Article by Chris Biro, all
rights reserved.
Hello Flyers,
Here are a few segments of posts dealing with recovery of lost or loose
parrots.
The first thing I do when a bird is lost is stay out there and LISTEN for the
bird. It will almost always make
noises that can be heard, giving direction to look in. When you hear the bird go in that direction
and listen some more, repeating this until you have spotted the bird.
Time is of the essence here. Most
people give up to easy and way to soon.
Once you locate the bird then comes the fun part, getting the bird
down. This often involves climbing
trees or traumatic waiting and hoping the bird will come down on its own (this
often happens if the bird knows how).
The bird will get hungry and will begin searching for food so it may fly
from tree to tree. It may also help to
put a familiar cage and food out where it can be seen by the bird. If you have a second bird that the lost bird
will recognize the calls from, this can help a lot. Put the second bird outside
where the bird can hear it and see the food.
Nature has given them loud shrill voices so that they can communicate
over larger distances than we can, so hope you second bird will make some
noise.
Hello Bob and Meg,
>> I have heard some people who do this for part of their living do use
Hav-a-heart traps baited with the birds very favorite food, also jealousy (a SO
giving the birds #1 person attention, or another rival bird or pet getting
attention from said #1), and food bribes work sometimes.
These approaches will ONLY work if the bird is calm and ready to come down
anyway. If the bird is in "high
alert" mode (due to a state of fear) only the most benign efforts to get
it down will work - no cherry pickers/bucket trucks, no ladders, no long
sticks, maybe favorite person climbing tree with no scary objects, etc.. I have
climbed trees for birds that were very comfortable with me personally and had
them fly off to another tree just before reaching them with my hand. It seems to me that they go through a
definite high anxiety state of "high alert" where they are extremely
difficult to recover while in this state.
With a little time and patience, they will calm down and relax and
become much more easily recovered.
Signs of such change of state would include preening, playing with
leaves/branches, aborted attempts to fly down (low fly-bys), etc..
The single most important factor of recovering a loose bird is to KNOW ITS
LOCATION!!!! As long as you know where
it is, you can get it down with time - in most cases with enough time it will
come down on its own, so long as you can keep track of it long enough. The most effective method of locating a
loose bird is to listen for bird sounds and then once one even imagines that
they hear something that might have sounded like the bird, move in that
direction and listen some more. It helps to have several people listening in
various areas and two-way radios are a wonderful help. I have stood out
waiting and listening for several hours before hearing sounds that lead me in
the direction of the bird.
Jezebel, a female Scarlet that I used to use in our show, once got loose when I
tripped over a shovel while loading the birds into the motor home for a school
job scheduled for the next day. She was
fully winged but rarely ever made any efforts to fly but suddenly found herself
up in the air late in the evening. We
knew where she was when we went to bed that night - way up in a tree that there
was no way imaginable to climb and no ladder truck or other equipment could
even get near this tree, plus she was way out on a far branch that even if I
could up the tree that far I could in no way reach out that far to her. The next morning we located her again, but
in a different tree (similar situation though), chased off a Red Tailed hawk
that circled above her for a while - in the process chased her out of the tree
also and then lost sight of her. When
last seen she was flying at above tree top height and did not seem to be
comfortable with flying down at all.
Several hours later I almost heard what could have been a low volume
macaw cooing noise. I moved in that
direction and listened some more. Again
I almost heard a sound, and again moved in that direction - I was still not
sure I had really heard her. At this
point we were facing the previously logged mountainside that is across the
highway from our property. Again I
thought I heard a sound that might have been her - being close to the busy
highway made it especially tough to hear bird sounds - and began climbing the
mountain. I worked my way up through
the thick brush and finally heard a very clear and loud macaw contact call - my
"helpers" also heard this call and now all of us are focused on the
side of this mountain (them down by the road, me on the side of the
mountain). Again I moved in the
direction of a sound I might have heard.
She made a mild but clearly heard contact call and I discovered her
location in bush (at about tree top elevation when looking over at our
property), which was about ten feet from where I stood. I moved to her location and she stepped up
on my hand like nothing had ever happened.
The evening of her getting loose we had immediately rescheduled the
school program and it went fine a few days later - Jezebel included.
Going beyond the recovery efforts at home, I call area pet stores and
vets. I ask them to keep their ears open for strange telephone calls like
people asking "what does a parrot eat?", "what kind of bird
looks like this?" etc.. (usually it is the person that has never had a
parrot and knows nothing about them that will consider keeping a found parrot -
often seen as monetary gain kind of thing - whereas the previous parrot owner
will be more likely to return the bird).
I tell the pet store that if they get such a call, say something to the
effect "Just a moment, we have an animal emergency here, can I get your
name and telephone number and call you right back?" then call the police
and let them know about the call (the police can trace the call from the
telephone company records - you and I cannot) also ask them to check the with
the telephone company because many telephone companies have a code you can
punch in you telephone to mark a call for tracing by the police, make sure they
know how to do that. I have twice
recovered birds from such incoming calls to pet stores and their calls letting
me know about them. Also place adds in
newspapers and maybe contact a new paper reporter, some times they will write a
human interest story that get you more readership (not often, but sometimes).
From a reply to a person in Australia with a lost cockatoo.
So sorry to hear about your friends lost bird.
As I've said before, I also have "been there, done that"
(several times too many). 8 days is a
long time into this recovery process, especially with similar species wild
birds around. It is possible that the
bird has become aquatinted with some of the wild birds while sitting out in the
yard, this could be good and it could be bad.
The "bad" is that the bird may wish to stay with its friends,
especially if it's a making thing. This
"good" is that it could survive with the help of its friends. In my lost bird experiences, my greatest
concern was for the birds safety, whether I got him back or not. When I lost my OBee (Olive Boomerang) last
summer (he got spooked while we were setting up at show in Tacoma, WA area) my
anxiety was greatly reduced when we found out that he was OK and not a target
for owls and such because we found out that he had landed on someone at a
freeway rest stop (one block away) even though we did not know were he was yet,
(it makes it tough to find him when he's wisked down the freeway by a good intentioned
person - after some "parrot detective" work, I got him back five days
later). The other birds in the area
could greatly increase his chances of survival.
Anyway, the first and most important thing you can do, is LISTEN for the lost
bird (this may be difficult with wild birds present). Don't give up, keep listening and watching. Call the pet stores and veterinarians in the
area or send them a Lost Parrot Fax Alert with all the relevant details.
Posting Photos and offering a reward sometimes helps. Contact your neighbors in the area where lost and the elementary
school as well (kids love to help look for lost parrots - be forewarned, they
will "see" and "hear" hundreds of your bird in various
places, but sometimes they are right).
Call a reporter for the local paper (sometimes they will write a story)
and also post adds in the classifieds and put up posters in local convenience
stores an post office.
I have had repeated opportunities to "practice" the above recovery
process (mostly from when I was working with my adult) and my greatest success
has come from just IMMEDIATELY being out in the area where the bird was lost
and listening, occasionally calling to the bird. Listen not only for the usual call, but any noise that the lost
bird might make. Taking another bird
out to the area may also help, especially if the other bird is a noisy friend
of the lost bird, or better yet a mate or roommate (cage partner).
If you hear the bird call, go in that direction and continue to listen. Usually, you won't spot the bird from the
first noise it makes, but you will be able to determine a direction to focus
on. The next sound the bird makes will
help you begin to "zero in" a more precise location. Continue to watch for the bird, being alert
for sudden flights. If the bird should
fly, do your best to see where it lands and if you lose sight of the bird,
start listening again and repeat the process.
It also helps to have several people out listening. Don't bunch up and stand together chatting,
separate and each stand silently listening.
If the bird makes noise and more than one person hears the sounds, then
you are already able to triangulate a more precise location from where to look
and listen next.
Once the bird is located, the tricky part starts, getting the bird down. This
has been the most hair raising for me.
I have done amazing things to get a bird out of a tree we could not
climb (I am talking BIG trees, because I can and have climbed some real tough ones). I don't recommend calling the fire
department (even though they are nice people and are often willing to help)
because birds are often frightened by motion from long objects likes sticks,
CRANES or BUCKET TRUCKS.
It has been my experience that getting a bird down from a tree that you CAN
climb is the best bet (assuming it won't fly down on its own, which does happen
sometimes). To get a bird down from a
tree that you can climb obviously means the bird must be IN a tree that you can
climb (not usually the birds first choice of course). If the bird will not come down and I do not have time to wait it
out, I then resort to causing it to fly again. This is the VERY scary part
because you don't know if you can find it again, though in my cases the birds
usually flew around in somewhat of a circle and stayed fairly close (though I
have heard numerous stories about birds who flew straight line out of sight
never to be seen again - accurate stories, I don't know).
To get the bird to fly sometimes takes some imagination (and often
desperation). Patience is your best tool here. Most likely the bird wants down as bad as
you want it down, especially after a few hours when it is getting hungry and
thirsty (or cold). It will likely fly
on its own if given time. Sometimes we
don't have the time or are intimidated by hawks and/or owls in the area. Under these circumstances you might choose
to help cause the bird to fly. I have
thrown objects up at the bird, from sticks to bright colored oilcans or plastic
soda bottles with some water in them to give them weight. I have even taken a rifle and shot the
branch on which the bird was sitting, a few feet away from the bird of course
(VERY dangerous and NOT RECOMMENDED, even though I have been successful with
this method - being an ex Army Drill Sgt... probably helps). In a case with a Red Fronted Macaw, where
the branch was too big to be effected by the rifle, I even resorted to cutting
the tree down - NOT a good idea because the bird stayed in the tree almost all
the way to the ground and nearly got caught in the branches as she flew out,
only a few feet from the ground, VERY CLOSE CALL and definitely NOT
RECOMMENDED).
Make sure you have treats and food with you and out visible where the bird can
see it. It is a real bummer to climb a
tree and not be able to reach the bird because it sits too far out on a limb
and does feel helpful. This is even a
bigger bummer if, during the excitement, you forgot to bring a treat with you
(been there, done that too) meaning you back down to get the treat and back up
again. I have also taken a pair of
scissors with me up a tree and actually clipped the wings in the tree then
tossed the bird and let it "fly" down. This is a bit dangerous to both you and the bird and is not
recommended for most circumstances. The
scissors are dangerous in that they can stab you while climbing, or worse
should you fall, use extreme caution when climbing with scissors. Also if too many feathers are clipped the
bird can fall too fast and injure itself by flying into an object while in decent
or upon impact with the ground. I have
done this with birds that have a tendency to bite hard if held in a manner that
restrains them (holding toes, untamed breeder birds, etc.). Being bit while attempting to use one arm to
climb down from a tree can easily get you both seriously hurt (remember the old
joke -How do you get a one armed Blonde out of a tree? Waive at her).
I hope this helps but isn't needed (at least often anyway).
Parrots: more than pets, friends for life.
Chris Biro