Birds, birds BIRDS!!!!!! UPDATED!!! with pictures!!

So last night I am in our laundry room and I hear a BANG on the side of our house. I think a bird ran into our house. So I walk to the sliding glass door, open it,and a blackbird comes flying out of our exhaust vent for our dryer!!!

I tell DH, who goes out to find straw hanging out of it. He pushed the flap down, but it doesn't stay. He goes in the house to get mesh wiring, and as we open the door up again, the bird comes flying out again. It went back in when we went in the house!!! It was watching us!!!!!

DH puts gloves on, sticks his hand in the hole, and starts pulling out straw, and twigs and feathers, and lint. He thinks he got it all, so sticks his hand in one more time, and comes out with a whole bunch. The bird was making a nest in our dryer vent!. So after he gets it all out DH tries to staple the mesh to the aluminum thingy (I don't know the word for it) and it doesn't work. Goes inside to call his dad to see if he has any other ideas other than duct tape to close it up for now.

Bird went in again!!! We hear it leave the vent as we open the door to go outside. Persistent little thing.

So we wind up duct taping the mesh to the vent last night so we do not have a bird laying eggs in our vent today.

What's really frustrating is that on the vents of our ATTIC, when we moved in, DH put like a screen mesh up there to keep animals out. Well, this past weekend the neighbor said she saw black birds going in our attic. So now we have to take DS's closet organizer out so we can get in the attic to re-mesh with harder metal to keep birds out. I thought we had fixed this situation already.

DH said well at least one hole is closed for now, I was like, yeah, but it'll just find the attic hole that they pecked through.

Man, never ends with a house, huh?


UPDATE:

DH installed a new vent last night, and he pulled out a LOT of a nest that was in there. Double what he pulled out yesterday. He also found 2 eggs , so I put them far away from the house in the backyard, hopefully the birds will find them and take them away. This bird was moving into my house and not paying rent!!!!

Message edited 5/1/2009 9:33:01 AM.

Re: Birds, birds BIRDS!!!!!!

never ending!

We had a similar thing happen with black birds too. They are nasty. We had them in between the wall and the A/C. Each year they must have been living there for awhile. After we bought the house almost 2 years ago, we had not replaced the A/C yet. So last year when we did, because it smell in that room, We found at least two feet down, in between the walls under the A/C unit. And unfortunately 2 dead baby birds from last year and probably a year or two prior because it was way down in the wall. It was so gross. But now the little buggers can't get in. We fixed them. They will get in anywhere it seems. GL!

Re: Birds, birds BIRDS!!!!!!

Did it look like this?



If it's mostly dark but has a yellow beak, it's probably a European Starling.

They tend to prefer nesting in house crevices and vents. We had exactly the same thing happen to the house we rented. The bird poked a hole in the vent and wound up IN the laundry room. Pooped everywhere.

We detached the hose from the wall, cleaned the whole thing out, and put a variety of things in there. What wound up working was a ton of wire hangers bent and inserted into the vent. We couldn't make any permanent changes because we rented.

I also found TWO Starlings STUCK in the hole and had to put my gardening gloves on and actually grab it and pull it out.

Starlings are non-native, aggressive, and not protected by law. They have been known to butcher other less aggressive birds and chicks like Eastern Bluebirds. They were introduced on purpose to the Shakespeare Garden in Central Park because Shakespeare mentioned them in one of his works. One of the worst ideas ever. I'm not a fan of them.

Re: Birds, birds BIRDS!!!!!!

ooo, I have no idea if it was that bird. It looked just black to me, and literally 'flew the coop' as soon as we opened the door. I just saw black.

DH is getting a new vent today, one with 4 overlapping vent holes so nothing can get in it. I'm hoping that will work. If that doesn't work, i'll be sure to do the hanger thing.

Re: Birds, birds BIRDS!!!!!!

We had a similar issue when we moved into our house. It was our neighbor who first noticed birds flying in and out of one of our vents. I was wondering why I was hearing chirping when I was cooking! (Our range hood vents to the side of our house and there was a bunch of straw in there.) We had to call a company to remove the nests because we were afraid of hurting any birds that might have been in there.

DH got some plastic vent covers and mesh wiring to put on the dryer vent and range hood vent. It took us 2 Home Depots and 1 Lowes to finally find covers that were the right size!

Re: Birds, birds BIRDS!!!!!!

Posted by greenfreak

Did it look like this?



If it's mostly dark but has a yellow beak, it's probably a European Starling.
QUOTE]
I think that is the bird I'm talking about. I don't like them at all. When the other birds are eating, something these like of birds stop by and scare all the others away. I guess they are the bullies of the backyard bird feeder.

Anything that can be done to keep them out of your yard or neighborhood? We don't see them all the time thank god, but I don't like them at all.

Re: Birds, birds BIRDS!!!!!!

Crazy birds! I think they are all nuts lol

Re: Birds, birds BIRDS!!!!!! UPDATED!!! with pictures!!

Wow!!! That is crazy!!!

Re: Birds, birds BIRDS!!!!!! UPDATED!!! with pictures!!

OMG that is nuts! Birds get really fanatical if you are near their nest too. One time I was sunbathing, apparently near a birds nest and the mother bird kept swooping in trying to peck me so that I would move! Scary.

Re: Birds, birds BIRDS!!!!!! UPDATED!!! with pictures!!

I'm glad you got them out!! they bring bird mites!

Re: Birds, birds BIRDS!!!!!! UPDATED!!! with pictures!!

Re: Birds, birds BIRDS!!!!!! UPDATED!!! with pictures!!

This bird was moving into my house and not paying rent!!!!


My favorite line.........

Re: Birds, birds BIRDS!!!!!! UPDATED!!! with pictures!!

I am on your side here so please don't misunderstand what I am about to say...
Sadly the eggs will most likely not make it. It is HIGHLY unlikely that the mother bird will find whatever new nest you made and come back to sit on her eggs. You are probably best off calling a local shelter and they will incubate the eggs so they have a chance of surviving.

With that said, good for your DH catching that! They could have come into your house and created a HUGE mes!

Re: Birds, birds BIRDS!!!!!! UPDATED!!! with pictures!!

Re: Birds, birds BIRDS!!!!!! UPDATED!!! with pictures!!

Posted by JldDolphin

Posted by greenfreak

Did it look like this?

IMAGE

If it's mostly dark but has a yellow beak, it's probably a European Starling.
QUOTE]
I think that is the bird I'm talking about. I don't like them at all. When the other birds are eating, something these like of birds stop by and scare all the others away. I guess they are the bullies of the backyard bird feeder.

Anything that can be done to keep them out of your yard or neighborhood? We don't see them all the time thank god, but I don't like them at all.

On no! I heart these birds! I walk to work and see them all the time. They are so pretty! Not happy to hear they are bird bullies!

Re: Birds, birds BIRDS!!!!!! UPDATED!!! with pictures!!

omg Janine.. thats crazy!!
glad you caught that before it got even worse!

Re: Birds, birds BIRDS!!!!!! UPDATED!!! with pictures!!

Posted by OneOfEach

This bird was moving into my house and not paying rent!!!!


My favorite line.........

Re: Birds, birds BIRDS!!!!!! UPDATED!!! with pictures!!

I feel your pain! We just redid the front of our house last August with Stucco and columns and it looked beautiful all up until a bird created a hole the size of a golf ball in one of my columns. He continues to peck and peck at it each day and we don't know what to do to make him stop. I am so worried about the whole bird mites thing.

Re: Birds, birds BIRDS!!!!!! UPDATED!!! with pictures!!

Re: Birds, birds BIRDS!!!!!! UPDATED!!! with pictures!!

Re: Birds, birds BIRDS!!!!!! UPDATED!!! with pictures!!

Seriously... NEVER EVER EVER let birds nest on your house....we had a starling build a nest by our basement door .. I thought it was cute and I felt bad because there were eggs in there... well fast forward to when they decided to move out and they left BIRD MITES.. they infested my house.. it was the most DISGUSTING THING ever.... I was pregnant at the time so I moved in with my parents for a little bit, but they had to come spray my whole house a couple times and then I had to hire a cleaning crew to come clean my house from top to bottom.. I mean washing the kids toys to washing every single dish in the cabinets to steam cleaning the floors.. it was an absolute NIGHTMARE!!!!! I hate birds now

Re: Birds, birds BIRDS!!!!!! UPDATED!!! with pictures!!

Glad you got the situation under control.

Message edited 5/1/2009 7:17:28 PM.

Re: Birds, birds BIRDS!!!!!! UPDATED!!! with pictures!!

WHOA!!! I had an egg like that, outside my chimney. I thought it was a bird egg, but my neighbor said she thought it was an Easter joke. How big are those eggs? This may explain the things I am hearing in the attic. I hope you got them all out!!!