A blue tit just flew down my chimney...

[sorrynotathome]

...and appeared in my wood burner. I let it out and it flew out of the window so hopefully no harm done! My question is - is there something I should/could do to stop this happening again? I am new to wood burners and have only recently moved into this house, so not sure what I can do. Thanks in advance for any advice.

You can have a wire mesh guard put across the top of the chimney, we used to get bats down ours growing up and my parents hired somebody to do it although a quick google search for ‘protect chimney from birds’ suggests there are covers you can buy to fit yourself too, presumably depending on the size/ shape of your chimney: https://www.google.com/search?q=protect+chimney+from+birds&rlz=1C9BKJA_enGB996GB996&oq=protect+chimney+from+birds&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIICAEQABgWGB4yCggCEAAYhgMYigUyDQgDEAAYhgMYiwMYigUyDQgEEAAYhgMYiwMYigUyDQgFEAAYhgMYiwMYigXSAQgzODY5ajFqNKgCALACAA&hl=en-GB&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8

Oh thank you @MolkosTeenageAngst - now I feel a bit stupid for not googling this myself :(

Yes definitely get a guard put on, it stops birds building nests in them too.

A chimney sweep may fit one for you, you need the chimney swept yearly anyway so ring a sweep.

Well I've just looked and there is already a wire guard around the chimney (and yes I have had it swept), so presumably the blue tit squeezed itself through the mesh and then couldn't get out again. There is a reason for the expression "bird brain"!!

We had this happen once at a holiday cottage. Very shocking to have a bird appear flapping about inside the (thankfully unlit) wood burner. The room had been recently redecorated and was pristine but thankfully the soot covered bird was encouraged to fly out of the window without leaving any marks on the walls. We let the owners know and they were going to check the cowl covering the chimney.

Hopefully it doesn’t happen again then

Funnily enough @AllGonePeteTongg my lounge has also just been decorated! But the tit just sat on the door frame then flew out of the patio door & I can’t see any marks. I might think about getting a guard with a smaller mesh as I really don’t want it to happen again and there are also bats here.

We had this three times this year when Oyster Catchers turned up and scared a bunch of young blackbirds down our two chimneys.

Firstly you need decent mesh and need to make sure there are no gaps, but secondly check the height of your cowls. Ours are far too high above our chimneys and blow gales down them and cause us to get through far too much wood.

If you get any more birds stuck in your chimney again (we had several get stuck in the flue), close the room off, close all curtains, shine a torch light inside the burner up the flue and keep the door open - the bird should come towards your light. Then once it's in the burner it should want to come out, open a window, after a bit of a flap around it should take itself off out the window.

A £60 emergency visit from a chimney sweep taught us this.

Thanks @KievLoverTwo