For What It's Worth


Wednesday, July 3, 2019

Whatever Wednesday…



Many of you have already seen this picture already but I have a follow up!

If you haven’t yet….

We were watching tv last week and there was this HUGE thud sound. We ran outside to see what it was. It sounded like a large rock had hit our window (we live in a loft style town-home with large windows on one wall). There wasn’t anything outside so we looked up and thought there was something on the window – so we went inside and saw this.

birds, ghost bird

























A fully detailed imprint of a bird.

SO WEIRD!

But no bird...

It was so bizarre that I looked it up and found an answer to the phenomenon.

I found this article – Gorgeous, Gruesome Reminders to Bird Proof Your WIndows and apparently, there’s even a Flickr group – Bird Imprints on glass.

The explanation is pretty interesting and depends on the bird species that crashed into the window. 

“The “level of detail generally has to do with the birds’ species. Imprints are made of dust from “powder down”—a type of feather that, rather than growing to a certain size and then falling out, disintegrates from the tip downwards.

“They form this oily powder,” says Homayoun. Only certain bird families produce powder down, which explains why, despite the diversity of birds who meet their deaths via window, pigeons and doves tend to be the ones that leave a mark.”

I thought our imprint looked like an owl shape and after some research, they are one of the species that “powder-down” & we have quite a bit of wildlife and bird variety out here.

They imprint is still there - still no sign of a dead or injured bird.

I figured I would share since so many of you were as curious as I was.

Sadly, it wasn't the new symbol for The Hunger Games prequel or a bird "covered in the burnt ashes of his enemies" (Lindsi's theory - this photo also spurred a strange late night texting convo of theories lol) but I still thought it was pretty cool!

26 comments:

  1. Aha. I think only small birds crash here so I have never seen anything cool like that. Poor bird

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    1. We never found a dead or injured bird so hopefully he just bounced off. But it was SO loud!

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  2. I've had a fright a few times from birds crashing into the window and leaving that oily print. I'm always just glad to see there is no dead body!

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    1. It happened to me a lot in FL and I found quite a few dazed or dead so I'm shocked that I couldn't find one after this.

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  3. Quote: "Sadly, it wasn't the new symbol for The Hunger Games prequel or a bird "covered in the burnt ashes of his enemies" (Lindsi's theory - this photo also spurred a strange late night texting convo of theories lol)".
    Lindsi sure has a wild imagination 😂.

    Just imagine if the window had been open...😱

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    1. Those are huge windows to let light in (it rains all winter here so it's dark & dreary) so I can't even reach them and they don't open.

      If they did - I'd probably have a flock living in here lol

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  4. I remember when you shared this on IG. So crazy! I have had birds fly into windows before, but they've never left an imprint behind.

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    1. I had a lot of smaller birds crash into my windows in FL but never saw the imprint either. It's freaky - and it's STILL there.

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  5. I had saw this on Instagram and like others had puzzled over how something could hit a window hard enough to leaver an imprint that detailed without any trace of it being found.

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    1. IT bothered me so much that I googled it and was shocked to see it was *a thing*.

      Happy to know I wasn't losing my mind lol

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  6. Wow, that is crazy. I hope the bird is okay.

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  7. I still think this is crazy. How did it not damage itself in the process?? I feel like it should have been unconscious when you went outside.

    Lindsi @ Do You Dog-ear? 💬

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    1. I know! I looked everywhere but nothing...

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  8. I was thinking owl too. That's so weird.

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    1. The head looks like an owl but I don't know.

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  9. See THIS is why I neither like nor trust birds! I mean what kind of sorcery is this!?! Though I will agree that Lindsi's theory is an absolute win in my book. Suzanne Collins was just stopping by, part of a pre-release tour haha.

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    1. She saw my post about not caring about Panem lol

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  10. Gosh, I hate to think of the pain this bird may have suffered. Looks like an owl, and I hope all is well. Hugs, RO

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    1. I know - I can't believe I couldn't find it injured or dead. I've had birds hit my window over the years that seemed less intense and die.

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  11. That's actually really cool, not going to lie. We have a few birds fly into the dining room window since it spans the width of our house and it's on the middle floor so I think they get confused. We've not noticed any dead birds from it, but we also have a lot of cats in the neighbourhood so if they did die they wouldn't hang around for long before a cat came along and nabbed it. I've never seen an owl do it though, it's usually pigeons for us.

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    1. These windows are huge, 2nd story windows that reflect the mountains so I can see how it happened. I just can't believe he didn't die - it was such a loud thud.

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  12. So bizarre! We live in a semi rural area and have birds hitting our windows all the time, a few have been left a little confused but they've all flown away. Almost always doves as well but they've never left an imprint like that. That's remarkable that it even flew away from that, it must have hit the window with an incredible amount of force.

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  13. That is so cool! But also kinda weird and creepy. I had no idea birds did this, lol. Crash into things? Yes. Leave imprints on solid objects? No.

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  14. Thanks for sharing the update. That's cool information! Hopefully the bird was only stunned and flew away. 👍✨

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  15. Whoa this is really cool! You taught me something lol. Hopefully the bird is ok!

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