Young green cheek conure got out a window

[solitaire]

A few facts:
I live in the UK, in a rural area.
I know very little about parrots as the bird isn't mine - it's my sister's.
Bird is a young green cheek conure, only a few months old. My sister has only had him a couple of weeks and he isn't really talking. He's also scared of movement, noise, hands, and although he lands on people's heads sometimes, he won't go to anyone except my sister.
He managed to get around the back of the Quaker's cage and out of the window. My sister immediately ran downstairs to look for him while I was looking from the upstairs window, but he just seemed to have disappeared. Unfortunately, I was the only person looking at him at the moment he got out, and I didn't have my glasses on so I couldn't see well enough to see which way he went.
Initially, we thought there was a chance he'd ducked out of sight behind the radiator, but he won't fit and I've pulled out everything I could around the area he could have got to and shone a bright torch in and he definitely isn't there.
My sister was outside calling him to no avail, and we both tried clicking because he usually moves when he hears the clicks, even if he doesn't go the right way.
No sound, no movement, and no sign of him. We both had to go out and she's still at work.
She left the window wide open so he can get back in if he wants to and also left his cage open. His cage sits right next to her Quaker (who she's had for longer), so we're also hoping he might hear the Quaker through the window and come back.
Unfortunately, the conure isn't that talkative and doesn't usually make much by way of sounds unless prompted by the Quaker (the Quaker would sit chatting through her entire repetoire and the conure would chip in every so often and try to mimic).
We had a look in the trees at the end of the garden, next-door's garden, the bushes, ground level and under the cars, but there's been absolutely no sound or sign of him.
It's significantly colder outside than it is in our room, so he won't be used to the cold. We also have at least two birds of prey in the area as they've taken down pigeons and a young starling before (in our back garden - the conure got out in the front garden).
From what I've seen of him, he's pretty timid. Unfortunately, he isn't banded.
I clicked around the front and back gardens when I got back just now, but haven't seen or heard anything (I was looking for movement more than listening for replies as he doesn't talk much).

Annoyingly, the conure won't come to anyone except my sister (except when he's freaked out and then he won't come to her either). If the Quaker had got out, she's bright yellow and pretty vocal (and LOUD), and extremely sociable so she'll come to any family member when they call her.

Ideally, I want to have caught the conure before she gets home, or at least located it so she can call it down. I've been Googling like crazy but most of the suggestions are for bigger parrots (or tamer parrots). I saw a suggestion about using a recording of the bird's own calls, but unfortunately I don't think my sister has any recordings as this conure doesn't talk very often and she hasn't had it that long. The worst of it is she got it as a replacement for her last one who died suddenly about a month ago after she'd been training it for months and it was talking.

Any suggestions on anything else I can do? I'll take any advice I can get, and thanks in advance.

[Pajarita]

If he is still a baby, he is, most likely, still out there and not really very far at all because babies don't go far, but he must be scared witless and that's why he is not making a peep (parrots are prey and they instinctively know not to make a sound when in a strange -read: dangerous- place). Now, if he is an adult that your sister adopted, it all depends on whether he is hormonal or not because hormonal birds would fly farther looking for a mate... But, in any case, I would put his cage with a tray on top with seeds sprinkled on it and a bowl of water and have your sister call for for him at dawn and dusk (when they are programmed to eat).

[solitaire]

I'm told (by the manager of the pet shop she got him from) that he's not "an adult" but he's fully fledged so he's presumably a teenager. He's pretty nervous normally probably because he's so young. He gets nervous when he's away from her so if something makes him nervous he will usually try to fly to her. (Sometimes if he gets spooked he just flies around and around until he finds somewhere to land.)

Our guess was he's in either our front garden or the neighbour's, but we can't see him. The Quaker's been calling through the open window and another bird was answering from outside, but it didn't sound like the conure's voice to me (I share a room with both birds so I know their voices pretty well).

My question is: I don't think he's even seen a branch before, so would he be likely to land in the trees or would he head for the ground? (Although he's got all his flight feathers, he doesn't normally fly for long and he usually tries to land somewhere pretty high up within a few seconds of taking off.) We have a couple of large bushes in the front garden and I've peered under and around the bushes but not seen or heard anything.

I'll suggest that to my sister as she just got home. Thanks for your help.

[Wolf]

I don't know how high the window is but if it is low then the chances are that he in in the bushes, especially if his wings were clipped. He could still be in a tree so definitely check the lower branches. I live in a rural area so I would be checking the bushes even after dark also in the grass starting near the window, hopefully he made it to the bushes which is where I would have headed if I were him. His coloration is going to make him harder to see so carefully check each branch.

[Pajarita]

He won't go to ground. As a matter of fact, that is the biggest problem people who have lost their birds have because, even when they see them on the trees and call to them, they think the birds would come down to them but the birds won't no matter how bonded they are to their human. They are too scared. So be prepared with a long ladder because, if you do spot him, you (or your sister) will need to go up to get him. I am afraid of heights and had to force myself to go up a long ladder to get the two birds that flew out of my house because they would not go to my husband...

[Wolf]

I am guessing that he is clipped and may not have had enough lift to go to a tree, but if he could he would probably choose a tree over a bush. I really don't have much experience with birds that have escaped.

[liz]

I don't understand why some people do not have screens on their windows. Don't they have bugs in those places?
When the wind sucked Myrtle off my shoulder and out the door it was all she could do to keep herself right side up. She managed to grab a twig and hold onto a tall tree but was too afraid to come down on her own and the wind kept bouncing her around.
I am old and never remember climbing a tree. She was there calling "MA" for about a hour which seemed like an eternity. When a young man came and offered to help I was able to tell Myrtle that he was okay and to get on him.
I hope when you find your GCC that you will be able to talk to him.
Keep searching - don't give up. If you cannot find him he will look for another human to help him because food comes from humans so spread the word that you lost him.

[Pajarita]

Liz, for all we know, they do have screens and the bird chewed a hole in one - it happens all the time.

[solitaire]

I'm in the UK. First floor = second floor from the ground, not ground floor as in the US.
In the UK, you have two choices for a screen: a fine-mesh fixed screen that keeps bugs out (but means you can't open the window, or close it if you install the screen while the window is open) or a hanging screen which is open on both sides and pretty useless for bugs (and escaping parrots) as they simply go under or around it. I looked into screens during a particularly fly-heavy summer and that was all I found. Personally, I'd like to have a screen to stop the bugs getting in and parrots getting out, but I haven't found any that will allow opening and closing the window easily, and the frame is plastic so it shatters if you try drilling it. The room is small so we need the window open for ventilation and we need to be able to close it if it's raining and the wind's blowing from the front as otherwise everything less than 1 metre inside the room gets wet.

I thought I said he was fully flighted in my original post (did I not?)
We didn't think the window was open wide enough for him to get out and we have a net curtain which he initially flew into and then he must have dropped under it to get out.
On the day he got out, the weather was fair and there wasn't much wind. Since then, the temperature's dropped, it's been raining and now it's very windy. Seeing as he doesn't like movement near him, he's probably flown further away by now.
We did go and call him and use binoculars from the top floor and also from the ground to scan the trees (and used a torch to shine up into the trees after dark) on the day he got out.

I'm hoping that because he's about the same colour as the trees, he isn't a bold bird so he doesn't do long flights or shout a lot, and he tends to try finding a perch high up that he'll be clear of predators. He definitely had enough lift from where he flew to make it into the trees in our garden as the nearest trees are only about three metres from the window and go up higher than the house. They were saplings about 20 years ago so they're tall but not too huge yet.
By now he's probably very cold, damp and hungry. Hopefully he has enough smarts to go to a seed feeder (he will recognise that the seed is food but he might not know how to get it out). We have a lot of wild birds in the neighbourhood and a lot of people have feeders, so as long as he has shelter, stays about mid-level in the trees and he figures out how to use the seed feeders, he could survive for quite a while.

I've done a Facebook appeal so my friends in the local area can spread it around, notified the local pet shops and a garden centre about a mile away that does pet food. To be honest, I don't think anyone else is likely to catch him unless he's really desperate, but I'm hoping someone will at least SEE him in which case we can come and figure out some plan to get him to come back. He doesn't step on hands as a rule (except for my sister's) but he'll climb on a perch if you put something out for him to climb on and click to encourage him. My figuring was that if we saw him somewhere reachable from a ladder, we could put a broom handle out and try getting him to perch on it.

According to my research, Day 3 is when parrots are likely to be really hungry and go to any human they see. I'm hoping he'll do that. Even if the person can't actually catch him, as long as he's fed it will buy him some time, and if we know where he is, we can figure out some way to persuade him to come back.

[solitaire]

Update: We got him back!
Apparently he flew about half a mile between the time he escaped and when it was starting to get dark the same day and then he saw someone with the same hairstyle as my sister, apparently mistook them for her and landed on the poor girl's head! She didn't know whose bird he was so she ended up taking him home. She saw my sister's Facebook post today by accident and contacted to ask if he was her bird, so now he's back home.
At least that means he wasn't out in the cold and rain and wind which was my main concern. Unfortunately, they didn't know what to feed him so they asked a staff member at Pets at Home and showed a picture, and ended up with canary seed which he apparently either won't or can't eat. He was very hungry and tired when he came back but at least he's okay. (And making lots of happy noises. )

Thanks for the advice.

I'd love to have screens on our window but any strong enough to stop a bird getting out would have to be metal and shipped from America which would cost at least my total income for about three months. I might try rigging up something with a sliding panel if I can get something the right size, but I didn't have any luck last time I tried.