Our daughter recently moved into a house with her friend, Erin. They met nine years ago, when both were interning at Dolphins Plus in Key Largo, a dolphin research facility that is leagues above anything at Epcot or Sea World. The house, built in the 1920s, sits on an acre of land that backs up to a lake.
Megan’s dog, Nika, who has been living in an apartment building for the last three years, is beside herself with joy. She has a yard! Squirrels in the trees! She can run outside whenever she wants! Doggie paradise, in other words. Erin also has a dog, Bailey, but he only visits because he lives nearby with her parents. She also has a cockatoo, Bird, whom she moved into the house about a week after Erin and Megan made the move.
Bird has a lot of freedom. His wings aren’t clipped and he pretty much has the run of the house, flying around the rooms, touching down on any shoulder that suits him, and chasing Nika. But on his second or third day in the house, Bird flew through the open door to the backyard and vanished. Erin and Megan called for him, heard his answering cries, then those dwindled away to nothing. They moved his cage out into the yard, with food inside, and kept searching for him.
Erin was devastated.
After three or four days, she accepted that Bird wasn’t coming back. Then a weird thing happened. Erin had posted something about Bird’s escape on Facebook. A neighbor of her mother’s friend saw the post and wrote that the other night, she’d heard a bird on her roof and had crawled out a second story window and rescued it. A cockatoo. Could this possibly be Erin’s Bird?
It seemed unlikely. The woman lived nearly an hour’s drive from where Erin and Megan lived. But it was within the vicinity of where Erin’s parents lived, and where Bird had lived most of his life. Was it possible that Bird was trying to get back to its home with Erin’s parents?
Erin knows about synchronicity and decided to check out the cockatoo. When she walked into the woman’s house and saw the bird, she knew it was her Bird. She said, “Bird? Is it really you?” And Bird responded to his name. He is now back at the house where Megan and Erin live and is doing his usual Bird stuff – flying around the house, terrorizing Nika, and cuddling up to Erin.
So, let’s talk about odds on this one. Bird flies away on what turns out to be a very cold night in Orlando, and ends up nearly an hour away from where Megan and Erin are living, but not too far from his former home. He’s white, doesn’t blend with the environment, but manages to survive for several days and nights of very cold temps for Florida. It’s the kind of thing in our area that escaped green parrots do well. They bond quickly with a flock, learn the ropes of life in the wild, and find plenty of food top sustain them. But cockatoos, because of their color, stand out. In all my years in this state, I’ve never seen a wild cockatoo.
Bird finds refuge on the roof of a home whose owner is friends with a friend of Erin’s mother. Two degrees of separation? The woman sees Erin’s post on Facebook about Bird. The rest is synchro history.
Skeptics can cite all kinds of statistics about how such an improbable thing might happen because so many of the planet’s 7 billions plus inhabitants are now connected through the Internet. But that doesn’t explain how Bird just happened to end up on the rooftop of a house owned by a woman who was a friend of a friend of Erin’s mother. It doesn’t explain anything unless Bird and his ilk have access to the Internet and Facebook.
That’s a feel good story and quite remarkable – glad that all ended well. It also demonstrates the power of social media – for synchros ,and lots more besides.
God thing I checked spam. Not sure why this comment of yours ended up there, Mike. Sorry!
I love this story. And who knows what the birds know. I read that crows can recognize faces so why not other birds as well? That bird knew where to go for help. Amazing.
Perhaps animals have a whole radar not just for places but people we don’t have……like the dogs that manage to make their way home over hundreds of miles?
My cats always amaze me……….some people they just love, and others they won’t have anything to do with. I always wonder what it is they’re picking up.
Me, too, Lauren!
I’m sure glad that Bird knew the right house to go to. This good news story just makes my morning. I do wonder if he was trying to find his way back to his previous home, since animals seem to have a built in radar for their old homes.
I think he probably was trying to get back to his former home.
That said, I’m glad you found Bird again. I have an African Grey. Originally meant for hubby, but became ‘mine’ somehow. They creep into your heart those guys. The one we have now, Frankie, after Frank Sinatra since his eyes stayed blue an inordinate long time, is the best conversationalist, like he’s really interacting.
African Greys are amazing! MAybe the birds DID post it on facebook!
It was the birds that posted it, the birds I tell you 🙂
Great story Trish and guess what animal is on my calender staring me right in the face ?
I’ll send you a photo in an e-mail Trish.
Cockatoos are mainly native to Australia and while I have a lot of pink Galahs around where I live,I’ve never seen a lot of the white cockatoos,that was until around the first of the month when I saw the picture on my calender
(which has been unbelievably synchy all year for me) .
When I was driving home from work,a day or two after seeing the cockatoo on my calender for the month of December,about four wild cockatoos flew across my path and I remember thinking,well I suppose that’s my synchs for the month,but now I read this story and had to have a little chuckle to myself.
Seems like cockatoo is trying to tell me something,I think.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockatoo
Cockatoo Totem Information
The strongly social nature of Cockatoo emphasizes a sense of a community, and the skills needed to maintain these relationships like communication and compromise. Cockatoo’s showy crest and its use in communication exudes self-confidence and esteem. The more reserved colouration of Cockatoo can teach us when to best show our colours, and when to approach situations with more tact.
White Cockatoo is thought to help bring the light back into the life of someone who is experiencing personal darkness. The rose and grey colored Galah Cockatoo teaches us to be spontaneity and fearless in our endeavors.
https://curiousmenagerie.com/totem-species/cockatoo/
I’ll click that link!
Cockatoo Totem Information
The strongly social nature of Cockatoo emphasizes a sense of a community, and the skills needed to maintain these relationships like communication and compromise. Cockatoo’s showy crest and its use in communication exudes self-confidence and esteem. The more reserved colouration of Cockatoo can teach us when to best show our colours, and when to approach situations with more tact.
White Cockatoo is thought to help bring the light back into the life of someone who is experiencing personal darkness. The rose and grey colored Galah Cockatoo teaches us to be spontaneity and fearless in our endeavors.
https://curiousmenagerie.com/totem-species/cockatoo/
Two of your comments and one of Mike’s ended up in spam. Just found them. Sorry about that, Daz!