Dear Parrots magazine,
Need my cockatiel back
Complacency and freaky circumstances led to one of my cockatiels escaping from my bird room, a ‘panic shout’ went up from my Yellow-collared macaws, and all my birds joined in. One cockatiel flew around the dividing curtain, across the kitchen, out into the conservatory, and over 30 feet to the window I’d opened to let in some fresh air.
He was around outside for nearly three days, and twice he was close to going to the ‘bait’ bird in the cage, but didn’t. After that, early October, I didn’t see or hear him again.
An advertisement appeared in a free local paper, in the ‘Pet Detectives’ column and read, “Cockatiel, not hand tame, found in Old Salts Farm Road, Lancing, West Sussex”, where I live. I was like a child on Christmas Eve! The ‘pet detective’ however, claimed to have re-united the bird with it’s owner. She had not seen or handled the cockatiel, but insisted it wasn’t mine, and has consistently refused to give me any information whatever. Four weeks later I still don’t know where he is.
I would very much like to contact the person who initially picked him up, and am offering a £50 reward for any information leading to his safe return.
Unfortunately, my bird’s only distinguishing feature is a split lower beak, an old injury, which unattended prevents him from eating, but is not visible until his beak opens. When I adopted him eight years ago, he was very under-nourished, and my fear is that it won’t be noticed.
While I’m not convinced that being chipped would have made any difference in this instance, it might have given me more leverage if he’d had a ring. And of course, I’ll never allow an escape like this to happen again!
Caroline Burghard - by email