Brent Weingard Does Windows

Mr. Weingard, armed with his trusty bucket and other gear, restored the view of the skyline at the apartment of the artist Eleanora Kupencow in Brooklyn. Click to enlarge.

The Grime Fighter: Brent Weingard Does Windows - The unforgiving pavement of Greenwich Street unspooled half a dozen stories below. But Brent Weingard, who had strapped himself into an olive-green harness and attached himself to a canvas belt that in turn was attached to a hook on the facade of No. 55, seemed oblivious to the fact that gravity was not his friend. Dangling outside the oversize double-hung window, the belt his only protection, Mr. Weingard didn’t bat an eye.

Silhouetted against a large swath of the West Village, he squirted blobs of Joy (“my grandmother swore by it”) into his bucket of water, razored off hard-to-remove grime, and sponged away cascades of dirty water with the fuzzy multicolored mops that he calls porcupines, using microfiber cloth for the corners. Moving as gracefully as a dancer, he finished up with crisp, meticulous swipes of his squeegee. By the time Mr. Weingard crawled back into the apartment 10 minutes later, his bucket was brimming with black water, testament to how filthy a New York window can get in just a few months or even weeks, especially a window hard by highways. But he finds scrubbing away grime deeply satisfying.

“I like working with squeegees and water,” Mr. Weingard, 55, said as he stepped carefully about in his black Red Wing work boots with their no-scuff soles. “Washing windows is dirty work because the city is so dirty. And to be honest, I don’t think the work is all that healthy. But I love it.”

Mr. Weingard is the moving force behind Expert Window Cleaners, a company that he started nearly three decades ago as a political science student at Columbia University and now operates out of his Yorkville apartment. He had been introduced to the craft when his globe-trotting father, who worked for I.B.M., moved the family for a time to house-proud Holland, and young Brent watched window washers at work. Some years later he bought his first professional equipment; today he works in some 1,000 buildings a year. His strong right arm is his team of 10 assistants, mostly from Ecuador and Guatemala.

The city’s high-end residential buildings are his specialty, and he’ll go anywhere — to Greenwich Village town houses, to glass towers like the Post Toscana on First Avenue, to Upper West Side grandes dames like the Ansonia. His clients, especially the downtown variety, are a roster of the rich and/or famous, among them Lenny Kravitz (Mr. Weingard remembers the pile of guitars in a corner), E. L. Doctorow and Monica Lewinsky. He can tell tales of the van Goghs and Picassos he has seen and of apartments so vast he has gotten lost.

The tools of his trade are simple, even homely — the porcupine mops, the squeegee, the dropcloths, the faded towels (laundered daily), the bottles of purified water, the stubby green stepladder. But with half a dozen jobs on a day that typically starts at 8 and goes until 6, his schedule is complex. Making his way around congested city streets, the eternal search for a parking space (amazingly, he always seems to find one), struggling to show up at the appointed hour (or apologizing profusely when he’s running late), not trekking dirt onto a client’s floors or splattering the new curtains — sometimes washing windows seems the least of it.

This morning Mr. Weingard was working solo at the century-old Archive, where he has been a regular since the building opened as a luxury rental complex in 1988 with nearly 500 apartments. “This was my first building,” he said, parking his powder-blue minivan across the street. “The super, George Wagner, was a friend.” To this day, Mr. Weingard still pries open recalcitrant windows using an ingenious iron contraption that Mr. Wagner invented and christened the window popper.

Lugging his stuff to an apartment being readied for a new tenant, he suited up in his belt and harness, cautiously made his way onto the narrow ledge just outside the glass, attached his belt to hooks on the building’s facade and set to work. If he has an audience inside the apartment, however, he will tell stories gleaned from decades of viewing the city from a distinctive perspective.

“I remember the time I got stuck outside this building,” he said as he wielded his squeegee. “It was winter, the window was closed, it got stuck and I couldn’t get it open. Then it started snowing.” Gingerly, he made his way across the ledge to the window of the apartment next door, pried it open, stepped in, buzzed the intercom, “and Walter in the lobby rescued me.”

“And of course everyone mentions Kundera,” Mr. Weingard said, alluding to the author of the novel “The Unbearable Lightness of Being,” with its surgeon-turned-window-washer protagonist. Though he once met a girlfriend through a customer, he has never wound up a job by popping open a bottle of Champagne and enjoying an amorous moment with a client. His work has, however, led him to cross paths with a number of people who have become part of his life, among them his doctor, his lawyer and his dentist.

Happily for him, he has no stories about sudden attacks of vertigo. If he suffered from acrophobia, he said, he’d be in another line of work, “because that’s something you don’t outgrow.” Plus, he is attentive to safety and a regular at the meetings of the International Window Cleaners Association, the industry’s trade group.

Because New York is tougher than most places when it comes to washing windows — the traffic, the congestion, the pollution — city window washers use a variety of techniques to get to where the dirt is. They clamber up scaffolding. They use ropes to rappel down the sides of high-rises, an approach that most are loath to discuss or have abandoned because city regulations sharply curtailed the practice. Like Mr. Weingard, they work as much as possible inside an apartment, using what is called belt work only for hard-to-reach exteriors.

Ivor Hanson, the author of the memoir “Life on the Ledge: Reflections of a New York City Window Cleaner,” is intimately familiar with the world Mr. Weingard inhabits. All the glassy new towers translate into business. “But when times are tight,” Mr. Hanson said, “people wash their windows less often, so there’s more pressure on the window washer.”

As the city has grown more affluent, the social dynamics have changed also. “People are fussier,” Mr. Weingard said. “They get upset if they can’t get an appointment right away, or if the guy is five minutes late.” There’s also less chatting with the customer; usually, a domestic worker or a doorman escorts Mr. Weingard into an apartment. Today, he said, most people have their windows washed once or twice a year, paying him an average of $20 apiece for normal double-hung windows, more for larger or more complicated installations.

Like many window washers, Mr. Weingard does not plan to do this sort of work forever. Crouching and balancing become tougher; the lightning-fast reflexes needed to prevent falls slow down. Mr. Weingard sees himself retiring to his family’s farm in the Allegheny Mountains.

But for now, he regards washing the windows of what he calls “my buildings” as something of a calling. “Because why live in New York,” he said, “if you can’t look out the window and see how beautiful the city is?”

Finally... Quality Sought In The Service Market

At last a service that focuses on quality.

Juan Chaparro, who years ago worked with his wife as a house cleaner in Texas, and had to hitchhike from job to job because they had no car, began with an awesome heartwarming story. “We were full of dreams and wanted to make a big business,” he said. Today, Mr. Chaparro is cofounder and CEO of Serviceful—a “digital concierge” that books and manages all your home services, from pet sitters to gardeners to window washers. Talk about a success story.

Serviceful the first of it’s kind Dedicated Online Home Concierge for busy homeowners. Order household services with a short request and let us do the rest. We blend the best of the web technology and local service to keep your house running smoothly. We free up the homeowner's time and offer peace of mind. Request any home service with one short message.

• Track & monitor your scheduled service providers. Keep record of all your maintenance costs & your home’s health in one centralized place.
• Bonded & Insured providers within your community.
• Included with your membership, every quarter you will receive a home visit for a routine maintenance inspection and small repairs.
• Snap & Done - With our app you'll be able to take pictures of things around your house in need of repairs or some TLC.

Cat On Roof, Window Cleaner Goes Home, Another In-Doors

Window cleaner Nick Glover with little Molly.

Window Cleaner Rescues Kitten Being Attacked by Angry Birds: A window cleaner became a hero for a day when he came to the rescue of a stranded kitten that was stuck on a roof in Bourne. The RSPCA has said a special thank you to cleaner Nick Glover who managed to rescue little Molly after she crept out of her home in Essex Way and climbed up onto a roof top.

The 12-week-old kitten was spotted by a concerned member of the public who said Molly was being “dive-bombed” by some magpies and crows. RSPCA animal welfare officer Becky Harper was called to attend the incident but the cat was too far up for her to reach. But instead of calling out the fire service to rescue Molly, it was suggested a call be made to local window cleaner Nick Glover. Becky said: “Nick immediately offered to help and arrived within 10 minutes.

“He then climbed up his ladder and gently picked up little Molly and carried her back down to safety where she was reunited with her owner. “She was a little cold and hungry but apart from that fine. “I just hope this experience puts her off climbing on to roofs in the future although it’s still a bit of a mystery how she managed to get up there considering how tiny she is. “I would really like to say thank you to Nick for helping Molly so quickly and he gave his time free of charge. “He saved calling the fire brigade out and it is great that this had a happy ending.”

David Sewell "was worried and he went home."

A window cleaner deserted his car after smashing it into a lamp-post on a South Tyneside street. David Sewell crashed his Ford Fiesta on Hedworth Lane, Boldon Colliery, on the night of June 28. The 34-year-old abandoned his car, but police traced him from the number plate. Sewell, of Eskdale Drive, Jarrow, pleaded guilty to failing to stop after an accident, failing to report an accident and careless driving at South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court yesterday. The court heard he lost concentration because “he had a lot on his mind”.

Paul Anderson, prosecuting, said: “When police arrived at the scene of the crash the driver had left. “He was eventually traced and accepted he had been driving it. “He said he wasn’t concentrating because he had a lot on his mind because he had recently lost some money. “He told the police he was scared so ran off in a state of panic. “There is no suggestion he had been drinking.”

Charlton James Carr, defending, said: “He was driving and had a momentary lapse going round a bend and collided with the lamp-post. “We don’t know how much damage he caused to it but we do know that his car, which was worth £600, was effectively written off. “He panicked because in 2006 he was given a two-year prison sentence for something totally different and was released three and a half years ago. “He was worried and he went home. “There was no-one else involved and no one was injured.”

Mr Carr told the court that when the police went to his house to speak to him about the smash, Sewell wasn’t at home but called them back when he found out they had been to see him. He added: “He didn’t try and concoct a cock-and-bull story, he was honest with them. “He is a self-employed window cleaner with two children and a partner to support. If he loses his licence they will suffer.” Magistrates added seven points on to Sewell’s driving licence and fined him £100. He was also ordered to pay £85 costs and a £20 victim surcharge.

He navigates his home using LED flashlights and candles.

Rare Medical Condition Forces SF Man To Live In Darkness: Extreme photosenstivity means SF man is harmed by cell phone glow. The light is unkind to John Kapellas. In fact, the light burns him. Sunlight or artificial, a ray of sun or a shine from a smartphone's screen, light causes the 59-year old to break out in blisters, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. This extreme form of photosensitivity means Kapellas rarely leaves a darkened San Francisco apartment. This kind of affliction is extremely rare, the experts say. Usually, people with photosensitivity can cope with artificial light.

John is lit by one of the small LED flashlights he often uses as he poses for a portrait in the blacked-out bedroom of his apartment in San Francisco. John Kapellas is a sculptor who lives in almost complete darkness since being diagnosed 5 years ago with solar urticaria, an extreme form of photo sensitivity that produces burns and hives with even small exposures to light.

But not Kapellas, who used to run a window-washing business. He must block even the light from his microwave and refrigerator, according to the newspaper. Doctors are unsure what caused his case, the newspaper reported. He has been HIV positive since 1988, and it is possible the disease or the combination of drugs he is on may had led to it. He navigates his home using LED flashlights and candles, the newspaper reported, but still remains upbeat.

John Kapellas spent a large part of his life outdoors. He ran a window-washing business for 29 years and, for a time, he and sculptor Daniel Goldstein collaborated on a series of successful public-art installations.

Window Cleaning Trade Tales

Window washers keep buildings clean whether they are small commercial buildings or touring skyscrapers.

Trade Tales: Washing tall buildings in a single bound: Fear of heights is not a common job complaint, unless the job includes dangling 30 stories above the ground cleaning a window. Fear of heights is not a common job complaint, unless the job includes dangling 30 stories above the ground cleaning a window. "It was a natural progression for me," Mike Draper said of how he got into the window cleaning business. "I had done some work for a buddy in high school and we did some window cleaning. I started here in Bloomington in 2000 and it has led to bigger and better things. They put glass high up in the air and so we clean it."

Draper's company, Clearly Windows, cleans windows in Peoria, Bloomington, Champaign, Springfield, Decatur and other places in central Illinois. "We do anything from storefronts to retail restaurants all the way up to the big buildings," Draper said. "We do the Twin Towers in Peoria even."

Making ends meet for the company typically finds the window washer cleaning a variety of buildings, Draper said. "It's a mix of buildings, especially in the area," Draper said. "There are not as many big buildings as smaller buildings. It's not like Chicago where you have all those skyscrapers to clean."

To get up and down the buildings, the washers are seated on a plank of wood which is counterweighted for balance and suspended on two ropes. "Most of the work we do we do from a bosun chair," Draper said. "It's basically two ropes coming off a counterweighted teeter-totter, if you will. The counterweights keep the focal point to where you won't tip over." Being suspended on a plank of wood a little more than seat length can give even the most seasoned window cleaner nervous at times, Draper said. "Sometimes you do (get a fear of the height)," Draper said. "You try to stabilize yourself the best you can when you are up there. You can do that with a suction cup."

Cleaning the windows is a process similar to how someone cleans their car windows at a gas station.

"We soap the windows down with a commercial window cleaning agent then squeegee it clean," Draper said. In a unique business like professional window cleaning, Draper said longstanding relationships are key. "We have contracts with people and, more than that, we have relationships with the property owners," Draper said. "It's a big process." How long a building takes depends on the size and amount of windows. "Cleaning times can depend but most of our buildings we can do within a week," Draper said. After all these years in the business, one might still find Draper in a variety of places, high above the ground. "I am more of the organizational side now but I sometimes get out there," Draper said. "Yesterday for instance I was hanging about the University of Illinois football stadium."

Click to enlarge.

Daredevil Photographer Rappels Down Skyscrapers For the Perfect Shot: Even window washers can be scary when you don’t expect to see them outside your office window. But a camera-wielding man dangling from a single rope goes beyond the pale. Caracas-born photographer Carlos Ayesta has freaked out thousands of Parisians over the past few years, rappelling down the side of Paris’s skyscrapers to shoot remarkable images of the city's towers.

Ayesta is an architectural photographer and urban spelunker: With the help of his team, he’s rappelled down the sides of the tallest buildings in Paris, including the Eiffel Tower and the shell-shaped Center of New Industries and Technologies. He calls the ongoing project Vertical Visions of La Defense, the Paris business district that’s long been at the center of a city-wide scandal over the construction of new skyscrapers (basically, companies want them and Parisians don’t).

Ayesta’s photos are less about the contentious politics of the neighborhood and more about capturing the contentious buildings from a unique perspective. "My approach of taking photographs whilst abseiling and from hanging platforms shows the architecture in another dimension," Ayesta told Dezeen recently. "I can take pictures of hidden things. No-one on the ground or on top of the buildings can see what I see.”

Check out the video below to see Ayesta dangling from the top of La Grande Arche, the monumental Mitterrand-era rectangular monument designed by Johann Otto von Spreckelsen in the 1980s—and make sure to peep the surprised building occupants in several of the images.

Would You Let This Man Clean Your Windows?

David Merrett, a window cleaner leaving Truro Crown Court after pleading guilty to assault.

Would you let him clean your windows? Detectives believe a "violent and unpredictable" window cleaner who admitted assaulting a man may have left further victims fearing attack. A lengthy investigation into David Merrett, 45, of Trelawney Rd, Falmouth, culminated in him admitting assault causing actual bodily harm (ABH) against Neil Drummond in June last year. The notorious thug, with a string of violent offences, pleaded guilty on Friday before a three-day trial was due to take place at Truro Crown Court on Monday.

Adjourning his sentence to later this month, Judge Christopher Harvey-Clarke, QC, called for pre-sentence reports paying particular attention to the risks of Merrett reoffending. Detective Constable Rick Milburn, who headed the investigation, said more of Merrett's victims may be yet to come forward. He said the incident stemmed from Merrett's window cleaning business, accusing the victim of losing him money. During the incident, Merrett punched and kicked Mr Drummond and stamped on his head in a frenzied, unprovoked attack in Waterloo Road.

David Merrett leaving Truro Crown Court.

Mr Drummond had been cleaning lime plaster from a window at 1.30pm, near Merrett's home. DC Milburn said: "Mr Drummond was doing light duties because he had undergone eye surgery to re-attach a detached retina. "Merrett accused him of losing him money, saying he had lost him work. He then asked him if he wanted a chinning and punched him on the chin."

He said Merrett became enraged, punching the victim, who fell to the ground where he was kicked and punched to the ribs, kidneys and face. "A taxi driver pulled over and shouted, 'don't you think he's had enough?' and Merrett stopped," he added. DC Milburn said the attack was aggressive and had a massive impact on the victim's life. Merrett had denied a charge of causing grievous bodily harm but admitted ABH, which carries a maximum five-year prison sentence.

DC Milburn added: "It should carry extra gravity because of the time of day and happened in a built up residential area when there was likely to be families and young children about. "What worries me most about the incident is the sudden aggression of Merrett and what appears to be a very unpredictable and aggressive nature to total strangers. "He is a large, unpredictable individual. People don't want to aggravate him or put themselves in a vulnerable position." He said Merrett has appeared in court about 20 times for more than 34 offences, including an attack on his mother, town councillor Diana Merrett in 2011, for which he was given a ten-week suspended prison sentence.

Cheerful Low-Balling Window Cleaning Veteran Died From Ladder Fall

Is your life worth a few pennies?

Fatal plunge window cleaner was keeping up his Cheetham Hill round for ‘pennies’ - Michael Corlett, described by friends as ‘colourful’ and ‘cheerful’, refused to give up his traditional beat but only charged customers a nominal fee. A 73-year-old retired window cleaner fell off his ladder and died after keeping up his rounds for ‘pennies’.
 

Michael Corlett, described by friends as ‘colourful’ and ‘cheerful’, refused to give up his traditional beat in the heart of Cheetham Hill but only charged customers a nominal fee. Tragically he plunged to his death in December last year while cleaning windows at the house of good pal Charles Daly. A coroner’s inquest heard how two passing binmen saw the pensioner fall from the first floor window of the Kenford Walk property on December 12 and raced to his aid.

Binman Paul Lyons and a colleague, along with Mr Daly and a neighbour, tried to revive the stricken pensioner. He was raced to Salford Royal but died later that evening. Piyali Pal, a consultant pathologist at Salford Royal, said the pensioner had suffered significant head and spinal injuries.

Although Mr Corlett, who lived in Harpurhey, was on blood-thinning medicine warfarin, the doctor added there was no evidence he had suffered a stroke or heart attack while on the ladder. Coroner Nigel Meadows said the veteran window cleaner’s death was the result of an accident. He added: “Sadly they were serious head injuries which weren’t survivable.”

Speaking after the inquest, friends of Mr Corlett, a single man who was not believed to have children, paid tribute. Mr Daly said: “I know he did the windows cheap after he retired. He was an obliging chap, but he’d just surprise you by popping up in your back yard. You’d turn around and he’d just be standing there.”

And another friend Jim Bradley, 85, a retired hospital porter, said: “He’d come and go as he pleased. “He was a bit of a romancer, always telling you tall tales. You were never sure what to believe. “Even after he got his pension, he’d still turn up and just charge a couple of quid, pennies sometimes. “I don't think he cared about the money.”

Council responds after death of tenant who fell from top-floor window while cleaning mould-ridden flat: Dacorum Borough Council has released a statement after hearing that one of their tenants fell to his death from a top-floor flat while trying to get rid of mould. The news was revealed today at the inquest of David Vibert, who fell through the window of Leverstock Green’s nine-storey Pelham Court on October 27 last year. Herts Coroners Court heard that the 52-year-old and his dad had to wash everything with bleach to remove fungus, and get rid of a lot of David’s bedding and curtains.

He took the safety latches off his windows and left them wide open to get rid of the smell, but later fell out while redecorating in that area. Dacorum Borough Council, which owns the flat, was not represented at David’s inquest today, and this afternoon spokesman Luisa Clarke said the authority did not even know it was happening. 

The council has now released a statement from Fiona Williamson, from its housing landlord service. It says: “We have heard that the inquest was held today into the tragic death of Mr David Vibert last October. “Dacorum Borough Council was not asked to attend and we understand that a verdict of accidental death was recorded. First and foremost, our thoughts go out to Mr Vibert’s family and friends. “Following Mr Vibert’s fall we cooperated with the police investigation. Our housing officers also visited tenants at Pelham Court to address any concerns that they may have had. “If any of our tenants want to contact us about their properties or request a repair, they can call us on 01442 228000.”

Trending Bird Safety Glass Becoming Mandatory

This image provided by the American Bird Conservancy shows the new Visitors Center at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, which was designed with birds in mind. The special, striped pattern incorporated into the glass looks elegant, but also provides a signal to birds that a barrier exists.

Some cities adopting bird-friendly building rules (OAKLAND, Calif.)  – Birds and buildings can be a fatal combination. The American Bird Conservancy cites studies estimating that hundreds of millions of birds die each year as a result of colliding with walls and windows. But a movement to make skies a little friendlier is taking flight; some cities and other governments across the country are adopting bird-safety building guidelines on a mandatory or voluntary basis.

One of the latest cities to incorporate bird safety into housing regulations is Oakland, where officials this year revised guidelines originally approved in 2008 to make them more effective. Neighboring San Francisco adopted bird-friendly requirements in 2011, working with the American Bird Conservancy and Golden Gate Audubon Society, and the state of Minnesota also has bird-friendly design requirements, modeled after a LEED (Leadership in Engineering and Environmental Design) bird collision reduction program. The Minnesota requirements are part of a sustainability program that applies to projects with any state funding.

The state of California includes voluntary bird-friendly measures as an appendix to its green building code, known as CALgreen. What exactly do bird-safety regulations entail? A big issue is glass. Just as many a human has taken a nasty smack walking into a clear glass door, birds often come to grief when confronted with transparent picture windows or glass-sided buildings. Unlike humans, birds don’t pick up on architectural cues; they don’t see a window frame and realize it implies a window.

But that doesn’t mean that bird-friendly buildings have to be “windowless warehouses,” says Christine Sheppard, bird collisions campaign manager at the American Bird Conservancy. Glazing treatments, such as making glass opaque or using etching to make it more noticeable,can deter collisions. And research is being conducted into the efficacy of glass patterned with vertical or horizontal lines. “We’ve actually done quite a bit of this sort of testing, building on the work of Dr. Dan Klem at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania and Martin Roessler in Austria,” says Sheppard. “We know that there are highly effective patterns that cover less than 10 per cent of the glass surface. We know the basic dimensions of spaces birds won’t try to fly through, but we still need to determine the minimum size of the elements that create the spaces — lines can be broken up, patterns can be made of dots, lines don’t have to be straight, etc.”

From a design perspective, incorporating bird safety can be challenging, says Ryan Hughes, project manager at Lundberg Design in San Francisco. Clients want views, especially in a city like San Francisco blessed with hills overlooking a big, blue bay. And glass provides those views, whether that’s a floor-to-ceiling wall or a barrier around the edge of a terrace.

This publicity photo provided by American Bird Conservancy shows a bird-friendly design at the School of Pharmacy at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. A movement to make skies a little friendlier is taking flight; some cities and other governments across the country are adopting bird-safety building guidelines on a mandatory or voluntary basis.

Still, new glass products, including the type with minimal lines, can be part of an acceptable compromise. And sometimes, what’s good for humans is also good for birds: Lundberg designed glass bus shelters for the city of San Francisco that included a subtle pattern on the glass — called SF fog because it is denser at the bottom and dissipates at the top — to keep people from walking into the walls. Hughes said he later heard from bird safety officials that the pattern is effective at warding off birds, too.

The problem of bird collision isn’t limited to public structures or skyscrapers. “The estimate is that pretty much any home probably kills between one and 10 birds a year,” says Sheppard, author of the bird conservancy’s “Bird-Friendly Design.”(That figure is based on work by Klem, as well as by Scott Loss at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.) Making your home a more bird-friendly place can be as simple as sticking Post-It notes on the windows during high danger times, such as spring or fall bird migrations. Other relatively simple options that benefit birds and humans are window screens or shutters.

Oakland’s bird safety measures are part of the building permit process and apply to all construction projects that include glass as part of a building’s exterior. They also apply to projects that meet one of several criteria, including being next to places where birds are likely to congregate, such as a large body of water or a recreation area. Scott Miller, Oakland’s zoning manager, says he hasn’t heard many complaints from developers. The rules, he says, are “really quite reasonable. They’re not restricting development in such a way that would be objectionable. They’re just providing measures that make buildings friendlier to birds.”

Measures include bird-friendly glazing treatments; avoiding the use of mirrors in landscape design; and avoiding putting things that attract birds near glass. Other bird-friendly practices include turning off more lights at night, since lit windows can attract night-flying birds. Minimum-intensity white strobe lighting with a three-second flash is better than solid red or rotating lights, which attract birds. Taking steps to keep birds safe is more than just kindness, says Sheppard. Birds have an ecological impact dispersing seeds and eating harmful insects. “People should care about birds,” says Sheppard, “because we need birds.”

The pigeon crashed in to a kitchen pane in Dunblane, Stirling, leaving an outline that showed the pigeons head, torso and outspread wings. The imprint left then was said to be from the animal’s protective ‘powder down’ substance designed to preserve its feathers.

Bird Strike: deaths caused by collisions with buildings severely dent populations: Ben Whitford reveals why numerous birds fall dead and injured from the skies over urban areas each year, and asks what can be done to prevent this ongoing avian tragedy. On a brisk May morning in 2001, countless dying birds fell like rain from the grey Toronto sky. In the east of the city, outside a hulking 18-storey office complex called Consilium Place, workers on cigarette breaks watched in horror as tiny feathered bodies thudded onto the pavement, fell into their laps, and crashed onto the picnic tables where they had laid out their coffee and morning snacks.

While the office workers sought shelter, a bird enthusiast named Michael Mesure called for backup. As founder of the Fatal Light Awareness Program, or FLAP, Mesure runs a team of volunteers who patrol Toronto in search of birds that have stunned themselves — or worse — by flying into one of the city’s many mirrored-glass skyscrapers. Some mornings Mesure’s team doesn’t find many birds: perhaps just one, or two, or twenty.

In the space of six hours on that May morning, though, Mesure and a dozen or so volunteers found at least 500 birds. Ruby-throated hummingbirds, dark-eyed juncos, white-throated sparrows and Nashville warblers were carefully collected: the tiny corpses stored in plastic bags, the injured survivors placed gently in paper sacks for treatment and subsequent release. And still the birds kept falling. “It was literally hailing birds,” Mesure says. “It was just a real sobering moment for us.”

On a smaller scale, experts say, such scenes are repeated daily across North America as birds, unable to distinguish between blue sky and what Vladimir Nabokov poetically called “the false azure in the windowpane”, careen into windows at speeds of up to 30 miles per hour. The resulting brain damage is thought to kill about 60% of birds on impact, with many of the remainder left nursing chipped beaks or internal injuries that subsequently prove fatal.

In all, it’s estimated that the Toronto skyline accounts for about 1 million bird deaths a year — and even that is just a drop in the bucket. It’s hard to put a precise number on collision-related mortalities, but researcher Scott Loss of the Smithsonian Institute is preparing to publish new research that, based on a sophisticated analysis of 23 previous studies, estimates that between 400 million and 1 billion birds die from window impacts each year in the U.S. alone.

That eye-popping number suggests that window impacts are putting a serious dent in the North American bird population. There are thought to be around 10 to 20 billion birds in the U.S., Loss says, so it’s not unreasonable to assume that up to 10% of the entire U.S. bird population dies, year-in, year-out, due to building collisions.

Also see here & here.