Will
SuperDork
7/23/14 8:10 p.m.
Been in there for 6+ hours with the door wide open. It seems to have worn itself out for a bit--it's been on and off frantic trying to get out, but it's just not smart enough to go a few feet lower. Other birds always seem to figure it out after a while. Any suggestions?
He will die soon if you don't get him out. Do you have anything red you can put at the opening, like a towel?
Darken the garage so the open door is the sole source of light.
Will
SuperDork
7/23/14 8:19 p.m.
EastCoastMojo wrote:
He will die soon if you don't get him out. Do you have anything red you can put at the opening, like a towel?
He's about 5 feet above this.
But I have a lamp made from an AX cone that I just put in the door and turned on.
JFX001
UltraDork
7/23/14 8:22 p.m.
Put a hummingbird feeder outside of the garage.
I usually grab a broom and brush them down, or wait for them to tire out and stop/collapse. Then I pick them up and kinda cage them in my hand, and with the other hand go and mix up some sugar and water in a small dish. Hold the hummingbird next to the sugar/water mix and if you have to, stick its beak in the mix. It will suck up a bunch, if it's really tired it will wait a minute, then take off like new.
Will
SuperDork
7/23/14 8:40 p.m.
Okay, mission successful. It was perched on the power cord to my garage door opener. I tried urging it off with a broom, and it was so tired it didn't even move when I very gently tapped it with the broom. Got my ladder to try to grab him and he flew around until he was under the raised garage door, desperately trying to get out. Poor thing was literally inches from freedom and still couldn't figure it out. I tried to grab him and while I couldn't, he just seemed so tired he couldn't maintain altitude. I felt really bad--it was chirping up a storm and probably scared E36 M3less (he did E36 M3 on my T-Birds a couple times, so make of that what you will). He eventually got low enough that I was actually able to push him out the open door. He climbed off and disappeared.
Vaya con Dios, hummingbird.
I have lured one or two out with a feeder. I hung it on a pole, placed it near him, and after he drank some, I moved it closer to the exit. Repeat until successful.
Will
SuperDork
7/23/14 8:46 p.m.
1988RedT2 wrote:
I have lured one or two out with a feeder. I hung it on a pole, placed it near him, and after he drank some, I moved it closer to the exit. Repeat until successful.
Would have made perfect sense if I had one. I didn't have any sugar in the house to offer it--no soda, even. Unless maybe it wanted an Oreo.
Had one stuck against the window in the back of the garage years ago. I slowly walked up to it and stuck my finger out as a perch. It accepted the invitation, perched on my finger, and I carried it out the door. I'm sure it was delirious with exhaustion, but I thought it was pretty cool.
Glad to hear he made it out.
M2Pilot
HalfDork
7/23/14 10:38 p.m.
IIRC the pull handles for your garage doors must be made of a red material. I've painted my black so they won't attract the little beasts. Considering your car color, this may not be significant for you.
I had that issue once. What I did was turn off the lights, prop the side door open, then hang a (red) Coke can in the opening so the sun hit it. Came back half an hour later, it was gone.
PHeller
PowerDork
7/24/14 10:02 a.m.
Amazing how these creatures can avoid branches and predators at high speeds, catch bugs mid-air, and hover while sipping nectar from a flower in the wind. Yet they can't seem to understand an "inside" and "outside".
Crows and Ravens on the other hand are super smart.
PHeller wrote:
Amazing how these creatures can avoid branches and predators at high speeds, catch bugs mid-air, and hover while sipping nectar from a flower in the wind. Yet they can't seem to understand an "inside" and "outside".
Crows and Ravens on the other hand are super smart.
Our parrots have a SERIOUS rivalry with the local crows. I swear some days the crows show up just to berkeley with the parrots. As soon as they arrive, our two more alpha birds run to the outdoor part of their aviary and start giving the crows a piece of their mind. I don't speak either of their languages, but you don't have to be a linguo-biologist to know it's an argument.
We always thought the crows that came around acted like a gang of teenage hoodlums. Turned out we were right:
http://phys.org/news162200932.html
T.J.
PowerDork
7/24/14 11:54 a.m.
Hummingbirds are very territorial and rather fierce when it comes to defending their turf, but I am always surprised when they cannot tell the difference between a plastic red emergency garage door pull handle and a flower. These little guys somehow can migrate 1,500+ miles and even fly across the Gulf of Mexico or the Mojave Desert without dying, but put them in an open garage and they are totally befuddled.
Good looking T-Bird, more about that please!
Will
SuperDork
7/24/14 1:33 p.m.
In reply to Gearheadotaku:
Thanks. I have a thing for T-Birds.
94 Supercoupe
Jay_W
Dork
7/25/14 12:40 a.m.
When one got stuck in my garage, I did what Dr. Hess did...hand fed and let him rest and off he went. Amazing little machines, they are, but I guess you can only pack so much brains into a space that small. That, and I figure anything that high-strung is gonna get frustrated really easiliy.
Give me a hummingbird any day over the stupid barn swallows I fight out of my barn every time I go out there.