• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Get our Freezer Meal Quick Start Guide
freezer meal quick start guide

Get Our Freezer Meal Quick Start Guide

Loading

 

About
Free Resources
Contact

Instagram

Facebook

Pinterest

YouTube

TikTok

Thriving Home

Food & Lifestyle

  • Recipe Index
    • Course
      • Breakfast
      • Lunch & Dinner
      • Sides & Salads
      • Soups & Chilis
      • Appetizers
      • Snacks
      • Desserts
      • Baked Goods
      • Beverages
      • Condiments
    • Method
      • Freezer Meals
      • Stovetop
      • Oven
      • Slow Cooker
      • Instant Pot
      • Grill or Smoker
      • 6 Ingredients or Less
      • Air Fryer
    • Diet
      • Gluten-Free
      • Dairy-Free
      • Vegetarian
    • Ingredients
      • Chicken & Turkey
      • Beef
      • Pork
      • Seafood
      • Pasta & Pizza
    • Holiday
      • Birthday
      • Christmas
      • Easter
      • Halloween
      • Thanksgiving
      • Valentine's Day
    • All Recipes
  • Freezer Cooking
    • Start Here
    • Freezer Meal Recipes
    • 1 Hour Freezer Prep
    • Cookbooks
  • Menu Plans
  • Shop
    • Cookbooks
    • Our Recipe Ebooks & Digital Products
    • 1 Hour Freezer Prep
    • Shop Our Favorites
    • Gift Guides
Home Uncategorized

How to Get a Hummingbird Out of a Garage

By: Rachel TiemeyerPosted: 5/20/21Updated: 8/31/24

This post may contain affiliate or sponsored links. Please read our disclosure policy.

A simple trick on how to get a hummingbird out of a garage. It really works! (See the comments for proof!)

Hummingbird sitting on the tines of a metal rake. this …


 

Guest post and photography by Curt Casteel (Rachel’s Dad)

Every summer a strange phenomenon takes place in many American garages:  Hummingbirds fly in, but they don’t fly out.  They will stay in there, with the door wide open, until they keel over dead.  Weird, right? 

Here’s why it happens, and how to get a hummingbird out of a garage. Time to convince your family you are a “hummingbird whisperer.”

Why Hummingbirds Fly Into Garages

A hummingbird has the metabolism of, well, a hummingbird. Since their next meal is usually found inside something colored bright red, yellow, orange, or purple, their tiny brains are programmed to seek these hues. 

Enter the Law of Unintended Consequences. The government requires every electric garage door opener to have a release handle so if it becomes stuck, you can pull this handle to manually raise and lower the door.  

If you step out into your garage and look up, you’ll see that this dangling little handle is, that’s right, RED, and shaped roughly like a trumpet vine flower.  You’re already ahead of me, aren’t you?

The unintended consequence of that red handle is that a hummingbird flies by an open garage, sees a little red “flower” inside, and zips in to investigate.  Upon finding they can’t stick their tongues inside that plastic handle for some nectar, most turn around and leave.  But a surprising number make a fatal error—they fly up. 

Regardless of the reason, once they get it in their heads that “up” is the only way out, they refuse to fly through the open door.

This ends badly.  The confused hummingbird will hover near the ceiling, searching every high corner of the room, until it has to rest, usually on the garage door track or a light fixture.  It will repeat this cycle until it is completely exhausted and dies, which can take only a few of hours.

A hand pointing to the emergency release handle in a garage.

How to Get a Hummingbird Out of a Garage

Some of you this summer will head out into the garage with the kids to go somewhere and find one of our little feathered buddies in exactly the situation I’ve described.

Stay cool.

Load the family up in the minivan, back out into the driveway, and tell them, “Watch this.”  Trot back into the garage and grab your leaf rake.  Slowly, slowly move the business end of the rake up to within just a few of inches of the hovering or resting hummingbird.

A woman holding a rake up towards a light in the garage with a hummingbird sitting on the metal tines of the rake.

Be patient.  It will, depending on its level of exhaustion, land on the tines of the rake within just a few seconds.

Then very slowly lower the rake a couple of feet and move toward the open door.  Once it sees more blue sky than garage ceiling the hummingbird will probably take off, but it might be so tired it needs to rest a minute even when you are all the way outside. 

All the more time for you to look awesome for little onlookers.

A woman holding a rake horizontally just outside her garage door as a hummingbird flies away.

Congratulations! You just saved a hummingbird’s life!

7 shares
  • Share
  • Email

Rachel Tiemeyer

As co-founder of Thriving Home, Rachel dreams about creating recipes (literally) and uses her husband, her 3 kids, and even the neighbors as guinea pigs several nights a week. She believes that good food has the power to bring families and friends closer together and continues to wake up excited about her job each day, even after 10+ years!

Read more...

Reader Interactions

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Have a question? Submit your question or comment below.

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  1. Kim says

    Posted on 9/5/23 at 7:31 pm

    We tried this trick and was not successful. The hummer would just fly into a corner or up higher than the rake. After an hour or more with no success my husband and son left me to myself to agonize over what I thought would be the demise of this beautiful little creature.. until I decided I have a hummingbird feeder! What if I hung it on a shepherds hook lured it down and voila out she went!

    Reply
    • Carla from Thriving HomeCarla from Thriving Home says

      Posted on 9/6/23 at 10:43 am

      So glad you were able to get the hummingbird out! Thanks for letting others know what worked for you.

      Reply
  2. Kathy says

    Posted on 8/18/23 at 7:10 am

    My husband, Rachel’s dad, is the author of this article and I am in the photos. (If I had know the article was going to take off, I would have dressed up.) Anyway, we still use this technique when hummingbirds occasionally get in our garage and if we are patient It works. However, several people have suggested using a broom and we will try it and report back. I’m glad the article has helped so many people.

    Reply
  3. Laura Z says

    Posted on 8/14/23 at 8:52 pm

    Thank you so much. It worked, took me a few times maybe because it was night. I have had a few this summer that took hours before they left. I had one I found dead the other day and today’s hummingbird had been in there for hours I would find him resting tonight once in awhile. But it worked. I will spread the word.

    Reply
    • Carla from Thriving HomeCarla from Thriving Home says

      Posted on 8/15/23 at 9:46 am

      So glad you were able to get the hummingbird out. I would hate to find a dead one in my garage.

      Reply
  4. jamie says

    Posted on 8/10/23 at 4:57 pm

    thanks, it worked. i had to try a few times and it looked like the thing got stuck between the blades (all i had was a steel rake) but i was able to get it out where he flew off to safety. i won’t leave the sun room door open like that again. your article is saving little fluttering lives

    Reply
    • Carla from Thriving HomeCarla from Thriving Home says

      Posted on 8/11/23 at 11:15 am

      So glad you were able to save the hummingbird Jamie!

      Reply
  5. Erin says

    Posted on 7/29/23 at 5:07 pm

    Thank you for this! We just did it and it worked. Woohoo!

    Reply
    • Carla from Thriving HomeCarla from Thriving Home says

      Posted on 7/30/23 at 3:09 pm

      So glad to hear it!

      Reply
  6. Christine Forrester says

    Posted on 6/1/23 at 4:32 pm

    We had one in our garage and I hung my hummingbird feeder from the bottom of the garage door and he flew right out within minutes!

    Reply
    • Carla from Thriving HomeCarla from Thriving Home says

      Posted on 6/2/23 at 9:34 am

      Great idea Christine! Thanks for sharing.

      Reply
  7. Theresa says

    Posted on 5/20/23 at 7:39 pm

    Tried the broom and rake and neither worked. My daughter grabbed a pink carnation from my Mother’s Day bouquet, we stuck it on the end of the rake, and the hummingbird immediately flew right to it. Lowered slowly toward the open door and it flew right out!

    Reply
    • Carla from Thriving HomeCarla from Thriving Home says

      Posted on 5/22/23 at 9:38 am

      Oh wow Theresa! So glad your daughter thought of the carnation and that it worked. Thanks for letting others know.

      Reply
  8. Kat Davis says

    Posted on 9/22/22 at 6:47 am

    Thank God for the internet! I was desperate and so was my little bird. I Googled it and found your post. That little bird hopped right on the broom and flew away when we reached the top of the door. Thank you from both of us.

    Reply
  9. Todd Baughman says

    Posted on 9/17/22 at 11:09 pm

    A broom is a lot more bird friendly than a rake. I get a hummingbird in my shops open doors about once a week. I use a nylon broom Keith great success.

    Reply
    • Rachel Tiemeyer says

      Posted on 9/18/22 at 3:48 pm

      Great tip, Todd. Thanks for sharing.

      Reply
  10. Amy says

    Posted on 9/12/22 at 6:54 pm

    The hummingbird was scared of the rake. As soon as my husband switched to a broom it flew right to it!

    Reply
    • Carla FletcherCarla Fletcher says

      Posted on 9/13/22 at 9:12 am

      Good tip Amy! Hopefully if any others find the hummingbird afraid of the rake, they’ll see that a broom worked for you!

      Reply
  11. Ron says

    Posted on 9/12/22 at 8:46 am

    Amazing! This really worked. But be patient. Our trapped sat on the rake right away but flew off when we started to lower it. On third try, after it landed on the rake we lowered it very, very, very slowly. Once it got low enough where it could see the open door and sky, it flew right out. Thanks for the advice!

    Reply
    • Carla FletcherCarla Fletcher says

      Posted on 9/12/22 at 9:30 am

      So glad this worked for you! Thanks for the reminder to lower the rake slowly.

      Reply
  12. Gina O says

    Posted on 9/4/22 at 3:19 pm

    This worked! Thank you!!!

    Reply
    • Carla FletcherCarla Fletcher says

      Posted on 9/5/22 at 10:37 am

      So glad to hear it!

      Reply
  13. Deb says

    Posted on 8/28/22 at 11:17 am

    Thank you! It just worked. Poor little guy was getting so tired. He landed on the rake about a dozen times before he finally went out the door. Just be patient.

    Reply
  14. Sue says

    Posted on 8/27/22 at 11:57 am

    Hummingbirds actually have Large brains and an ididic memory. And the exhausted bird should be taken to a feeder so it can fuel up as it needs the energy replenished, never use an open container to feed them as the can drown because they can’t hop.

    Reply
  15. Diana Tay says

    Posted on 8/25/22 at 5:18 pm

    Our garage hummingbird was not going to the rake, so I picked a hummingbird favorite bright pink flower & clipped it to the rake, set it on the car, which is low enough for him to see sky (if and when he goes to the flower)… we also have a dish of water and of sugar water!

    Reply
  16. Larry Pack says

    Posted on 8/23/22 at 12:36 pm

    Tried the rake for getting a trapped hummingbird out of my garage and with a little patience it worked great

    Reply
    • Rachel Tiemeyer says

      Posted on 8/24/22 at 7:54 am

      Love that.

      Reply
Older Comments
Newer Comments

sidebar

polly and rachel

Welcome

We’re moms, cookbook authors, and freezer cooking evangelists. Our mission is to help your home thrive, one delicious meal at a time. Let’s make the most of your time in the kitchen! Read more.

Follow Us On Instagram!

freezer cooking

Order On:

Amazon • Target

Learn More

freezer to table

Order On:

Amazon • Target

Learn More

FREEZER MEALS

Southwest Chicken over a salad

Southwest Chicken

Taco bar with all the toppings lined up

Totally Tasty Taco Bar

Tomato bisque in bowls with spoons and croutons on top.

Tomato Bisque

Chicken taco soup in a white bowl with toppings.

Chicken Taco Soup

TOP RECIPES

Chicken Parmesan casserole in a glass baking dish with a spoon.

Chicken Parmesan Casserole

Meatball subs that have been under the broiler, side by side.

Easy Meatball Subs

Tomato bisque in bowls with spoons and croutons on top.

Tomato Bisque

Seasoned cooked steak sliced on a plate with steamed broccoli and a baked potato.

The Perfect Pan-Seared Steak

Popular Round-Ups

Fully cooked ham and egg cups in a freezer bag.

20+ Make Ahead Breakfast Ideas

Collage image for freezer meals.

Easy Freezer Meals for One or Two

20+ Inexpensive, Easy Meals for Large Groups

Collage of 7 different marinades with chicken breasts on the left and cooked dishes on the right.

7 BEST Chicken Marinades

freezer meal update
New to freezer cooking?

Grab Our Freezer Meal Quick Start Guide!

5 days of recipes & tips from freezer meal experts.

Loading

Instagram

Facebook

Pinterest

YouTube

TikTok

About
About Us
Work With Us
Press
Recipes
All Recipes
Freezer Meals
Menu Plans
Shop
Cookbooks
1 Hour Prep Sessions
Gift Guides
Explore
Free Resources
Shop Our Favorites
Facebook Group
Privacy Policy
Accessibility
Disclaimers
Contact
© 2025 Thriving Home
Site Credits
Designed by Melissa Rose Design Developed by Once Coupled
Back to Top