I just started working as an exterior home inspector.

I'm having trouble distinguishing between when a chimney has a fireplace below it and when it doesn't.

Since chimneys don't always have fireplaces below them, how can you tell for sure?

Thanks.
Asking an owner isn't an option....since much of the time they aren't home.

Determining what type of appliance is connected to a chimney you would see during an exterior only inspection is impossible. The only portion that you can honestly inspect is the part you can see. Some of the answers here so far have been telling us what the building codes require. Unfortunately, not every home was built to those codes. I spent nearly 20 years in the fireplace and chimney service industry, and the experience of inspecting literally thousands of chimney's and the appliances connected to them taught me to never assume what might be connected, properly or improperly. As a professional inspector of chimneys, I made it a rule to only comment on what I could physically see. Any thorough inspection of a chimney will, at the very least, require looking from the bottom and the top, and at every wall in every room that the chimney passes through. This must be done to see what previous owners and contractors have installed or removed. Another serious problem for a chimney inspector is not being able to see behind the walls or floors that the chimney passes through. You can not assume it is properly built based on what you can see. I have removed the tops and flues from a chimney and entered the structure to begin a repair, only to find that the masonry structure encasing the flues was less than complete, sometimes exposing charred or burned wood of framing members. So, how does an inspector do an exterior only inspection of a chimney? You look at what you can see, comment only on what you can see, and use a disclaimer so that your client understands that is all you have done. A thorough safety inspection of most any masonry chimney system in a finished home would be destructive to the home to allow the inspector access to all areas behind the walls and floor and that is not what most clients want. Be sure if you go beyond commenting on the components used to build the chimney, and begin delving in code compliance, that you understand those codes well.

How do I get a bird out of my fireplace chimney shaft?
I can hear the bird scratching and pecking but I can't see him. It sounds as if he has found a crack or crevice to hide in. I tried lighting some newspaper thinking the smoke would make him crawl out, but that didn't work., He was quiet for awhile now this morning, I can hear him again.

i had this happen once if you can let the bird in your actull house do that and open all your windows untill he flys out! dont burn him! how would u feel if you got burned when you were scared losted and starving!? just do that so he dosent die!