How to Get a Hummingbird Out of a Garage
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A simple trick on how to get a hummingbird out of a garage. It really works! (See the comments for proof!)
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.
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.
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.
Congratulations! You just saved a hummingbird’s life!
It worked. Only took a couple seconds for it to sit on the rake. I then lowered the rake out through the door.
8/2/19… The rake trick worked! It took about eight landings of the hummingbird on the rake for the bird to trust the slow movement of the rake… and to be able to get it low enough and close enough to the door’s top… so the bird could see the blue sky. But when it did, it just flew out of the garage.
Thank you for the how-to! We had a hummingbird stuck up under a pavilion at our club, about 20 feet up. We used a pool rescue rod, and after a while the bird learned to rest on it. We guided him out after about an hour’s work. Bless you; without the advice he’d have surely exhausted himself.
Thank you so much for this wonderful advice!! We saved our hummingbird trapped in our garage with our rake… thanks to you!!
Best,
That Driskill Family
I’m so glad I read this article it worked in about 5 minutes. The poor little hummingbird was flying around for about an hour, I took my rake for it to land on and within 5 minutes the bird landed on the rake and I got it outside safely.
Just did it. Worked like a charm! Thanks.
I never had this problem until I replaced my old falling down garage with a new taller one. The red handle on the garage door makes sense but in my case the handle is not dangling off the center of the door. My door goes up the wall and the red cord is hidden off in the corner. I’ve tried putting red things by the bottom of the door opening to try to entice the birds to go “thataway” but I had little success. Alas I must resort to getting on a ladder and capturing them in a butterfly net my kids abandoned years ago. I wish there was a more permanent solution besides keeping the door closed all the time.
Unfortunately, we have found that even with nothing bright inside your garage hummingbirds will still come in on occasion to look around and act foolish.
so the problem i have in my house is that the roof of the garage is angled up and i cant reach the bird, it disappears in the rafters and beams…i fear this will end badly
right outside the garage is the humming birds nest with 2 eggs we have watched it sit on….
ive kept the garage open for hours and no luck it still is inside flying higher….i cant leave it open all night….
what else to do
I know the kind of garage you are describing, and it can be a problem. The only way I could see to deal with it is to get a ladder, climb up to the rafters with a rake and flashlight, and wait for it to get exhausted. Very labor-intensive. I hope this ended OK, but sometimes nature can be cruel.
That’s exactly what my husband did last night.!! I thought he was crazy but when he got up onto the rafters he just gently grabbed a hummingbird with his hand and came back down the ladder. The hummingbird was in between two trusses so it made it even easier. My husband always does dangerous stuff so I wouldn’t quite recommend this technique unless you have experience roofing or are just plain crazy like my husband.
My family has had a “pet” hummingbird all summer. It has been as tame as a hummingbird could possibly be; feeding freely in front of us day and even after dark We were so upset to find her trapped in the garage today. Your article described the situation perfectly and your solution worked within 5 minutes! We are so grateful! Thank you!
Oh wow, that’s amazing. I’ve never heard of a tame humminbird. 🙂 Glad my dad’s article could help!
You failed to mention one simple way to cut down on the probability. The pull handles has to be red when you buy the opener, but it doesn’t have to remain when once it is installed. Cover the handle with black tape or spray paint it black, gray, white – any color that is not likely to induce a hummingbird to come into the garage.
I think someone else mentioned that idea, too. It’s a good one!
What about the nest? It’s in the garage and keeps flying in and out
Thank you for great advice and information. After a couple of hours, the hummingbird got tired and fell asleep on top my car, my son managed to scoop it up while my daughter was able to give it some sugar water. The hummingbird was able to rest and recoup in his warm hands for about half hour before it flew off to a tree. Important information is to Not use towel, cloth or net to trap it.
I got a broom, added some red and white flowers on it and managed to get the hummingbird to “kiss” it right in the exit. In just 2 minutes he was out of the garage. Poor little thing…
Thanks you so much!! I was in the garage working on my bike and in flew a young ruby throated male. I was trying the rake tactic when my wife got home. I asked her to get the neighbor’s feeder (empty) and fill it to try to keep him alive until we could figure this out. She hung a feeder from the inside (underside) of garage door and went to get sugar water. Despite being empty, he saw it, went for it and was gone!!
We lost one. Then I found your blog and we were able to save another one a few days later.
That’s great to hear!
I have had the little guy in garage for 24 hours now…. he is either the smartest or the dumbest hummer inexistance….. tried rake over 10 times now…even have it currently draped in a beautiful red Italian scarf….nothing…. trying the feeder thing now…. #outsmartedbyabird
Try using an umbrella. We fastened a longer handle on it and put it above the hummingbird who kept flying upward. We gently eased it out if the garage
It worked!!! Thank you!
We just had one in garage for about 5 hours. After trying the rake and a swiffer sweeper to no avail I hung it’s feeder near the door hoping that would lure it out. Nope. That didn’t work either. It began getting dark so I turned the garage light on to check on it and it was still fluttering around
the ceiling. After a couple minutes I turned the garage light off and turned the outside lights on and out it flew. I just love happy endings?
Love the idea of putting read flowers in pots close to the exit of the garage and letting them help themselves. I have had to take care of this at least once a summer for the last 5. I always worry that I am adding to their exhaustion trying to help them with the rack. Thanks for the tip about pull cords.