‘This Literally Just Happened’: Man Hears Glass Shatter. Then He Sees Something Shocking Standing In His Kitchen

Living in a city, it can be easy to forget that you’re still at the whims of Mother Nature.

If the Earth decides it wants to send the wild your way, it will find a method of doing so. For example, one California couple awoke to discover that a bear had climbed through their window and ransacked their kitchen. Around the world, people have complained about mischievous monkeys robbing them.

Now, an internet user has gone viral after sharing a wild encounter that a man had with an eagle in his own kitchen.

How Did An Eagle Get There?

In a video with over 592,000 views, TikTok user @intermodal.express.corp shows a kitchen in disarray.

“This literally just happened,” the homeowner starts. The video shows a kitchen covered with broken glass. In the middle of the kitchen stands what appears to be a juvenile bald eagle. The eagle does not move away; it only looks around the kitchen.

“Eagle. Right through the f—- window,” the homeowner continues.

The origin of this video is unclear. In the caption, the TikToker makes reference to the fact that it is not his video. Additionally, the video appeared on several other social media channels from different users around the same time. As a result, it’s difficult to say where or when this event took place.

How Can This Happen?

Bird/window collisions are fairly common. That said, generally speaking, it’s rare for an eagle—or any bird—to break through a window.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, there are over 1 billion bird/window collisions per year in the United States alone. If birds were breaking through windows with any regularity, chances are high that you would have heard about it.

This is rare because, simply put, the amount of force required by a bird to do so is significant. A baseball thrown at a window benefits from having a decent amount of weight compacted into a relatively small surface area. If thrown directly at the center of a window, the ball will likely shatter it.

Even though a pigeon may weigh twice as much as a baseball, that weight is spread out over a greater surface area. The collision is also inelastic, meaning some of the kinetic energy is lost into deformation, sound, heat, and the bird’s body rather than the glass. Consequently, many birds die from hitting a window and do not break it in the process. Even if a bird does break through a window, the force of doing so may kill it in the process.

Given this, it’s pretty rare to see a bird break through a window. For this to happen, the bird has to be large enough, strike the window at a high enough speed, and often, hit the window in a certain place (windows are less likely to crack if they are struck somewhere well-supported, like near the edge).

How To Prevent This From Happening

If you’re concerned about bird strikes, there are a few steps you can take to prevent them.

The majority of these steps involve covering the glass in something that makes it clear to the bird that they cannot fly through it. This can include window shades, stickers on the window, or painted patterns to indicate that there is a barrier between the inside and outside.

There are also some companies that claim to be able to do this using UV glass. As birds can see UV light, this glass works by printing a pattern in UV onto the glass. In contrast to other solutions that obstruct the glass, this claims to deter birds while allowing the glass itself to appear unobstructed.

If you don’t want to paint your glass or cover it in UV, experts also recommend screens, interior vertical blinds, and specific home design to prevent bird collisions.

Commenters Can’t Believe It

In the comments section, users expressed disbelief and made jokes about the situation.

“Since when did eagle distribution become a thing,” a user wrote.

“He’s totally judging your choice of interior decor,” another joked.

“Just making sure that you know it’s about to be our 250th anniversary,” wrote a third.

BroBible reached out to @intermodal.express.corp via TikTok comment.