Warning: a bird's nest blocked a flue in a house on Elm Street

I was cleaning a chimney yesterday and found a whole robin's nest packed into the flue pipe. The homeowner said they heard scratching for a month but thought it was the wind. It took me over an hour to clear it all out safely without harming any eggs that were still there. Has anyone else found a nest this late in the season?

3 comments

3 Comments

leo6121mo ago

Yeah, that's not even that late. I read about a chimney sweep in Vermont who pulled out a nest with hatchlings in early December once. Some birds just have terrible timing, or maybe they get confused by warm spells. Makes you wonder what the parents were thinking.

jake_owens17d ago

Nah, I gotta push back a little on that one @leo612. Birds actually have a rougher survival instinct than people give them credit for, and warm spells in fall can totally mess with their breeding cues. I've seen starlings around my neighborhood trying to nest in November after a weird 70 degree stretch, and they ended up fine because those bugs don't disappear instantly when the temp drops. It's not ideal for sure, but some species like house sparrows and pigeons will attempt nests year round if food is available, they just don't always succeed. The chimney sweep finding those hatchlings probably stumbled on a rare success story more than a death sentence.

the_jason1mo ago

Wait, hatchlings in December? @leo612 that's crazy. How do they even find enough bugs to feed them that late? Those poor chicks must have been freezing. It really shows how messed up bird instincts can get with weird weather. Honestly that's just a death sentence for the whole nest.