Kamikaze Cardinal

TAP-Bump! TAP-Bump!

What the heck is that noise?

It's a cardinal who has been repeatedly bashing himself against my library window for the past three days. I only figured out what the sound was yesterday. Since then, I tried several times to chase him away, but he always comes back, even when my cats are eagerly sitting below, waiting for him to knock himself unconscious so they can eat him.

Maybe he sees his reflection in the window and thinks he's defending his territory. But if that's what he thinks, he's pretty dumb, since there are lots of other cardinals around, and he doesn't seem to be throwing himself at them.

Yesterday, he did have a girlfriend in the tree with him, watching his kamikaze act. Maybe he's just trying to impress her with his great feats of strength and courage (not to mention stupidity). He's definitely looking a little worse for wear, with his feathers all tousled and a kind of glazed, crazy look in his eye.

Perhaps it would be better for the gene pool if this one DIDN'T reproduce.

You can see a short video clip of his act here.