Thursday, January 25, 2024

The Cardinal: Fighting Hour

We have this stupid cardinal that keeps attacking our back window. Every day, he flies up and starts attacking his reflection in the window. Apparently, he sees the “other bird” as a rival that needs to be driven from his territory. However, unlike other territorial birds, cardinals won’t stop when they find a mate. They just keep coming back to fight!

A lot of posts online said that you can cover the window, but apparently cardinals are so aggressive, that they’ll just go pick a fight with another window! And they’ll come back every day around the same time. I’m imagining him checking the watch on his wing.

Cardinal: “It’s 1:42 pm. Time to go give that other bird a beating!”

…flies to to the window…

Cardinal: “I see you didn’t learn your lesson from yesterday. You came back for another round of thunder and lightning,” showing the reflection his wings one by one.
Reflection [mirroring the cardinal]: “…”
Cardinal: “Are you mocking me?! Put your wing down! Put it down! Stop copying me, or I’m going to give you a beating your future offspring will feel. That’s it! Reap the whirlwind!”

…Cardinal pecks at the winds several times…

Cardinal: “Take that, you swine! There’s plenty more where that came from. I suggest you don’t show up again tomorrow.”

Some of the posts suggested hanging mirrors out in the yard, so the bird would fight out there instead of attacking your windows. I liked that idea, but I’m afraid he’s so stupid that he’d leave the mirrors alone and still come to the window. Or worse yet, he’d form a gang with the “other birds” to take down his rival by the house. The next thing you know, there’s a whole flock of cardinals wearing matching leather jackets with “C-Birds” on the back, holding tiny pistols sideways at the window all thug style.