MONTECITO — Flocks of birds have become unwelcome guests in California homes.

Firefighters called to a home in the Santa Barbara County community of Montecito Sunday night found about 1,000 small birds trapped in the chimney, the Montecito Fire Protection District said in a social media post.

Firefighters and county animal services workers hoped the birds, identified as swifts, would fly up and out the flue overnight, but when authorities returned Monday morning the birds were still trapped by the screen at the base of the fireplace.

Workers then designed a chute system that funneled the birds out of the fireplace and through the home’s back doors.

A similar invasion happened last week in Los Angeles County, where hundreds of birds poured down a chimney into the home of a Torrance family, KTLA-TV reported. Those birds got all the way into the house.