I get birds in my house too. I live in an old farm house in the country, and in the four years I've lived here, I've six, maybe seven birds fly down the chimney to my unlit wood stove. There is a vent thingy at the top of the chimney, but they fly in anyway. I've rescued about four Falcons, a Woodpecker and a starling... by now I've got it down to an art.

I even had a starling fly down the chimney for the oil furnace, I had to take the stove pipe apart for that rescue... what a mess...