Impressions of birds on glass

The dove of love fell of its perch by Captain Tenneal
(click any image to enlarge)

Birds have a lot of trouble with glass. They fly into it a lot. Why that's so nobody really knows, although a popular theory is that they are attacking their own reflections. Me, I just figure that birds are stupid.

When a bird strikes a window they often leave a temporary impression of the collision. As well as disturbing and dirt and dust on the window, their feathers have a powder which is left on the glass.

The Flikr stream Bird imprints on glass has gathered a large number of photographs of these impressions of bird collisions with glass. They're rather ghastly records of bird tragedies on the one hand, but are also extremely fascinating and evocative all the same. 

Many of the pictures at the Flikr stream have their rights reserved, but I've gone through it and found some samples they allow folks to post. There are more after the jump, and of course many more at the Flikr stream.

They never learn by smcgee

Smash de pigeon/Pigeon Smash by meantux

Bird Strike by etgeek (Eric)

Bird in Window by finis terrae

Pict 2680 by Carsten Drossel

Bird hit window, detail by jessamyn

Dove's dead by Superburschi

An angel passed through... by obenson

Oh dear, somewhere there is a bird with a headache by Janet 59