Getting Back Home-Escaped Pet Birds

Most pet bird owners' biggest fear is that their bird will fly away. It would be terrible if a tamed bird got loose because they are unlikely to be able to survive on their own in the wild.

The best way to prevent your pet from escaping is to practice "double door boundary" habits (closing external doors before opening internal doors) and follow proper wing trimming procedures, but if your bird escapes, there are both short-term and long-term measures you can take to ensure a safe recovery.

Instantaneous Reaction

Timing is key when working with a fly-away. If you want to have the highest chance of recovery, you must take action as soon as you know your bird is missing. Make use of everyone there, especially those who can be quickly called in. To ensure that all relevant steps are completed at once, assign tasks.

As soon as possible, designate a few people to look for any nearby trees, poles, or other obvious perches on your property and the adjoining properties. Branch cover will even keep colorful birds hidden, so instruct your volunteers to examine each tree from all angles.

Give someone the assignment of gathering all the distributable fishing nets, bird netting, and a few little hand towels. If you can find the bird and get it to see you, cover it with the towel to prevent it from flying back toward you.

Picture What the Bird Sees

The bird may be frightened and paralyzed with fear, if you're lucky. If that occurs, be careful to keep an eye on the bird as you plan a strategy to move the cage as close to the bird as you can.

The bird will frequently pick familiar food and cover whenever it can, as long as it can fly down and rest on its back. Many pet birds, on the other hand, who were raised indoors as opposed to in tall trees, never had to learn this skill. It could take some time for a bird to calm down and think before finding the courage to flutter down. Birds that manage to flee, however, typically do so straight away.

birds frantically trying to fly away will not pay attention to their immediate surroundings. Think about the situation from a bird's eye view. Be aware that your bird cannot find its house and has never seen it from the air. It is essential to maintain continual eye contact with your bird. Early in the morning, move the cage as close as you can to the bird. Put on colorful apparel and act as a slow, reassuring beacon to draw the bird toward you and the cage.

As soon as the bird is found, gather a group of people to monitor it, ideally 24 hours a day, to guarantee that it is continuously being seen. Don't let the rain stop you. A bird that has lost sight of anything familiar may begin to search in more wide circles, which only makes matters worse.

Getting the Cage Close to the Bird

Bring the cage as close to the bird as you can. If the bird has vanished, put the cage close to where it took flight. If your bird escapes through the front door, for instance, put the cage on your porch or threshold. When outside is an option, hang the cage there to make it appear as though it were inside.

Put a lot of the bird's favorite foods and mouthwatering treats inside or close to the cage to tempt it back home. Always keep a person close to the cage with a towel or net ready to pounce. Use substantial, easily visible food, and keep the cage door open. Make the trap door latch lock as soon as the bird enters, if at all possible.

Using Recognizable Sounds

Try "calling" a lost bird by name while staying close by and repeating using identifiable words, sounds, and phrases if a cage and food are ineffectual at drawing it home. Your pet may occasionally be tempted to fly down to you if you do this. If it's a style of music you usually listen to, play some soft music outside. Make the sound a familiar beacon so the bird can easily find it.

Expanding Your Search with Community Support

Even the best urgent measures can occasionally fall short; if you are unable to view your bird for the most of a day, it is time to put Plan B into action.

To let people know about your bird's name, description, and images, put up signs and use social media. Ask that anyone who sees the bird keep an eye on it until help arrives and immediately report any sightings, including their precise location.

Finding birds can be fun for neighborhood kids, especially if there is a reward at stake. Notify local avian clubs, vets, and lost-and-found locations. Additionally, you ought to list your bird on any nearby 911 bird rescue websites.

Watching for Tired Birds

The first day of liberty for any bird is happy and active. Day 2 will be less stressful. Because there isn't any food supply for exotic birds outdoors, by day three your bird will be starving, dehydrated, and exhausted from lack of sleep and excessive exercise. When in this situation, birds frequently fly to strangers and beg even complete strangers for help. They are now quickly caught.

Birds are still recovered this way even after being lost for weeks, so be sure that all obvious reporting agencies have your contact information. Your worn-out bird will be ecstatic to be safe and with you when you get home.

Eliminating All Escape

Because prevention is always preferable to cure, developing certain "freedom skills" in birds will speed up and ease any emergency retrieval. Teach your bird to fly to a station target that is obviously colorful in response to your "recall cue" in order to receive a preferred reward. Remember to educate the bird to reach out to you from perches that are higher and higher, door tops, stairwells, and, if possible, second-floor balconies.

To keep your bird from getting lost and to let people know when it is out of the cage, put a DO NOT ENTER sign on all of the doors. If you regularly inspect all flying feathers to make sure they don't need to be re-clipped, you'll (hopefully) never have to worry about losing your bird to a fly-away.