how to get a bird out of the house, (or church, or garage, or . . .)

Half a dozen of us were polishing off the pre-Fall-kickoff cleaning for our church when a small songbird got into the building. There's the lot of us, playing bird hockey, with brooms, rakes, whatever long-handled whatever we can grab . . . churches have high ceilings. (And did you know that when there's vertical space available, birds don't like to fly down to things like open doors.) My friend Joy discovered the one essential tool in trying to catch a bird: a spray bottle full of water. It's much easier to spritz a bird than it is to herd it. And eventually, the water in the feathers weights the bird down enough that it can't fly. At least until it dries out. And that point, it's a pretty simple thing to pick the bird up and set it out in the sun to recover. I presume that this wouldn't work with birds that God designed to live in the water, like ducks or swans or something. But I haven't yet heard of someone getting those in their house. And it's okay on sparrows.