There is a freaking bird stuck in my dryer vent!
I swear, but who does this happen to?
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Maybe I need a cat?
Actually, in all seriousness, I was working out of our home office in my parents’ basement last week when their neighbor knocked on the door. He explained to me that he had a bird stuck in the vent to his dryer, and ironically enough, he is a police officer that is terrified of birds. He asked for help to get it out, and I almost died laughing when he pulled on safety goggles to protect his eyes and told me he had already called Animal Control.
Seriously.
At the time, I kept my cool and didn’t totally laugh in his face. However, I was thinking that it was a very bizarre situation. And now that same bizarre situation has happened to me!
I called maintenance at my apartment yesterday to fix my dryer which has been broken for a few days. Apparently, my furball of a dog has surplus fur and clogged all the dryer vents. The wonderful maintenance men fixed this for me, but a stealth bird somehow flew in the vent while they had the covers off. Of course, I didn’t know this until 8pm last night when I was sitting in my living room and realized the birds were chirping!
This is normal and I usually have lots of birds on my balcony because they LOVE all of my houseplants. However, at 8pm, it’s not normal. I started to investigate and realized the noise was coming from inside of my walls. Upon further inspection, I realized that it wasn’t in my walls– the freaking chirping was coming from the back of my dryer!
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I imagine this is what the bastard looks like.
Tals and I tried a few techniques to get the little birdy out, but unfortunately, he stops chirping when I’m messing around back there because he is scared. Understandable, but I need those chirps to find him! I thought he fell asleep or something but I was talking to a friend on the phone and a full-scale panic attack of chirps erupted from the depths of my dryer! I finally said screw it and went to bed, only to wake up at 5:30 this morning to the INCREDIBLY LOUD and ENTHUSIASTIC “good morning” chirps of that damn bird. It’s far less cute today than it was yesterday!
If I lived in a house, this would be easier because I could open the vent to the outside and hope that he flew out. However, I live on the top floor of an apartment so I don’t even know where the vents are! I’m currently heading home to unplug my dryer and pull it away from the wall. Hopefully, he will fly out and I will at least have him loose in the apartment…. which should make Tally really happy, I’m sure.
Did I just wish for a loose-flying bird in my apartment? This doesn’t bode well for me, my friends.
Wish me luck!
19 Comments
yessss. birds used to always nest in our chimney. it was weird to me! and drove me nuts! haha!
A loose bird in your apartment sounds like an awesome solution. Please take video. 🙂
This exactly. I think that is hilarious!
Although it does suck for both you and the poor bird that it is stuck up in your dryer vent!
I am sorry, forgive me, but I cant stop laughing, I cant wait to hear the conclusion of this adventure
Weirdest animal in my house incident was probably the raccoon prints we found all over our house one night after we had left a door cracked one summer. Those things had a freaking party in our family room! Muddy paw prints were everywhere! Other than that, just birds that my cats ould bring in. Good luck! Poor little guy!
Awwww good luck! I can’t stop laughing, thanks for the smile!
We’ve had birds come down the chimney when we left the flue open before. Also small snakes creeping through holes in the brick in my house when I was younger….. super scary. My dad went crazy with the caulk gun after that.
Oh my god, I am terrified of birds and did not know this could happen but now I have a new fear! Good luck getting your bird friend out. 🙂
hahahaha…. that’s all i have. sorry. Wait, hahahahahaa.. ok. I’m good now. I can’t wait to read more about this. For some reason I feel like Disney or Pixar should make a movie about this… it could be called Vinny in the Vent.
I have never heard of this happening to anyone. ANYONE!! Fireplaces, yes. Not dryer vents. We were terrified a few weeks ago because we thought some animal had got into our fireplace, but it turns out it was just a massive crow pecking at it!! It sounded crazy!
I captured a bat in the pediatric unit of a hospital I worked for once. Everyone was too scared to do anything but scream and hide, so I came to the rescue!!
I have never had that happen, that is pretty funny. I love that the police man put on safety goggles.
Sorry, but, it’s really funny! One day you will laugh about it (after you get some sleep). When I was a kid, we had an entire family of raccoons move into the attic right next to my room. My dad and his friends went in one night after I was asleep and somehow got them all out. I slept through the whole thing!
While National Bird Day is not only a good day to take time to appreciate the native wild birds flying free outside our windows, it’s not until January 5, 2013, and your bird is indoors. Truly vexing.
So funny. Hope you get him out soon. One day I looked up and there was a bird perched on a picture frame in our house. Just hanging out. Not even sure how he got in.
Poor birdie! I hope he gets out of there!
OMG I would freak the hell out, I have no clue what I would do in that case. I’ve had tons of mice and all that but a bird? Hell no! When we were little a mole crawled into my brother’s lap on the couch – they are blind so they don’t know what they are doing (apparently). Good luck!
I’m sorry but I can’t stop laughing either, mainly about your police officer neighbor who’s afraid of birds and donned the safety goggles. But it would totally freak me out too! Good luck. I hope the birdie finds his way home soon!
Yes we had this happen at our house. However I didn’t realize it until I started smelling something um, deceased, coming from the dryer. That’s when we realized that there was a bird stuck in the vent duct somewhere and now it was dead. My hustand had to go through the basement and starting pulling down duct pieces until he found it. After that we put a wire barrier up around the outside vent so another bird wouldn’t try to get in.
Ah – i know from twitter that the bird has since died – so sad! We had a similar situation with a pigeon that took up underneath our bedroom window. I could NOT figure out how to get rid of it! Well… it turns out the Mama pigeon was sticking around because she’d built a nest and laid 2 eggs!