As the breeding season approaches, the Hungarian Ornithological and Conservation Society (MME) recommends, among other things, that reflective surfaces be covered and rear-view mirrors folded on parked cars due to the problem of birds attacking their reflection.
According to a Ministry of Municipality and Environment announcement on Monday, there are reports every spring of birds attacking their reflection in the windows of buildings or in the rear-view mirrors of cars for days at a time. As a result, they can be weakened and injured, and their constant soiling with dirt and droppings can be very annoying.
as written,
Prevention and treatment of this phenomenon is simple. This can be done by covering reflective surfaces, folding in outside rearview mirrors, and reducing reflection with curtains, but it is also possible to put out scarecrows to keep birds away.
The background of this phenomenon is the territorial fear behavior of birds, which intensifies with the onset of the breeding season, and the effect of the polluting “mirror image” of the civilized environment in this regard. Since there is no such common mirror image in nature as artificial reflective surfaces, and, moreover, it is very stable and visible, animals did not have the opportunity to adapt and prepare for this flood of stimuli at the evolutionary level.
The problem is that the frenzied fighting of males, fueled by hormones, with its own reflection, takes place in completely unnatural conditions, because the “enemy” does not give up, and therefore the bird is able to fight to exhaustion.
At the same time, he is not properly fed, cannot protect his territory from real competitors and may even neglect helping to feed the chicks.
