Dissapeared for three days. Had me worried sick. Was feasting on mangoes 🥭 the whole time.
Pebble has escaped twice now and both times I've come to reddit to frantically look up tips and hopeful stories and it's mostly disheartening so i thought I'd add my own success stories and how I got him back.
The first time he was barely a year old when he flew out an ajar window just before a thunderstorm. I was with him when he took off from my shoulder and saw him go straight over the valley below us into the ocean till he was a speck before he turned and tried to come back but kept getting blown away by winds. I spent all of next day asking people and cafes to share his poster and one was a really huge meme page that ran his story that eventually got a girl to text me saying he kept trying to climb on her at a restaurant. Pebble had landed on the rooftop restaurant of a 5 star resort just across the road from us a day after being swept into the next town. I ran over and turns out security had picked him up and kept him fed and hydrated. Turns out the head of security's dad bred parrots when he was a kid so he recognised the breed, and knew how to care for him. We were incredibly lucky. We got him the very next day.
The second time, which was last week, three years later, Pebble escaped his room and I found him missing when I went to pick him up for breakfast. The window was unlocked and he apparently shimmied it open just enough to fall out but probably couldn't have flown back in. This time he went missing for three whole days during a massive heatwave and I was sure i wouldn't see him again.
Still, I would do our recall whistle all day everyday, especially just before dawn and sometimes even in the dead of night so if he was hunkered down and heard it, he'd know which way to orient himself when he could fly. On the third day, I went up on the terrace just after sunset and barely whistled twice before I saw his red butt flashing above me. He circled a couple of times and finally landed on me.
He didn't look any skinner but pretty roughed up and had suspicious yellow stains all over him which I was super worried about. Took him to the vet the next day only for her to sniff him and tell me it's...... MANGO 🥭
My child found himself a comfy mango tree and had been GORGING himself the whole time. He'd actually gained weight from the ordeal. I'd been crying at my window for three days while he was probably in a food coma from the unlimited mangoes. He looked roughed up because he was smothered in mango juice.
So friendly reminder that grays are incredibly intelligent, resourceful, and tough birds. They don't fly very far from home and can navigate back at least roughly to your general location. The first time he escaped, i saw him go down into the next village (we're on a hill above it) and he still managed to fly back around 2km away to a building 150m away.
Predawn and dusk are the best windows to actually get them because the skies are the clearest of birds of prey and crows that would otherwise heckle your bird.
Also weird tip. Introduce your gray to local edible plants and fruits so they recognize it as a food source if they're ever out.