Parrot Owners Prepared Pack for Lost Bird’s, and Instructions/Advice on how to find a lost Bird.
This Article is NOT subject to copyright and may freely be copied and used June 2008 Andrew Dobson

Introduction:
No one with a companion parrot ever intentionally will allow any opportunity for a parrot to get the chance to get lost. But it happens, even to those who take all the precautions possible, it just takes one mistake, one error in judgment, one opportunity for the bird to get caught in a gust of wind get scared, panic and fly away. Despite our best intentions, the human experience is filled with experiences we grow and learn from, my parrot getting away is one that I hope will allows others to learn from.

I have compiled this document from sources all over the internet. And I have compiled it because sadly much of the advice came only after I lost my parrot. Many of the good resources I have used appear on websites, hard to find in searches, much of the advice came from one page articles that offered only a fraction of the advice and details this document has. I have attempted to cite sources where possible, I have copied copyrighted material with permission, as well as add my own insight and suggestions and comments I received from hundreds of emails. And I have done this because I experience the anguish of losing my companion Tui. I did manage to get world wide attention and response to my loss. I would like to share this information so that others are in a position to have as much resources and information, to be prepared to limit the chances of it happening to them, and help if they lose their bird.

I am a logical realist, and so I have included in this document as much information as I could about the realism of losing a bird. While many well intentioned people will offer support and encouragement; I honestly believe that if knowing an unpleasant fact improves the chances of recovery just 1%, almost all loving owners will be prepared to suffer this to improve the chances of recovery.

Preparation Pack and Ideas

Do this now, before your grief and other non empowering mental states you will experience during the first critical time of your search will impede rational and productive thoughts and actions. These ideas are not presented in any order of importance. They are all important, do as many as you can. If you have a computer, make a folder containing all the details. Upload that folder to any free service such as yahoo or hotmail that will allow you to store information so that you have a back up as well as a copy on your computer. Otherwise a hard copy will work as well. The key point is to be prepared.

Join online forums for your bird.
Forums provide a wealth of information both good and bad, but you soon figure out from consensus which is which (actually most bad advice is ripped to pieces in posts). Read as much as you can about other peoples experiences of their birds. Read lost stories and how they happened and prevent that opportunity. For example a fly screen on each door and window, not having your bird out during a time when loud noises are around. There are too many bits of wisdom for me to go into in this regard, but this information is easy to find, and any responsible owner will make the effort to find it. Most of it is common sense in hindsight, but best to have it in foresight.

Find Quality Training Advice:
Qualified and professional bird trainers with good advice are usually more difficult to find than web based hard sell bird trick trainers. There is a big difference between teaching your bird tricks to show it off, and quality training to enhance the quality of the birds life. Forums again offer tips and quality trainers, but use your intelligence. A hard sell campaign on any product is usually about the money and not about knowledge. Most qualified bird trainers, will share resources and links to other trainers and products. Some websites I have since found that offer this information and products of value are:

http://www.goodbirdinc.com/
Barbara Heidenreich's magazine, books, & DVDs

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ParrotBAS/
Susan Friedman Parrot Behavior Group

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/bird-click/
Bird-click Training Group

http://likambo.com/flyblog/?page_id=30
Raz's links to quality trainers and great articles

Leg Bands & ID Chips:
If your parrot has a leg band, have the band details. This is usually the breeder's number and the year of the bird's birth. Each breeder will get their brand identity from a national organization, and when you notify your breeder when the bird goes missing, they will know if contacted by this organization your contact details if you keep in touch. One Vet I ask said the bands where not much use but they were unaware of the national register. When you email Vets advise them of the contact details of who has your breeder registered.

Get an ID Chip! The cost of getting one is around $50 (they are free from some animal shelters) is nothing compared to the anguish you will face, or the money and time you will spend while searching. There are only a couple of different types and most Vets and shelters have both scanners. They are getting smaller now so most sized birds can have them implanted. When the technology comes about that the chips have GSP in them, fork out the extra! To be able to follow your bird online and see where it is, will increase the chances of recovery to almost 100%

Teach your Bird Contact Information:
If your bird talks, teach it some form of contact details. The news story of the Japanese Grey telling people it’s owners name and address came out at the same time Tui went missing and I kick myself for not even thinking of this. A phone number, an easy email address, even a website such as 911parrot.com. Anything that can be easily tracked down and found. Yahoo or Hotmail will no doubt have something like tuiparrot@ available. (use your parrots name)

Video and Sound Recordings:
Make video and sound recordings of your bird. I was lucky enuff to share my videos on youtube and from one of Tui just talking in her cage for 10 minutes (which at the time I wondered why I was even posting) I made a CD recording that I was able to copy and give out to people in the neighborhood I thought she might be in. Include songs you sing together, you calling out to your bird and anything that will be familiar to your Bird.

Posters and Fliers: (See end of document for sample)
Make missing fliers and posters, including a picture of your bird or type of bird, your contact details, words the bird might say, reward offered. I also added that she would fly to a person's head and she would not hurt them so do not run and scream). Mention a family pet or much loved companion to pull on the heart strings, it may help someone decide not to keep your bird if found. The posters I made for lampposts and mailboxes (and anywhere a staple would go) fit two on a page. The flyers for mailboxes were smaller versions. To have posters already made makes it easier to print out if needed. (Even easier is to already have a stack of 50 or so ready to go.)

Collect Contact details of people to Notify:
Have a list, phone numbers, address and email of everyone or organization you will contact within a 30-50 mile area of where you live. Have bookmarked websites that post lost parrots such as www.911parrot.com

Many websites and articles include lists of who to contact, including:

Animal control
SPCA/humane society
Veterinarians
Zoos
Pet shops
Police
Newspaper and TV Media
Local Schools
Golf Courses
Websites for lost pets including craigslist,
Friends you can call for immediate help searching
Postal Workers

Have a saved email in draft form, perhaps make a mailing list of email addresses so that you can hit everyone in one go immediately. The more time your sitting at your computer sending out emails the less time your out looking. Having said that, you can spread the word so much faster being online than walking the streets over and over. Which ever one your spending time doing you will no doubt feel guilty your not doing the other as well initially.

Socialize your Bird to other people.
Even if you live alone, have your bird meet and interact with many other people. Have your bird ready prepared and comfortable with approaching people. Arrange play dates with other birds in your area, let the neighborhood kids come and play with them. This is a little more difficult if you're living alone, than in a family but make the effort, the comfort a social bird has approaching other people may save their lives.

Train to come on command: Return Command aka Strong Recall
It is one of the first things we usually do with companion birds. Train your Bird to come on command to anyone on the command in an indoor enviroment. There is plenty of information on how to do this (one link for offer is ). [Note: if you are training your bird for outdoor freeflight, it's not recommended to encourage your bird to fly to other people. This in itself can increase the risk of loss in public places. If a bird is both well socialized and recall trained it will generally seek out other people if lost.]

Socialize to outdoors
Get a bird harness and take your bird for walks around the neighborhood. Get it used to being comfortable outside, let it sit in tree braches so that it becomes familiar with them. Point out local landmarks saying what they are e.g. “Look at that, gas station” etc. If your bird already knows the area, you increase the chances of it returning. You must train for putting on a harness before using one on your bird, so that it can be as pleasant an experience as possible. There is a good article on this here: http://www.parrotchronicles.com/2005/features/harness/harness.htm

Also, be sure to ALWAYS attach the end of the leash to yourself – for example to a belt loop or backpack – using a secure hook. If your bird startles, it is possible you may too, and holding a leash in your hand or even having it looped around your wrist is not enough. A harness is only as secure as what it's attached to.

To Clip or not to Clip?

This is an issue that I honestly believe is based on where you are. America in general is big on clipping wings and people suggesting it have decent reasons for it. In other parts of the world it is almost consider cruelty to animals to clip wings. For my part, I saw research that indicated that bird intelligence is closely related to it’s ability to fly its first couple of years. (And yes if you look into neuro plasticity research this appears to be true). If a parrot catches wind it is going to fly, clipped or not. The question is then, do you want a bird who is clipped and unable to avoid dangers or one that can fly and be safer. I think this greatly depends on where you live. Factors would include the amount of trees in the area, predators, height of buildings etc. I was going to get around to clipping the wings since Tui was almost three. I never did because I figured she pants after 30 seconds of house flying she would never go far outside. Big error on my part, but at the same time I believe one of the reason Tui was so smart was because she was flighted. This question of clipping is something you must make yourself. Research the arguments for and against

Once your Bird flies the coup! – Immediate Action!
Adapted from “When a Flighted Parrot Escapes” By Barbara Heidenreich ...Good Bird Consulting

Bird is flying away
Call to your bird loudly as he is flying, use your trained ‘come to you’ command - it may help them find their way back to you. As your bird is flying, do not take your eyes off of it. Note the last place you saw it, the level of it’s flight, how tired he looked. The bird may have landed in that area. (Radio or phone contact for a group of people searching can be very helpful in this situation. Grab your cell phone!)

Searching for your bird
If you have a group of people, spread out and circle the area you last saw it. If you cannot locate it, call to it. The bird may call back. Say words or sounds they knows or mimics. Most parrots are located by their screams. If he has another bird he likes, put that bird in a cage and bring it to the area you last saw it. Walk away from the bird in the cage. It might encourage the bird in the cage to scream. This may get the lost bird to scream. Keep talking to a minimum so you can listen for the scream.

Look carefully in areas close by (within 1 square mile). Parrots usually do not go far unless, blown by the wind, chased by a bird of prey or extremely frightened.

Also your parrot may see you before you see it. In this case, parrots are sometimes very quiet. This is because your presence has allowed the bird to relax. Therefore look carefully. Despite some parrots bright colors, they can be very difficult to see in trees. Look for movement buried in the trees as opposed to your whole bird just sitting there.

You have located the bird, but he is out of reach
Once you find it, relax (unless the bird is in immediate danger) It is better to let the bird sit there (if he/she is inaccessible) while you work out a strategy. Do not frantically try to grab the bird or scare it down.

If the bird has just landed
It will probably not fly again (if at all) for awhile. Bring the bird’s favorite person and/or favorite bird friend (in a cage) to the area where your bird is. Also brings favorite food items, familiar food bowls and the bird’s cage if possible. Br careful not to ask your bird to fly from a great height or a steep angle. Try to position yourself (or bird buddy, or bird cage) to allow short flights or short climbs to lower places. If that is not possible try longer flights that are not steep.

Try to lure your bird to fly or climb to branches/objects that are similar to those upon which he is sitting if possible. A bird may be too frightened to climb onto a distinctly different perch. (For example, the bird might be afraid to climb off of a tree onto a fence.) If you have no other option, expect the process to be slower and be patient with your bird as he builds his confidence. He may also fly again if he touches the new perch and is frightened by it.

Do not raise unfamiliar objects up to your bird to have it step onto it. More than likely this will only scare your bird to fly farther away. If you have a familiar item, you may have chance that the bird will step onto it. Keep in mind things like ladders, people climbing trees, cherry pickers etc. may also scare your bird. Go extremely slowly if you resort to using these items. Stop if the bird looks like it wants to fly away.

Try to call your bird down when he looks like he is ready to try to come down. Do not constantly call. On occasion hide nearby from the bird. This will create a level of anxiety in the bird which may cause it to try to come to you. Usually the bird will scream and or start moving around a lot when you hide for a few minutes. When you reappear, he may try to come down.

If you hear your bird screaming while you are hiding, he may be ready to fly or is already in the air. Come out of hiding right away. Most parrots scream when they are flying in this type of situation. Birds also often relieve themselves and scream right before they fly. Be alert for this. You may need to see where your bird flies. Be ready to run if necessary. Avoid having a crowd of people around the bird's favorite person. A scared bird will not want to fly into a crowd of strangers. Give the bird's favorite person lots of room.

In a real emergencey water hoses do work to slow an untrained flighted bird if you can spray him shortly after his escape. Hit him with as much water as you can all at once. He is heavy from not having exercise, and the water throws it off enough to ground it for a bit. Do not drench just before dark unless you are sure you can get your bird back.

Once you decide the Bird is lost after the initial Search .. Or you can not see where it landed!

Remember the "One Mile/One Month Rule"
(sometimes stated as first 3 days, sometimes one mile per day). Bottom Line your first 1-2 days are Critical. When looking for a lost bird, remember that an during the first 3 days to a month following "escape," a lost parrot usually stays within a one-mile radius of where it was lost. If you are able to run after your bird and see where it lands your chances are greatly increased. If your bird catches wind and flies out of your site, expect a lot of extra looking.

Familiar Surroundings:
Even if you cannot see your bird, it may be watching you. Your bird may be too scared to come down and see you, so entice it. Put his cage outside, full of his favorite junk-food, and leave the door open. If your bird has a feathered pal, put it outside, too (in a locked cage). Only attempt this if you are home and watching the cage(s) carefully. This may entice it to come down. If you have a dog/cat that your bird doesn't like, be sure to keep them far away from the cage. If the location of where you think the bird is further from your house than a mile then ask people you meet and talk to if you can place there stands and cage at there place

Make Some Noise:
If there are noises or words that your bird likes, walk the neighborhood making those sounds. Listen carefully, your bird might talk back! Especially around dawn and dusk when your bird is more likely to talk. Play the sound recording CD you have of your bird talking or making noises. Either in your own yard or around the area you are looking. Also give copies to people in the area if they do not mind playing them.

Let People Know:
When your bird becomes hungry or lonely, they may make contact with a stranger in desperation. This person may well go looking for the bird's owner. Make posters advertising your lost bird with a description and contact information. Have most of these contacts already so that you do not need to search… Mention things that are unusual such as loud wing noise types of sounds etc. What you have gotten used to and take for granted could make a difference. It was 4 days before I even thought to mention that Tui had an accent when she talked!

Contact as many of the following as you can …

Neighbors: First place flyers in mailboxes as you place posters around the neighborhood, while calling out your birds name. Talk to as many people as you can while your out looking. Many a time I got annoyed I would have to talk to someone for 5-10 minutes explaining how much the bird meant to me, what it might say, what it looked like when I thought I could spend my time better looking myself. But the next day I would hear them calling them my birds name as they were walking there dog, and the personal touch incites more active participation from others. Give a couple of kids $1 to look and tell them there is $50 if someone sees your bird and comes and gets you and you catch it. Kids tell on people that are hiding them also. Go to local schools and ask that they tell the kids in each class, 500-1000 kids eyes greatly improve your chances. Birds seem to like the golf course, talk to them personally and leave a flyer.

Veterinarians: give them the band details and the contact of the national registry, some people working there may not know that the band is registered (helps educate them for other lost birds).

Pet stores: Someone may bring your bird in but also ask them to keep an eye out for cage only buyers, most pet shops even ones that don’t sell birds are familiar with the finders keepers attitude of some people. If there are bird breeders in your area, let them know you lost your bird, too.

News Media & Internet Advertisement in the Lost & Found section of any newspapers in your area. See if you can sell them on a human interest story, same with the local TV News. The more people that hear about your parrot missing the better than chances of you getting it back. I got a front page newspaper story, and TV news, I wrote to forums and added my missing parrot to her youtube page. Not only did I get hundreds of messages of advice (and you will get it) I noticed a week later Tui was being blogged about (mostly as an example of what not to do with free flight .. but the personal shame and humiliation is worth the publicity). As much coverage as you can. An African Grey was found 40 miles from where I lived and someone had read the newspaper story and contacted me. Was not my Tui, but the word had spread. When I am walking along golf courses or areas I have not introduced myself, half the time people know about me.

Local schools: Ask that they tell the kids in each class, 500-1000 kids eyes greatly improve your chances, give them flyers for each class so the kids know what to look for. Birds seem to like golf course, talk to them personally and leave a flyer.

Animal Welfare Groups: Be sure to contact your local animal control, Humane Society and any parrot rescue groups in your area. Let them know you have lost your parrot and give them a contact number where they can get a hold of you if someone reports a found bird. You should already have there numbers listed and email addresses. Go in personally to as many as you can, call and follow up with an email. Many people saw a flyer at a Vet’s office and contacted me telling me of various websites I did not know about.

Police dispatcher: Depends on the size of your city, but I have received several calls from the dispatcher after I asked that a note be placed on their board

Postal Workers: Most cities have a delivery headquarters with an lunch room. Place your flyers up there, postal workers travel all over your city and are a way to have eyes everywhere.

And Most Importantly: Be stubborn about finding your bird. Parrots are very adaptable and can live feral in many parts of the United States. Your best chance for getting your bird back is if you are proactive! Get out as much as you can in the areas you think it might be, follow up on calls of strange noises from people, always act excited and be thankful (even if it is a little old deaf blind women who swears she saw something), and call out your birds name.

NEVER GIVE UP: Birds can live for days-weeks months, and even years after an escape. Never give up. Granted there will come a time when you can no longer spare the time to look as much as you did to start, and you need to move on. But stay in contact with people letting them know your still looking. Day 3 is when they get hungry and try to come in for food, they will go to just about any one at that time if they are tame. If you have taught your bird to be comfortable around many people it may speed up the approach time. Your flyers and conversations with people should include what to say or call, what food to use to entice contact, and how the bird may approach (head or arm etc). Tell people to put them in a pillow case, and have friends carrying pillowcases while looking, or small cages. Sometimes greys are caught by inexperienced holders and they don't know what to do with them.

Outer Areas/Websites
If possible contact organizations 50 miles or more away. These places an email or letter will do. Sometimes people find them while traveling and go home with them. Greys can also get that far just flying.

Check online resources
Bookmark the lost and found classifieds of your paper online and community newspapers. Watch for sales of pets, and check them everyday. Someone may find and notify the paper or find and try to sell your companion.

Other Information that is helpful (Some not pleasant)
Special Thanks to Raz at http://www.likambo.com/ for answers to questions at the end.
The rest is totally my thoughts so don't confuse my opinion with noted experts :)

The Emotional Roller Coaster
When your parrot escapes, you are going to experience an emotional roller coaster ride. I personally am a very rational and logical person, I don’t experience emotions as intensely as most people, yet I had a wild trip of chemical brain activity (emotions).

You are going to feel a whole range of emotions, including but not limited too: sadness, grief, excitement, hope, self hatred, disappointment, urgency, helplessness, impatience, loathing, grief, anger, fear, and did I mention grief? Here is a link to an article on Pet grief http://www.rainbowbridge.com/Grief_Support_Center/Grief_Support/Grief.htm

Everyone handles this differently, here is my bottom line. Accept that you are going to feel the emotions. If you want to, take a little time out to cry,, it is going to happen, at times you will howl like a baby. Have the sense of hope each time the phone rings with someone saying they hear noises, but above all else, keep looking. As it is said time heals all wounds, know that in a week you will feel better, in a month even better. Realize that most all the emotions you will experience are at there core selfish ones. You are grieving for what you lost, you hate yourself for what you did, you get annoyed at people not fulfilling your expectations of how they should help etc. This is completely normal and natural, it is part of the human experience BUT it does not put you in a mental place that is best for your bird.

Feel like crap, accept that you will, but constantly keep going, remind yourself that what is important right now is you doing your best to find your bird, you can feel sorry for yourself later. Your allowed to feel sorry for yourself – it is a normal human response, and decide you will do that later, for now, at this time your doing what is best for your bird, not what is best for you. This I know is just my opinion, it is not a pleasant one, but at the end of the first week of searching, you really do not want to be working out how much more you could have done if you were just not sobbing all the time. Cry when your out looking, don’t use it as an excuse to roll up and do nothing.

As a little self promotion, from my experience losing my bird I added two sessions to my Hypnosis site. They are 1) Grief and 2) Guilt. These sessions are so far the ones I am most proud of and they work, and they are worth the $13 I ask for them. At some point soon I will combine them into a Lost Pet session. These are available at www.mindfithypnosis.com

The Grim reality of your ‘Special Bird”
Perhaps some of the most comforting advice I got was from my breeder, who has constantly given me advice worth having. (http://feathernflameaviary.homestead.com/index.html). Yvonne reminded me of something I believed about people, but had somehow ignored about my Bird. She told me that she never wanted to burst my bubble, about my belief Tui was special, but all parrots of the same breed have the same ability to learn and be the best they can be. It is the love and affection, time and commitment of the training and environment that makes the bird who they are. She said that if I was to ever get another parrot that it would talk the same way, use the same phrases and have a similar personality if it is brought up the same way. But pointed out that I would not be making the same mistakes on a 2nd bird, so despite what I feel now, I would love another just as much. This has been endorsed by many comments from people having been through the situation.

Your bird will ALWAYS BE SPECIAL TO YOU. We as humans love what we know, often inflating the value to us compared to other things. This is normal and natural, it is just what we do. In the same week my bird was lost China had an earthquake, which 3 weeks later estimates are over a million people looking for somewhere to live, and 90,000 plus dead. Is this a more important in the grand scheme of things in the real world? Of course it is. Does it matter to me as much as one parrot? No it does not!

Getting Publicity … The more that know the better

Youtube/AOL/Google Video
I was very lucky, that the youtube page I had showing videos of my parrot had 500,000 plus views and 380 subscribers. I can not recommend enough making videos and posting them, especially if you lose a bird. It does not matter how popular your page becomes or does not become, getting them on a high ranking page like youtube or google video will enhance your search engine listings if you link to a site with more information.

In addition, my last posting explaining my mistake and my feelings at the time, and even my crying trying to get through it, generated publicity. This was not my intention, my page was always just to share my experience with my parrot, and I saw no reason not to share the bad along with the good. But a lot of my publicity came from blogs using me as an example of what not to do. The shame and humiliation of ‘bad press’ is nothing compared to the possibility of finding my lost companion. Many people found me and offered me good advice from this and not all of the internet comments about my situation were bad.

The most important thing is that there are people and sites who specialize in lost parrots. Something I never even looked at until it happened to me. The people associated with these activities are extremely compassionate and if they find you will contact you. Much of the information I have presented in this document came from this source.

Newspapers/TV News
Unless you have a contact among staff of the media your best chance is to come up with a human interest story. Ask to see a reporter when your placing lost and found notices. Again I was lucky, I gave the reporter my youtube page and they saw how clever my parrot was (they don’t just take your word for it you know). I was also able to provide information that made it a human interest story http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2008/may/17/beloved_talented_parrot_goes_missing/

The newspaper and Local TV were owned by the same company so a TV News story was done as well. I do not feel the articles presented me in the best way possible, certainly the blog comments associated with story are mostly negative. But what do I care, it is publicity. I was notified about a parrot found 45 miles away because someone had read the paper. I am recognized going through peoples backyards because they have seen the story. Appeal to the reporters sense of loss, make the comparison that pets loss are as painful as a human to most people, Cry in front of them, feel the embarrassment and do it anyway. You wont remember the event in a week or so, you will regret not doing all you could for years to come.

Special Thanks to Raz at http://www.likambo.com/ for answers to questions

Would a domestic parrot take to the trees or stay low to the ground ?
Generally they will go up; it's just instinct. And the problem with going up is that house-birds will not know how to fly down, at all. It's kind of the last thing they learn in flight training too. But if the bird is clipped it won't be as likely to get up high unless there's a stiff wind. Carly spooked once before she was trained and flew full speed down the park and landed across a street in a bush. I didn't see exactly where she landed and it took forever to find her because she just sat in that bush, about 5 ft off the ground, quietly waiting. Greys often don't vocalize much when they're lost, especially at first.

How long will it be stressed until it relaxes and is able to function?
I think that depends a lot on the individual bird, as well as how much it's used to being outdoors (with a harness or carrier or aviary). As soon as it starts to get hungry enough it will think about that

How quickly can a Domestic Parrot develop the muscles to fly and control its flight?
If the bird has been fairly active playing or flying indoors it would have plenty of ability to do short flights, especially if there is adrenaline involved. Many parrots fly very fast, so even a short flight can mean out of sight quickly. What changes as they do more of it is that they develop a lot more endurance for longer flights. Controlling flight is as much a matter of skill than muscles. An indoor bird may be OK with turning, if allowed to fly in the house, but will not be used to maneuvering in wind for example.

When out in the world, how long before they talk or do they revert to sequels?
I've heard Greys don't vocalize much for at least a day or two. Macaws are a lot more vocal. Most birds would be less likely to talk than make some kind of contact calls like when they're stressed or excited.

Is a parrot likely to talk, make noises or attempt to fly after dark?
Yes, a friend who breeds greys and has them in outdoor aviaries told me they get very vocal late at night for awhile. It is not common for parrots to fly at night at all.

Linda Rasmussen recommends when birds are in recall training to teach them how to get down out of a tree before they have experience flying down. “With Carly I did target training (ask to touch a stick or your hand, then treat for it) in a small pine tree with a lot of low branches, and her on a harness. We call it "treecalls." Many parrots love crawling around in branches anyway and swinging upside down, so it was a fun game too. And it taught her that she could maneuver through a tree. On some of her first outdoor flights when she got too high she would land in a tall eucalyptus tree (she hadn't learned to fly down from way up high yet). The first time she did that I thought oh no.... Then she started crawling through the tree, swinging and jumping down to lower branches. She did this for about 40 feet! Then she was low enough to fly down to me. But the combination of a good recall and knowing how to maneuver through trees worked amazingly well. I just cracked up the first time I saw her do it.” See her Flight Blog for more details on tree training

Useful Websites

http://www.rainbowbridge.com/Grief_Support_Center/Grief_Support_Home.htm

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ParrotBAS/

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/bird-click/

http://www.likambo.com/

http://www.goodbirdinc.com/

Sample Poster

Lost African Grey Parrot

Her name is Tui and she is greatly loved companion. Normally a great talker, but might be a little scared at the moment. If she is talking she has an Aussie Accent. Tui may try to land on your head, she is good at it, just stand still and she won’t hurt you, but will get scared if you panic

Please call if you even THINK you have seen her, ANY TIME, as I have a much better chance of collecting her. Or notify the Humane Society if caught.

To see and hear Tui what tui might be saying
http://www.youtube.com/user/kskiwi

Reward Offered

Andrew (702) XXX-XXXX