PSA - FREE WindowAlert clings!

Get Ready: The Birds are Coming! The Birds are Coming!

SPECIAL OFFER:
From March 1, 2010 through April 30, 2010, while supplies last, the Wisconsin Humane Society’s “WIngs” program will once again be distributing FREE WindowAlerts (8 WindowAlerts per request) with NO CHARGE for shipping and handling, to help you protect birds from collisions with windows at your home or office this spring. For more information about protecting birds from collisions with windows and to find out how to request your free WindowAlerts, visit the WIngs web site at http://www.wihumane.org/wildlife/wings/default.aspx

This offer is made possible by a grant from the Jeff Rusinow Family Foundation.

(Note: For requests for free WindowAlerts received prior to March 1st, and after April 30th, our standard $2.50 shipping and handling charge will apply.)

Please distribute this message to bird clubs, Audubon Societies and other birding and conservation organizations; feel free to post it online and in print; heck, put it on your bulletin board at work. Don't forget to request some for your home and/or office. This offer is NOT limited to Wisconsin residents only.

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This is hot off the collision list press - and a topic VERY dear to my heart!

Here's the WindowAlert page - you'll notice that they're pretty much all sold in packs of 8 regardless of the shape of the "alert" cling. Shape does not matter. Clings need to go on the outside of the windows that are being hit (clean the window before applying the clings) - and you'll need enough of them on the window that a bird will not try to fly "between" them. See: the handprint rule. So your 8 free clings would nicely cover a small or medium window.

Some incentive: Bullock's Oriole (roadkill, but you get the idea).



Repeating: the point of the window cling is to have enough "objects" scattered around the window that a bird will not want to fly between them. If you have 2 clings on a door-sized pane of glass, you're likely to have birds hit around where the clings are placed.

So, with your snazzy new window clings you could prevent a bird from hitting a window. Many birds, even. And they'd go on to face all of the other challenges that life has to offer; cats, cars, wind turbines and other windows. The odds won't be good, but it will at least live to face them.

Apologies for the pessimism, now go bird-proof your windows!

For other great window fixes, check out:
Birds and Buildings
FLAP - Fatal Light Awareness Program
CollidEscape

EDIT: I've added a follow-up post with a photo showing actual WindowAlerts - click here.

EDIT 2: The Nature Conservancy posted "Window Glass: Silent Bird Killer?" to their blog earlier this year, it has some interesting stats and suggestions. I didn't include the window angle because for most folks with windows, it simply isn't an option.