Screen Vents & Ducts

Yesterday morning just as I was getting started on my long list of overdue To Dos, I heard what sounded like bird feet scrabling on the inside of my kitchen wall. I went outside and saw a venting duct of some sort that poked through my steep roof and continued down through my house, approximately where I heard the sound.

I have feral pigeons that hang out on my roof and I could imagine that one went in, drawn to what seemed to be a nice, dark, cozy potential nest cubby, and got stuck down inside- unable to open its wings enough to fly up and out.

I've lived here over 11 years and always thought the vents were screened off but I was wrong.

I got out the big ladder and tried to figure out how to get enough traction to climb the roof to the duct but after trying a couple different types of shoes and my bare feet, for once, I was prudent and didn't try to do something that I really wanted to do. I felt sure that if I could get to the duct and lower some net-type fabric down it, the pigeon would eventually climb out (though they are not climbers) or at least get tangled up enough that I could pull him out with the fabric.

I called SFACC (imaging all the cool equipment and rescue stunts like they show on the Animal Cops TV series) and they sent out a nice gentleman who told me that he could get the fire department to come out but that they get access with axes and that I'd probably prefer the job a handyman would do.

I called WildCare and they referred me to SF ROMP and I left a message there asking for help finding someone who could access the trapped bird. In the meantime, I posted to the Mickaboo & MickaCoo Bird Rescue Discussion Groups for help and ideas and referrals and moral support (and got a 911-worthy response from Josette- thank you!.

I spent a fair amount of time trying to pry into the duct where it ran through my attic as well as alongside a hall closet. I couldn't find an access to it in the garage.

And I called my furnace repairman, James. Amazingly, he was able to come right over and started the much-more-difficult-than-I-imagined job of breaking into the vent.

I thought the thing was tin- it is stainless steel! And, as James predicted, it is lined with a clay/cement pipe inside. The thing was not only nearly impossible to access (luckily for me, James is not claustrophobic) but it was built like Fort Knox. James was careful to figure out how to break in as low and carefully as possible so as not to let falling cement crush the bird which was staying completely silent and who had me I wondering if I had imagined the whole thing.

Finally, at 5:30, James had breached the incredibly well-built air duct sufficiently so that I could, by scraping my arm, squeeze if far enough in and down to feel just the top tip of something alive. After a few more tries, I ended up pulling out, to my surprise, a starling whose clever toes had grabbed and held on to the mini-kitchen strainer I was using to extend my reach.

I offered the starling water and, when it wouldn't drink, syringe-fed it a little salted sugar water (no Pedialyte on hand).

It didn't seem frisky enough to release and it was approaching dusk so I put him in my pigeon coop.

He pooped some black water which I first thought was blood but wasn't. The bottom of the duct has a thick layer of super fine, inky black dust- almost like toner- and, as hunger got the best of him, I think he ate it. I guess it is something like 90 years of carbon dust...

He had no appetite but I wanted to get some calories into him and so, by dropping them way back in his throat, I managed to get him to swallow three small earthworms that I worm-napped from the worm compost bin.

I debated whether to leave him outside where he would be most likely more comfortable or to bring him in (where he would be scared) and put him in a carrier with a bottom half-covered by a heating pad.

At first, I decided to leave him outside with water and food in a nice high spot in the coop but, as it got dark, he wasn't looking great and so I brought him inside.

Last night, I was really hoping that he was just exhausted and would recover. I've seen really down, hurt pigeons much stronger in the morning. When I checked on the starling at 10 pm, he was sleeping.

This morning, he was dead. His feathers were in gorgeous, perfect condition. He felt thin but probably from going all day without food while trapped in the duct. Wild birds (and animals) all live on a razor's edge of nutrition any way- they don't have much in reserve.

I don't think he starved, though. I think he was poisoned by the superfine, black dust. Mickaboomer Mike said stirring up and then breathing in the soot may have overwhelmed his lungs as well.

I've got to get that vent covered so that this doesn't happen again. James, my furnace repairman, says that sometimes he's cut into ducts and found a pile of dead birds on the bottom.