OUCH! That's one pigeon in need of some pane relief as bird creates eerie print when after crashing into a window

It is an eerie image that looks as if it is a phantom bird caught in mid-flight.

But this ghostly sight is the imprint left by a wood pigeon after the bird crashed head-on into a window.

Head, body and beak are clearly visible in the impression left of the adult bird swooping as if to attack a target.

Making an impression: The imprint of the pigeon from inside the house

The imprint was left by the bird's 'powder down'

The imprint was left by the bird’s ‘powder down’ – a waterproof substance protecting its feathers – as it smacked into the glass.

The shot was taken by photographer David Hartley at his home in Kingsclere, Berkshire. 

Married father-of-two David, 52, heard a sound at the side of his house last week. 

'There was a crash and we wondered what it was,’ he says. 

‘We didn’t notice the print until later in the day when the sun was shining on to the window and then all of a sudden you could clearly make out it was the body of a wood pigeon.

‘We have a lot of trees around the house and I have often seen birds swooping across the garden and I’ve even heard them crashing into the windows late at night.’

Birds of all species have difficulty distinguishing between a pane of transparent glass and space or a passageway. 

Some see the reflection of trees and the sky, not realising it is glass, which will reflect the most when it is darker inside than it is outside.

During mating periods male birds also become more territorial and are tricked into attacking their reflection, thinking it is an intruder in their space.

by dailymail.co.uk