“How do I humanely remove a bird nest from the overhang of my back door?”

“Dear PoPville,

My situation looks almost identical to the picture posted in the May 2011 post.”

Ed. Note: Unfortunately we lost those comments in a migration so reposting for current reader in same situation.

The pictured bird deserves some congratulations-she is expecting. She build a nest up in the corner of our back door overhang and has been settling in quite nicely.

However, as does happen, every time we take out the garbage or let the dog out into our back yard-the bird swoops out of the nest and perches on a nearby wire and bitches us out royally. Even her mate gets in on the smack talk.

Now I’m a pretty thick-skinned guy, so their hateful tweets do not bother me (too much). Under normal circumstances, I’d say that we’d just work this out: we’ll go out that door as infrequently as possible until the young are born and off on their own.

Here is the rub:

we just (before the nest building started) ordered a new custom door and frame that will replace the door right next to the nest. Not only will the door be replaced, but they are knocking out the entire structure around the door. While the overhang and the nest won’t be moved or destroyed, it will be a loud, disruptive, messy mess for a few days.

Because the door had to be custom made (thank you, Petworth builders, for putting in 27 inch doors-nearly impossible to replace easily and cheaply), it will be a few weeks until they are ready to work.

So the quandary: what do I do?

Attempt to evict them now? Wait and see what happens when the door is installed? Call some “expert” for help-if there even is such an expert.

My worry is that while there might be eggs there now (can’t really tell, but she is sitting in there 24/7 now), but when the door comes, there might be little baby birds-and disrupting the mother’s ability to be there might be disastrous.

So, what do you think I should do?