying behavior. I’m assuming this is the male since their job is protect their family. He began flying into our (closed) window. Not just once but over and over again – day after day.

I have read that one reason for this is that he may see his own reflection in the window and think it is another male threatening his nest or family.

The good news is that this year that the pair have found a different tree in the area to build their home. I can still hear the singing in the early morning hours but it’s coming from a distance and not nearly loud enough to wake me from a restful sleep.

The bad news is that even though they are not living in our tree this knockin’ robin continues to mount aggressive attacks on our bedroom window.

His behavior is baffling to say the least. Is he defending his territory? Is he in some kind of distress?

Or has he completely lost his mind?

Monday as I wrote my word of the week post, and vowed to put more effort into offering grace to the undeserving, I thought of this Robin. Yesterday I decided to try to help him. I taped sheets of newspaper to the inside of the window thinking that this might reduce the reflection (appearance of another robin) or in some other way deter him from slamming his body into the glass. We were out at the farm for most of the day so I really didn’t know if it did any good until this morning when the knockin’ robin was at it again.

So it’s back to the drawing board as they say or favorite search engine as the case my be. I’ll give you an update if I find anything that works. I am also open to suggestions.

Have you ever witnessed this type of behavior in a bird? Do you know of anything that might deter this behavior?

22 thoughts on “Rockin’ Robin”

  1. The wild doves I feed every morning try to fly into our Arizona sun room. We have huge glass windows in that room that overlook the pool part of the garden and that is where I feed the doves. I had to make a colorful banner to hang across the window to scare them away from trying to fly into it. Since I have done that they have stopped. But I do notice that if their water dish (bird bath) is low they will fly to the front of the house and if I am in the living room watching TV sometimes the little sparrows will fly to the chair on our front porch and perch on it jumping back at forth on it in the corner where I sit. We have privacy screens on our windows so you can’t see in from the front of the house, but those little birds act like they can see me. If they fly to that window and do their dance I know to go out and give them water and sure enough their bird bath is always empty when they do that. Birds are strange creatures to me but I love them all,

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  2. Pingback: Knockin’ Robin Update | Don't Eat It! Soap and Skin Care
  3. Pingback: Word of the Week – Week # 19 | Don't Eat It! Soap and Skin Care

  5. Interesting an robins can be quite obnoxious sometimes. I know you and I have joked about the robin singing early in the morning before. And boy, do their voices carry in the still morn. I have a row of sparrows that sit on the ledge behind my bedroom window and they mumble to themselves and their friends long before the sun comes up … this goes on all year around. Right now I can’t hear them because I put in earplugs before bed because of the ant invasion – I’m scared they’ll climb into my ear canal … it has not let up and it’s been four weeks. Then I’ll leave in the plugs anyway (if the ants ever go) because they are already shooting off fireworks in the ‘hood as I write this. The newspaper should have worked I would have thought. My robin building a nest has not returned last year or this year thank goodness.

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  6. This is why we sleep with a white noise machine–we’re surrounded by trees and I love the sound of birds singing, but that black-capped chickadee outside my window makes me nuts!

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  7. That is so strange….I hope you can find a solution. I know birds often fly into windows, but I would think putting the newspapers up would have deterred it.

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  9. Oh those robins. A few years back we had a robin that did something similar with the drivers mirror on Randy’s truck. The bird had himself in a frenzy all day. Randy tried all sorts of solutions and nothing worked. Finally fall arrived and the bird migrated South. Only to return in the Spring. We finally just had to remember to park the truck in the garage, if it was left outside the bird returned. It never bothered any other vehicle. Maybe your next word ( phrase)of the week could be ” bird brained “

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