Chance, community spirit, and the power of social media reunite lost cockatiel with Vernon family

VERNON – It would have been a different story if Allison Griffiths hadn’t taken the afternoon off.

But she did, and when she got home, it was as if a lost little bird was just waiting for her. She noticed the exotic, grey and yellow cockatiel on a neighbour’s roof and thought, “That’s not a normal, nature-type bird.”

The bird flew over and landed on her railing. She put her hand out and almost immediately, the bird crawled up her arm and assumed a spot on her shoulder.

“I just got into doing meditation and enjoying the moment. I giggled to myself; I start meditating and suddenly it’s like Snow White with all the animals flocking to me,” Griffiths says.

With the cockatiel contentedly perched on her shoulder and no apparent intention of moving, she snapped a few selfies with her new friend and posted them to every community Facebook group she could think of.

Worried the bird might eventually fly off, Griffiths went inside, “right past the cats” and hung out in a room for a while, continuously monitoring Facebook for any sign of the cockatiel’s owner.

“The flood of support people came back to me with was amazing,” she says.

Many were quick to offer housing and food for the bird, and assistance in reuniting it with its family. There were some disappointing moments as people with missing birds came to look at it, only to find it was not theirs.

But this story has a happy ending. That night, Griffiths got a message from someone who thought they knew the owner. She called the possible owner who took one look at the pictures and knew it was hers.

“She was floored and absolutely loving it,” Griffiths says.

The bird had flown from East Hill to the Middleton Mountain area, and Griffiths wonders how much farther he might have travelled if she hadn’t serendipitously crossed paths with it. But luck and people’s willingness to help brought this curious cockatiel home. And there’s one more happy twist to the story.

“Not only were her kids in tears all day, but the bird was actually the partner of another bird and they had eggs they were laying on, waiting for them to hatch. So when I reunited the bird with its human family, I also reunited it with its bird family,” Griffiths says. “Every person I tell the story to gets this big smile on their face.”

To contact the reporter for this story, email Charlotte Helston at chelston@infonews.ca or call 250-309-5230. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.