208 | CAR MIRROR BIRD GUARD

208

Art. # 208

ARCHITECTURE FOR A BETTER BIRD LIFE

Car Mirror Bird Guard

Photos and text by Stefan Rust

2014

(In terms of the Geneva Convention the copyright of these texts belongs to Stefan Rust)

The Architecture for a better Bird Life project, managed by the conservation (Input gives Wings) division of BirdsConTour, aims at creating awareness about bird friendly infrastructure and artificial objects as well at calling for taking action to create these more bird friendly.

As summer gets closer, more and more reports about birds attacking side-view mirror of cars come in. This bird behavior coincides with summer because it is their breeding season. What happens is that close to the breeding season the testosterone levels of especially male birds are rising and they establish their territories. These are defined not only through the use of song and displays, but are sometimes defended by aggressive chases and attacks. When such a bird sees its reflection in especially side mirrors, it may mistake it for a rival bird and when singing and posturing does not drive this ’invader’ away, the resident bird may end up attacking its reflection. Since the reflection gets not chased away, this can cause exhaustion and weakness, leading to the negligence of its breeding duties and leading to inattention, making the bird more vulnerable to attacks or diseases.

      

In its endeavors to protect birds, the BirdsConTour project Architecture for a better Bird Life came up with a solution. Out of scrap a product called Car Mirror Bird Guard was developed. Mainly clothes pegs and plastic carry bags are used. This product can easily be clipped onto the side mirror with one hand as soon as the car is parked and effectively covers the mirror, avoiding birds to see a reflection, thus protecting birds.

For further information please contact BirdsConTour at birdscontour@iway.na or +264 (0) 81 129 8415