Apartment Sparrow

Today I've got a story for you.

The House Sparrow below got into my apartment in mid-August. This is a rare but not unprecedented event; it's happened 2-3 times before. My apartment has a small closet for the gas furnace, and apparently birds are able to fly/climb down the chimney and come out through the furnace. I know when this has happened since I'll hear the bird exploring around in the closet (flapping, scratching, and some vocalization).

Previously the bird was trapped in the closet and I'd have some time to prep the apartment prior to trying to guide the bird outside (typically through open sliding glass doors:

• I can shut the doors to the bedroom and bathroom since AFAIK these windows don't open to anything other than a screen, and thus the bird can't get outside from these rooms.
• The kitchen is more of a problem. It has no door, and Murphy's Law (and history) have shown the bird will also go in there and similarly find that there's no way out. I mostly taped paper over the kitchen entrance. While it's possible the bird would get through these defenses, I'm thinking that the bird will really be looking for open space to fly to rather than trying to work through a barrier. Especially since it'll probably be trying to get away from me as fast as possible.

Of course, no battleplan survives your 1st contact with your opponent:

• Once I got the kitchen "sealed" off, I closed the bedroom/bathroom doors and opened the sliding glass door to my patio, hopefully giving the bird an obvious and desirable escape route.
• I then opened the furnace closet door, and no bird flew out. Nor did any bird appear to be cowering inside. This had never happened before.
• I was wondering if maybe the bird had found its way back into the chimney, but usually this is a somewhat noisy process, and it would be the 1st time a bird has done this. Then I heard flapping, which seemed to be coming from the bedroom.
• Apparently while I was gathering stuff to barricade the kitchen, the bird had managed to crawl under the furnace closet door, and then (naturally) decided to fly into the bedroom. Opening the bedroom door I found the bird perched in there.
• My first thought was to get to the opposite side of the room as the bedroom door, hoping the bird would fly out the door to put as much distance between us as possible. Unfortunately the bird seemed content to perch vaguely near the door and stare at me.
• My 2nd thought was to approach the bird from a direction that might flush it towards the door. Unfortunately the bed made the best route impossible, and so as I approached the bird it simply flew to the opposite corner of the room, now even further from the door.
• I had no more ideas though, so I basically approached the bird again, triggering it to fly back to its original perch. Still, I figured movement was good, and that if I repeated this a few times the bird would eventually take a chance at going through the door. 
• After 2-3 more iterations of flying back and forth, the bird finally took the hint to fly out the door, and from there the plan worked to perfection; the bird flew out through my patio.

Of course the House Sparrow tells the story very differently, about a long journey in a tunnel and a narrow escape from a giant monster.

August 19, 2022 in Finderne
Photo 229694473, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's my efforts to close off the kitchen.