Capercaillie dies after striking apartment window in Rovaniemi

A capercaillie died after hitting the kitchen window of an apartment building in Rovaniemi in late September, Yle reports. The collision shattered the outer panes.

Resident Heidi Inkeröinen heard a loud bang while having coffee. She first thought a car window had broken or someone had fired a shot. When she went to the kitchen, she saw broken glass and feathers. Outside, she and a neighbour found the bird dead on the ground.

A neighbour who had been unsuccessful on a hunting trip the previous week said the bird would make a good meal. Inkeröinen, who is vegetarian, told him to take it. She said she had not asked whether it was eaten.

Antti Paasivaara, a researcher at the Natural Resources Institute Finland, said he had never heard of a capercaillie hitting an apartment building window. He said the bird may have been near the residential area because of nearby forest and the buildings’ position on a slope in Rovaniemi’s Korkalovaara district.

Paasivaara said a bird of prey, probably a goshawk, may have been chasing the capercaillie, causing it to lose its bearings and hit the window. He said illness or parasites were less likely explanations, because a bird with impaired vision or balance would probably not be able to fly. The exact cause may never be known.

Lapland Police said the incident was not a police matter. Commissioner Jukka-Pekka Salmela said a person affected by a dead game animal may dispose of it at their own expense if it causes a nuisance. The situation would be different if the bird had been deliberately harmed or the accident had happened in a hunting area.