Stairway Hobo

Walking up the steps to the apartment a couple of weeks ago I raised my head from its usual lolling, staring at the floor position and jumped when I saw a bird on the 2nd floor windowsill. It didn't move, and appeared to be sleeping, so got my camera and quietly tried to take a picture with no flash...

The next morning, hanging around the apartment before work, I could hear a continuous tweeting from the poor chap. He had flown up to the third floor, my apartment's floor, and seemed to be trying to attract avian family attention. I really didn't know what to do, here! I remember trying to get a bird out of the house when I was young, and it was chaos. So I ruled out trying to herd him down three flights of stairs. But I was equally concerned that with all the tweeting he might dehydrate, anyone know how long birds can last without water? So I filled a small plate with water from the cooler, and slowly put it on the sill near him.

I don't know if that helped, but after another couple of hours the tweeting got louder as another bird arrived, and 30 minutes later they were gone. Before he left though, very politely, he flew up the the railings in front of the apartment door, tweeted a loud "thanks buddy!" and defecated on the floor.