Our common house atrium is two stories high and features lots of glass. It looked very inviting to two birds last weekend. Here’s a slightly edited email from a CoHoot detailing the entire adventure….
“The bird flew into the atrium through an open door around 9 am along with another bird. A student in the tai chi class managed to catch one of the birds in a yogurt container and set it free.
The other bird spent the day chirping and flying against the windows at the top of the atrium. The second bird chirped encouragement from the outside and then late afternoon, flew back in and seemed to be trying to show the other bird how to get out. It flew away eventually and the other bird settled down to roost for the night.
I read on line that night is a good time to net them. A CoHoot went to work, duct taping bamboo poles together and then a butterfly net to the poles (thanks, [to another neighbor], we knew you wouldn’t mind us borrowing your net off your porch). Another volunteer raised the net, and we could see that there was no way to catch the bird, that was perched in a corner, with a round net, but as he moved the net around to try to find a way, the bird decided to perch on the upper edge of the net.
The volunteer glided the back of the pole smoothly into the kids room and then managed to lower the pole and take it right out the front door, still perched on the net. It was amazing!
Thanks to everyone who took part in the saving of the bird.”
Fortunately, the low tech option worked well! Peter perched on this high tech option when doing the solar art installation in the atrium tower.