Birds have decided to nest on top of our chimney. We must have left the damper open after our last fire this winter, as one of the birds has somehow fallen or squeezed through the slot and is now inside the fireplace, and apparently can’t get out the way it came in. Meanwhile, our four cats and our puppy are all sitting on the other side of the fireplace’s glass door, eagerly awaiting for someone to open the door so that they can get to the bird.
How do I get the bird out without letting it escape into the inside of our house? Any ideas/suggestions/advice?
It’s not caught in the damper. It’s flapping around inside the fireplace. I don’t think I’m going to be able to grab it.
I picture the bird zipping past me, then flapping madly through the house with four cats and a dog chasing it back and forth.
ETA: By the way, this is a rancher house. I can shut the pets in one of the bedrooms and close all of the doors, but the bird will still have the kitchen, dining, room, living room, entrance hallway, and the hallway leading back to the bedrooms to fly through. I picture steering the bird towards one of the windows or the front door being rather difficult in that situation.
This happened to me twice. The first time in the upstairs fireplace, and the second time in the wood stove in the basement. (It’s a bungalow. Do you call them bungalows in the US?)
The first time I wore oven mitts, quickly opened the doors and grabbed the little bugger. It was a starling, or grackle, and it freaked me the hell out carrying that thing, but the patio doors to the deck are only 15 feet away and I managed to throw it out to freedom.
The second time I opened the basement windows, opened the wood stove door, left the basement and closed the door at the top of the stairs. It flew around for a while and was trying to live in the basement I guess, but after a few hours it managed to find a window and escape.
Get a sheet or something and hang it over the fireplace so you have some room to work after you open the door. If you can’t grab it then put a pot or wastebasket of something like that upside down over the bird or trap it against the wall. Slide a piece of cardboard under the container to hold the bird in. Then take it outside. I’ve had to do this before.
Maybe. If you can make the outside lighter than the inside. It worked for me in the basement, eventually. Let’s face it though, the bird could be covered with a lot of soot and having it flutter around the house landing on things might not be a good idea.
I locked the pets in the bedrooms, put on gloves, and tried to grab the bird, but a predicted, missed. Then Mrs. Geek and I chased it back and forth through the living room with brooms, while four cats scratched at the doors and the puppy barked. It seemed to want to fly anywhere except out. Three times it went towards the open front door, landed on the door frame, then flew back into the living room when I tried to get it to go through the door. Finally it landed on a picture hanging on the wall and I just grabbed it, took it outside, and released it.
My dad was a bird enthusiast, and although I found it weird growing up I suddenly became one myself when I bought this house. I can’t imagine not knowing the various bird species around here. I’m too curious to not know!
I’m glad the bird is out. This may sound like a facetious answer, but it’s really not. Did you look in the Yellow Pages or Google for a chimney sweep? There are still some around, and they might be handy if this sort of thing ever happens again.
Nice that it worked out. Probably a newly fledged youngster rather than an adult? Fledglings tend to be pretty spastic when they first leave the nest, not much wing strength or steering abilities.
Probably a newly fledged youngster rather than an adult? Fledglings tend to be pretty spastic when they first leave the nest, not much wing strength or steering abilities.