Abstract
My name is Denise Cabral. I am ~urrently
President of the Boston So_c1ety
for A viculture and Northeast Reg1onal
Vice President for AF A. Today I will
be telling you about catching escaped
birds including how I got into this,
prev~nting most escapes, my criteria
for response, my most successful
methods, and why I bother.
I got into recapturing pet birds during
1987, when in the course of
answering telephone calls referred by
the Massachusetts Audubon Society's
toll-free environmental help line, I
found I was fielding about 30 calls a
year about escaped cage birds of c:>ne
type or other. People were callmg
Audubon because, after all, they
"know about birds". In fact, Audubon
is not interested in providing information
about pet birds, and so began
sending callers to the officers of the
Boston Society for A viculture.
As a new mom, I had a fair amount
of time on my hands, and I began
using my background as both a wildlife
biologist and a bird breeder to
investigate the situation and develop
ways to recapture non-native escapees.
My first successful recapt~1res
were in the fall of 1987, and smce
then, I've personally caught three to
five birds a year, and assisted owners
in 15 to 20 recoveries.
How do accidental escapes happen?
There are people sitting here who
walk outside with their beloved pets
on their shoulders, mistakenly sure
that their darling will never leave
them. Well, maybe so, but my phone
rings many times every year with
someone in tears on the other end,
because of a stray dog or cat, an
engine backfire, a horn honking, a
firecracker, or a gust of wind. If /had a
pet I treasured that much, it would be
always wing clipped, and even
then I'd be super cautious about taking
it outside without a cage or carrier
around it. Two feathers and a good
gust of wind is all it takes some birds
to fly off. Until you can fly, don't tak~
your bird outside. My guys get the1r
sunbaths in secure cages, thank you.
There are, of course, many forms of
true accidents, like windows falling
out things breaking, etc., but there are
als~ a lot of "careless accidents", too,
like forgetting your pet is on your
shoulder and walking outside, leaving
your pet out of its cage unsupervised
and it chews through a windowscreen,
opening the door for ten l~inutes
while you bring in the grocenes,
or putting the bird out for some sun in
a cage that isn't wired together ev~rywhere.
As I've said, check those wmg
clips! If your pet escapes, don't
give up. Stay with your bird as long as
you can, and use the methods I'll
describe.
As I developed strategies to help lost
birds, I had to develop criteria for the
level of my personal response. As I
speak with a caller, I ask them if the
bird is theirs. I rarely respond personally
to a location where an owner h~s
lost their own bird, because theu
chance of recapturing it is far greater
than mine, even with my tricks. The
bird knows them, and they live there,
not miles away like I do. In cases
where a caller has a "parrot" in their
yard, I ask if they have a bird feeder
(full of sunflower), try to get a rough
identific-ation of the birds, ask how
long the bird has been coming
around, and generally determine the
willingness of the caller to help. If the
bird is a parakeet, lovebird, cockatiel,
or obviously competent conure, my
chances of recapturing it are laughable,
so I suggest a few easy to do
things to the caller and express my
willingness to talk again. In cases
where the bird is larger, tame, relatively
approachable, or returns to the
area very regularly, I may be able to
recapture the bird if the caller isn't
interested in trying to. I will usually
make one fully-equipped visit to the
location to ID the bird and try to trap
it. I must caution anyone who wants
to try to trap lost or loose birds that
you really need to screen out birds
and callers that you can't help, and
that you either need to charge a small
fee to cover your expenses, or you
need to get gas money from one of
your local bird clubs. This can_be
an expensive and time-consummg
project!
So how do I help owners get their
beloved pets down from 60 feet up?
First, I find out what kind of bird it is,
and if they can still see it. Again, small
guys are harder to get back, and big
ones are easier. If the bird is still in
sight, I tell the owner to rush back out
to it and keep calling it, until a helper
can come back with a picnid It may
sound silly, but sitting down in a comfortable
chair with a table full of your
pet's favorite people food, that. he
likes to share with you, and eatmg
right under his nose has proven to be
nearly irresistible to escaped parrots.
Almost every one of the tame parrots
I've helped owners recover has been
caught this way. The keys are that t~e
bird's favorite person has to stay With
it, and that person has to eat in front of
it if the bird won't or can't seem to
come down. You have to keep calling
them, and showing them the food,
and eating it. Having the bird's own
cage and its mate or other bird companion
outside, in a secured cage, of
course, may also help. The picnic
method may also work for tame birds
that have left their home area. If the
owner is calling me days or weeks
after the escape and the bird isn't in
sight, things are trickier. I first suggest
that they plan to spend the next morning
cruising around the area at
5:00 a.m. with the windows rolled
down, listening for their bird. As part
of their preparation for this, I suggest
calling the police, if they haven't
already, with a description of them,
their car and license plate number,
their bird and its value, and when
they'll be driving around. I also suggest
putting up 8 1/2 x 11 flyers all
over the place, saying "LOST PARROT",
giving a general description,
their phone number, and offering a
reward (don't specify how much).
Lost ads in the local paper, with the
same format, .are also a good idea.
Sometimes adding a sob story to the
flyer or ad is a good idea, because
there are people who will catch birds
and refuse to give them back, because
"you must have been an awful person
to lose such a wonderful bird". It's
people like this that make me wish ~e
all kept photos, audio-tapes and wntten
records of our pets, and that we
were all careful to record what they
say, little behavior quirks, physical
marks, band numbers, etc., and that
we all micro-chipped them, tattooed
them, or at least taught them our name
and address.