Tried both soap and tape on my big patio door, the tape worked way better

Last spring I had a robin hit my sliding glass door in Portland twice in one week, so I tried drawing lines with bar soap first. It washed off in the first rain and looked messy. Then I put up 2-inch wide white masking tape in vertical strips about 4 inches apart, and we haven't had a single strike in six months. The tape is cheap, stays put, and birds seem to see it clearly. Has anyone else found a simple tape pattern that works well for big windows like this?

3 comments

3 Comments

mary_ross23d ago

My neighbor in Seattle uses the same tape trick on her sunroom. Those vertical strips are the key, I swear.

sage78723d ago

Vertical strips are a total waste of time. My aunt in Tacoma tried that exact method on her sunroom last spring. The tape just peeled off after two weeks of morning fog. The real key is using wide horizontal strips, because they block the low angle sun better. Those vertical lines people use don't actually cover the right spots when the light shifts. She switched to horizontal and the room stayed cool all summer.

noahbaker1d ago

Yeah my buddy in Portland had the same peeling issue with vertical strips. He tried the heavy duty outdoor tape and everything, but the winter damp just wrecked the adhesive. He saw what @mary_ross was saying about vertical being key and gave it another shot, but the afternoon sun would still blaze right through the gaps. Finally he caved and did wide horizontal bands, like eight inches apart. Now his plants aren't getting scorched and he doesn't need to run his AC as much.