To help a starling out of one of these vents, you may need to remove the hood or microwave, so you might want to call a professional. This may be especially true of microwave and stove hood exhaust vents. Sometimes young starlings get caught in vents, falling into open spaces that they can’t escape. The nesting material may need to be removed immediately. This can be inconvenient or, in some cases, unsafe. Vents with nests inside may not function properly. A vent with a metal flap may not deter them: they can hover or perch while raising the flap to get into vents. Dryer, stove, and bathroom vents are ideal. Starlings will use any hole they can get into if it leads to a suitably sized cavity. Act right away if you hear scratching and shuffling. Birds using vents make noise that the vent itself tends to amplify. Active nests are also often marked by a fan-shaped trail of smeared droppings below a corner joint or other entrance to a cavity. You’ll know there are chicks in the nest when you hear the sound of begging nestlings. Vent Covers on Identifying an active nest Any vent covering you use for starlings should be checked periodically to make sure the vent is working properly and is not impeded by a build-up of any material, such as lint from a dryer.
Lighter material, such as plastic netting or window screening, rarely keeps determined starlings out.
Use hardware cloth, metal flashing, or commercial vent covers to seal opening, (the commercially available ones are probably the easiest to work with). If you discover them building before eggs are laid, remove the nest and appropriately cover the opening they were using. Ask yourself, “Have they nested in a vent before?” “Is there a cavity on the house they might like?” Seal any openings before they appear and start building. It’s best to keep starlings out before they start to build their nest. More seriously, large flocks-up to tens of thousands of birds-sometimes roost in urban places where their noise and droppings are extremely unwelcome. And settling in numbers onto lawns, where they are undoubtedly providing a service by eating insects. Starlings only nest in cavities and are happy to use those provided by people-stove, dryer, and exhaust fan vents, for example-are popular nest sites, along with the bird houses we put up.īut people also complain about starlings getting in the trash. They are one of only a few birds who live in otherwise barren industrial urban wastelands. This flexible nature helps them thrive in cities and suburbs as well as on farms. They eat a wide variety of foods and are willing to use a wide variety of places to nest and roost. European starlings are widespread across North America.
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