Bird flue experience

[rybern]

A few weeks ago we kept hearing a noise coming from the top of our Sirocco 30. I opened the door, cracked open the bypass and with a flashlight I could see a pretty blue bird. Wife and I figured that flew in but can't fly straight up in a confined space so he was trapped. We certainly didn't want him in the house but definately wanted him out of the chimney. First thing we did was to close all the doors inside the house so if the bird got loose inside the house, he would have fewer places to get to. Then we devised a plan that involved a cardboard box and a flashlight. We trimmed a box flap so that when the flaps are straight up they fit pretty tight up against the bypass(inside the stove). I put two flashlights in the box to attract the bird and held the box up against the bypass inside the stove. Wife opened the bypass and I could feel the bird come into the box. I had wife close the damper. While holding the box up against the stove, I flipped all the flaps closed and removed the box. Bird wasn't in the box which made me really glad that we closed the bypass back. Ok, we tried again using the same procedure and this time had the bird in the box. We took it out to the back porch and opened up the flaps and the happy bird flue up into a tree and began chirping. Yeah.

To prevent this in the future, I purchased a 1" square screen that's 12" x 24" from McMasterCarr. https://www.mcmaster.com/catalog/9322T93
It came flat but I bent it by hand to form a tube. Then I measured the height I need and cut the wires with side cutters and dropped it into the cap. Here are some pictures of the before and after for reference. I think it's going to work great. The space between the openings is 15/16". Total cost was $22.65(ordered through work when we were ordering so shipping was free to me).

 

[Gearhead660]

I have had the same issue before. After the second time, i did the same as you did.