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One Friday morning before school, my daughter was cleaning out the bird cage and I was coming in from the outside.  The door to the birdcage was open, but both of our budgies were inside the cage.  As I opened the door, Disco (a 1 1/2 year old green and yellow budgie) made a break for it and flew out the door, which was located about 15′ away.  She’d never indicated previously she might make a break for it, and by the brief amount of time the back door was open it looked like she had been waiting for an opportunity to make a break for it.  (My daughter had placed her on the windowsill in her room for several hours the day before, and apparently she’d gotten quite a long view of the great big world…)

I put up my hand as she flew by expecting she might try to land on it as she had done previously inside the house, but she banked hard to the right and started to climb high into the sky.  I ran after her, but could tell by her speed and height she wasn’t coming back any time soon.  I told my daughter, who had chased after her, that Disco was gone, and my daughter was inconsolable.

We let my daughter stay home from school that day, which was uncharacteristically cold and rainy.  We couldn’t put the bird cage in the backyard and hope for her to come back, so I downloaded three hours of budgie noises from the Internet and placed the speakers out the window and played them on a loop loudly out the front door all day long to no avail.

We looked for her everywhere over the next couple of days and called for her constantly, but to no avail.

Disco’s Adventure while on the lam..The weather was cold and rainy for the next for days and we were certain she had died from exposure or predation.

Our daughter kept saying over and over, “I miss Disco.”  All that I could say was, “I know.”

On the fourth night, while I was preparing dinner, our neighbor across the street came over and asked if we had lost a banded bird.  I had forgotten Disco was banded and originally said, “No,” but then quickly asked my daughter who said yes.  Our neighbor informed us a bird had been found on the local lighted football field 1/2 mile from our house, and some of the other neighbors had captured it.  We quickly raced down the the field and talked to the neighbors, who said their boys were preparing to play football when they noticed a green and yellow bird in the middle of the field.  One of the boys quickly scooped it up and gave it to one of the neighbors, who put it in a box and took it to the local police station.  We ran over to the police station, whereupon a bemused officer asked us to describe the bird.  We described her, and the officer said, “That’s her.”  Then he opened the box, and my daughter dove her hands into it and shouted, “DISCO!”

The bird looked none the worse for wear and tear.  In fact, she looked a little fatter!

The best I can figure is she got lost and was ready to come home.  The lighted football field is the most prominent landmark on our side of the town and attracts a lot of people.  Plus, it’s well lighted.  She landed in the middle of it, and waited for some nice human to come and pick her up.

Needless to say, my daughter was ecstatic.  My wife and I, as well as our neighbors, were incredulous.  We couldn’t believe she survived that long in such bad weather, let alone the fact that the local neighborhood grapevine was so quickly able to put the owners in touch with those who found her.

We are extremely grateful and feel extremely lucky.  We know what it’s like to lose a beloved pet and to expect the worst, and we know how very, very lucky we were to have had a successful reunion.

Best,

John