Bird lover nabs zoo escaper
Mother uses seeds to lure cockatoo into cage after he turns up in yard
ANorth Shore bird lover spent Anzac Day coaxing a black cockatoo into a cage using sunflower seeds after he escaped Auckland Zoo. The red-tailed black cockatoo was discovered yesterday morning in Jensie Chapman’s Birkdale back yard when she stepped outside after hearing squawking.
“We both spotted each other and he flew straight at me. I ran inside as he wasn’t what I was expecting.”
Mabo the cockatoo went missing from Auckland Zoo during a freeflying training session on Tuesday.
The zoo said he was spooked by a group of seagulls that mobbed him, driving him into some trees.
His keepers stayed with him until it was dark and he’d fallen asleep.
They were back before first light, but he’d gone.
Yesterday morning the SPCA, told of a sighting in Birkdale, rushed out to retrieve Mabo, but by the time staff arrived he had flown off.
When Chapman noticed Mabo in her back yard she did not know what to do with the odd-looking bird so she called her mother, who used to breed birds and had experience with cockatoos.
When mum Alex McMillan got the call from her daughter explaining the situation she had a hard time believing it, especially when Chapman told Alex McMillan, bird lover her mother the bird was a black cockatoo with a scarlet tail.
“I said, ‘Are you serious?’,” McMillan said. “I told her to keep it entertained and headed over with a bird cage and some sunflower seeds.”
After arriving at her daughter’s place McMillan managed to get Mabo into a cage by coaxing him down from an overhead cable with some seeds.
Thinking the bird had come from the Waitakere area, they contacted NZ Bird Rescue in Green Bay, which then got in touch with the zoo.
The mother and daughter said that of all the places Mabo could have landed, they couldn’t believe he’d chosen their back yard.
“I used to have a sulphur-crested cockatoo, I’ve got canaries at the moment,” McMillan said. “I couldn’t believe it, he was a little bit scared.”
Auckland Zoo posted its thanks online last night.
A spokeswoman said “a very vocal and friendly Mabo turned up in Jensie’s garden this morning and made himself at home”.
“Mabo’s back home with Daku [his zoo mate], who was delighted to see him. He’s been tucking into some of his favourite treats (sunflower seeds and nuts) and has now settled in for a quiet night.”