Birds flying into cars are the main culprits, but other wildlife and pets are also responsible for chipped or cracked glass, with deer, goats, monkeys, cows and dogs having all been cited by customers of the automotive glazing business.

Meanwhile “frisky” seagulls can also be a problem, as Auto Windscreens’ customer service adviser Kathryn Maloney explained: ‘One of the strangest calls I have had was from a man whose back windscreen had been shattered by seagulls pecking at it. They had seen their own reflections and were clearly trying to mate with themselves!’

Chris Thornton, managing director of Auto Windscreens, added: ‘The majority of reports we receive about broken vehicle glass relate to stone chips, but every so often we get a customer who says a freak animal-related incident is the cause. It’s amazing how they manage to create such damage and end up in these “hairy” situations!’

To encourage customers to talk more about their strange reasons for damage, Auto Windscreens ran a “weird windscreens’ competition on Facebook last month. One lorry driver said: “I was driving my truck down the M1 one night and an owl flew into my windscreen. It left its outline on the screen and a big chip where its beak had hit!’