Motel welcomes flighty visitor | News

St. Petersburg, Florida - At the Cactus Hotel they're dealing with a prickly problem. It all began a few weeks ago, when the occupants of Room 32 started making noise.

"Me and my wife, we started hearing the baby birds chirping ... tweet, tweet, tweet," says Steve Good who cleans rooms at the motel.

Turns out, two freeloaders had built a love nest underneath the room's air conditioner and the unit had to be removed. But the nest - it stayed.

10 News took a quick peek at the sparrow's nest with our camera. The babies are hard to see when they're sleeping, but there are four of them.

People at the motel have taken up bird watching, to make sure mom and dad deliver room service. "A bird going in and out, in and out; I watch that," says motel owner Bob Patel.

The room goes for $60 a day, but for now, the birds get it rent free. Patel says it would be like murder to destroy the nest. "My heart says, don't do that, don't touch the bird nest," he says, patting his chest.

This isn't unusual behavior for house sparrows. Experts say they actually prefer nesting around man-made structures, as opposed to a hole in a tree. As for those babies, they'll be ready to fly to a new home in a couple of weeks.

Then, room 32 will have a vacancy.