Bird Nest In Propane Furnace!

[Dbday]

Tho't this might be of interest to most owners.....while passing by my Class C Aspect today i heard a faint chirping sound coming from the area of the gas furnace exhaust and intake. I removed the panel to find that a bird, and it had to be a very small bird, had made a nest inside the exhaust pipe and blower fan area. after removing the shroud I was able to access and remove the twigs and feathers and SIX live baby birds. Imagine what might have happened if I had fired up the furnace with this mess inside. there is a fine grill in the exhaust for the water heater but none at the furnace. Attaching a few photos. Don

[Morich]

Betting that might have been a wren! Too bad they made that as it is a bad choice, for sure!
I love them and they apparently love people as we have had them do some really weird places and they seem to like to be close to people! Our last place, we had a set of wooden stairs going up to a deck. The wrens decided to nest under the steps where the old cat walked up and down twenty times a day and never found them!

I fully promote the idea that we need to keep the vents on furnace and water heater screened to keep things like insects out! It goes against the "rules" set out by the builders but I know it helps me as I have helped clean out too many wasp nests to count!

We don't want to restrict the air flow, as that keeps the sail switch from working so normal window screen may be too small and 1/4 mesh is too big to stop some bugs, so I keep a bit of 1/8 inch mesh for this .
My first high efficiency furnace at the house had a 11/2 inch PVC horizontal exhaust and they filled it and it would not start!

[Dbday]

[Dbday]

thanks for your comments......there is an aftermarket screen available that attaches by springs to the grill over the exhaust. Picked one up today at local RV supply. Hopefully this post will serve as a warning that we need to protect not only ourselves but the wildlife. Poor little birds did not survive, as you can appreciate. They had no home to go to and their parents were not around to help with the situation.

[Morich]

Yes, life can be tough at times and the weakest are often the one to pay.
Thinking of any alternate one would have had to not use the RV for a week or more until they left the nest and that might have been really difficult.
At times we can avoid the harm and other times not.

My father in law had a farm and wren often built a nest in the same place. He and the wildlife had just agreed to try to make it work but at one point it did get a bit awkward as they had chosen his coffee can full of nails as their nest!

If you know farm life, there is good reason for saving things like used nails. That may seem silly to town folks but if you think about driving 10 miles one way to get a few nails, it begins to make sense.

But on one occasion we did make the trip to town to get less than a handful of nails, all because the wren was nesting in the nail can! We really needed to repair the roof but the wren was in control of the can of roofing nails!

Friends do that for friends!

[Dbday]

Yes..... we're on a farm as well and the same wrens come back each year and build their nest in the same spot...... above the back door to my shop, over my welcome sign..... I guess they understand that they ae welcome at any time because the typically will have two sets of babies every season. They've already come and gone (for now)