Bird Attack!

The home of Tiger and Susie Michiels in Redding, California, was invaded last week when hundreds of soot-covered birds swooped down their chimney and into their living room.

“They really demolished the house,” said Tiger. “There’s soot over everything. The wife’s not too happy.”

Michiels was working in his office over the garage when he glanced outside the window and saw the family’s cat pawing excitedly at a closed window of the house, trying desperately to get inside. When he went over to investigate, he heard a roaring sound coming from the fireplace. “I thought the house was on fire,” he said.

When he entered the house, he was hit by a swarm of frantic birds, that were bumping into walls and windows. “It was right out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie,” said Michiels. He threw open the doors and tried to shoo the birds out. He phoned his wife at her job, as well as his parents and two friends, and asked for help. Eventually the house was emptied of the birds, but as soon as they were out, many of them re-entered the house through the chimney. “It was definitely a follow-the-leader thing,” he said. “They kept dive-bombing.”

He lit a small fire in the fireplace, but the flapping wings of the birds put out the fire and fanned the smoke into the house, setting off the smoke detectors. He finally put a metal screen over the top of the chimney. Four hours later, most of the birds had either left or were lying on the floor, dazed. These could be picked up off the floor and taken outside.

Meanwhile, the Langston family had a similar experience. They were sitting by the fireplace watch TV, when a bird jumped up on the fireplace screen. Mrs. Langston caught it and took it outside, but that was only the beginning. When she returned, she found 50 to 60 more birds scattering ashand burning embers on the floor.

She called the fire department, and they brought huge fans that blew the smoke out of the home. The birds “made a big mess all over the house,” her husband said. More birds-about 40 of them-returned the next morning. He finally had to put a cover over his chimney as well.

Bob Yutzy of the local Audubon Society said the birds were probably Vaux’s Swifts, which are appropriately known as chimney swifts. He assumes they were migrating from Mexico to British Columbia and says, “They were probably escaping the weather more than anything else.”

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