Hello from South Africa - please help.... desperate :(

[donnette]

Greetings from South Africa.

I am in love with my 6 babies, but right now feel like i am going out of my mind.

Squash is a 4 year old green-cheeked conure. Her partner is Racket. They are both fully flighted, but very tame and live in my office/aviary with me. We sit in the courtyard where i have built them a fountain and Squashy never flies from me.

Last night she got a fright and flew from my shoulder at the sun was going down. She is an incredibly tame bird, I am her person. She does not take to strangers. Racket is beside himself and we spent the whole night in the courtyard calling her, we heard her in the trees not far but then something scared her again and she must have flown off. I have now been searching since 3.30 am and have a man chopping down teh trees where I think she may be.

I am worried she won't find her way back to me. She knows our voices, we have our own calling sign which Racket Squash and I use, and while she responded last night, today there is nothing. I am broken hearted. This is my best friend.

Please tell me if anyone has any experiences of a tame bird flying off, into unfamiliar territory and returning home, either because she hears her partner or her person calling. Please help me, I am in floods of tears. I am desperate

[Pajarita]

Well, I've had two birds fly out (by accident, mind you) and I got both of them back. I kept on calling and calling and looking into the trees with my binoculars and, when I found them, I had a ladder and a high-value treat ready so I climbed up (and this is HUGE for me because I'm afraid of heights) while I kept my eyes on them and talked and talked and talked to them all the time so as to keep their attention focused on me and, eventually (it took a number of tries because I needed them to fly to a lower branch as the ladder did not reach all the way up to the top of the trees), they perched on my hand and I quickly lowered it against my chest and put my hand on their back to prevent them from opening the wings and taking off again. Chopping down the trees might do more harm than good as it would be a very scary thing what with the noise, the strange man and movement.

I hope you learned your lesson and never take your birds outside without a harness or in a cage. It doesn't matter how much they love you, how they don't like strangers, how well they are trained or anything. They are birds and, regardless of any past actions or inactions on their part, they will, sooner or later, fly away.

If I were you, I would make posters and place them everywhere in a radius of 5 miles.

[Wolf]

Pajarita is right, I almost lost my Grey Parrot when she flew off, I was lucky and got her back. Check with any vetinarian in the area and let them know, provide them a picture of your bird with contact information on it. See if local radio stations will announce your missing bird on the air. Let your neighbors know to watch and listen for your bird. Place a familiar cage out where she can see it and get to it and put some nuts and water in it for her. Above all keep looking for her.