Bird in the House

There was a bird in the house today. I became aware of it during a piano lesson, when I heard the sound of a bird hitting the far window in the living room. I assumed it had hit the outside of the window but, nevertheless, I looked in that direction and was dismayed to see that the bird was actually on the inside of the window. Soon he was exploring other spaces in the house – the branches of the Christmas tree, the rungs of the old brown rocking chair, the dark space under the sofa.

My first response was to just leave him be until I was finished teaching. After all, how much trouble could a small bird cause? Pretty much, it turns out.

After exploring the far end of the living room, he decided to look things over in the kitchen and dining room. The beat of his wings was coming much closer to our heads, so it was obvious that we were not going to be able to simply ignore him and finish the lesson.

Our ceilings are 10 feet above the floor, so that gave him plenty of air space above our heads. He swooped over and perched on the painting Erica gave us for Christmas last year. He then flapped around a bit and grabbed hold of the pendant light over the sink. After that, he checked out the kitchen clock. As he was doing this, I couldn’t help but notice how beautiful each item looked with a bird perching or clinging to it. For a brief moment I even thought that a bird in the house might be an interesting decorating idea! Then I quickly came to my senses.

I grabbed a broom, not quite sure how effective it would be in guiding him toward the open exterior door. But it was fairly simple to convince him to fly through the first archway and into the foyer, where he made a stop on the chandelier. He then flew over to check out an area that has not been closed in with drywall yet, which was a bit concerning. But the broom was very effective in changing his course, and, before I knew it, he had dived low and disappeared out the open door. The whole process had only taken about three or four minutes, which is some kind of a record for getting birds out of our house!

I was happy to see him free in the great outdoors, where he belongs, but it was a welcome diversion for a cold winter day. And I am still wondering how he got inside in the first place!