bird
Image courtesy of www.youtube.com

You park outside and come back to bird poop — on the roof, on the trunk, on the windows. Ew! And it’s not just disgusting; bird droppings quickly soften the clear coat on the paint finish, which leaches out the colour. What’s left? A permanently faded spot. That’s the word from a British survey of 1,140 cars parked in five U.K. cities — Brighton, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester and Bristol. Over a two-day period, researchers inspected the cars, recording car colour and the frequency with which birds left their droppings…Here are the car colours and the percentage that were hit with bird poo:

• Red: 18 percent
• Blue: 14 percent
• Black: 11 percent
• White: 7 percent
• Gray or silver: 3 percent
• Green: 1 percent

So why are red cars hit more than any other colour? It’s probably coincidence. “We do know that birds can be attracted to certain colours, but droppings on cars is probably more to do with where you park,” said a spokesman for the British Trust for Ornithology. “If you park where birds roost, then you are going to get more droppings on your vehicle.” What should you do when your car is bird-bombed? Don’t just wipe it off! Since birds use gravel to digest their food, there is grit in their droppings. Wiping it off, even with a soft, damp cloth, can scratch your car. About.com recommends using no-salt seltzer water, which is just water and carbon dioxide and won’t harm the car’s paint. To make it work best, take the lid off the no-salt seltzer water, put your thumb over the opening and give it a good shake. This will create a blast of water to wash off the acidic droppings…I hope this helps when the time comes…and you know it will..