A nice thing about living in Kanata is all the birds you can see around the Ottawa River and the South March Highlands Conservation Forest. Birdwatching is fun from afar but becomes complicated when birds try to nest inside your home. Our technician, Micheal Bryden, recently removed baby starlings from an Ottawa attic. He can attest that home maintenance is key to preventing this kind of situation from occurring.
Discovering Starlings in an Ottawa Attic
Micheal began the job of bird removal in Ottawa by looking for all possible entry points where a little bird might have gotten in the house. He noticed that a portion of the roof’s flashing was ripped off, which told him right away that raccoons were there in the past.
A starling’s small beak lacks excavating power. So instead of creating their own holes, starlings search for entrances that other species have already made. In this case, the starling was able to get through an unrepaired hole in the flashing where a raccoon had previously come in.
Once he found the entry point, Micheal could hear the soft chirping sounds of nesting baby birds. He removed the soffit to get a better vantage of the nest. However, all he could see was a pile of insulation materials. He could not see the noisy babies bundled inside.
Removing the Baby Birds
Slowly and gently, Michael picked six tiny babies out one by one from the soffit, ensuring they did not fall from the high point of the roof. He also removed their bowl-shaped nest from the vent and placed the babies back inside it.
The babies and their nest all went into a Skedaddle baby box. Micheal then secured this box to the roof, right next to the birds’ original entry point. This way the mother bird could still safely care for her babies until they were grown.
Throughout the process, the mother starling watched Micheal from her perch on the roof. Six weeks later, the babies were able to fly on their own and did not need their nest anymore. Micheal and other Skedaddle technicians returned to remove the box and clean up the mess in the attic and soffit.
Cleaning Up the Mess
When asked about this starling removal case, Micheal said, “Starlings are creatures of habit and will often return year after year to a nesting site they have established. In this case, the starling had been nesting there for a few years, which had caused a lot of nesting materials and droppings to pile up.”
Birds often use home insulation to construct their nests, and then supplement it with twigs and sticks they bring in from outside. All of this dry material can cause a fire hazard, especially when it is near any kind of vent. Starlings on homes also cause droppings to accumulate, creating a human health hazard.
Maintaining Your Property To Keep Birds Out
Before the birds could nest again, Micheal sealed all possible entry points, including the original hole the birds were using to get inside. Skedaddle uses only high-quality materials such as rustproof steel screening and silicone sealants. These techniques protect against other species of wildlife besides just birds.
Micheal saw first-hand how property maintenance could have prevented the starling problem. If the homeowners had only repaired the hole the raccoons made, birds would not have been able to come in. And since the birds had been using the same home for multiple years, the residents could have solved the entire problem years ago, resulting in far less damage.
Relying on Skedaddle
Micheal and our other technicians are happy to help with starling removal in Ottawa. They are also eager to share their knowledge about how to prevent these problems from reoccurring through proper home maintenance. Contact us today by phone for all your wildlife needs.
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