This summer, a strange spate of posts popped up in neighborhood Facebook groups:
“Found a parrot in south philly,” one post said, “… anyone missing it? Singing its little heart out.”
“Lost bird!” said another.
Then another: “Please get this parakeet back home!”
In the last few months, the number of these posts — alerting people to loose or lost exotic birds, like parrots, parakeets, or budgerigars, throughout Philadelphia — has seemingly, anecdotally, increased. One person on Reddit noticed this trend and wrote, “WTH is with all these lost birds around Philly? Did a pet store close and just let a bunch of birds loose?”
No official entity could confirm or quantify this phenomenon: The Pennsylvania Game Commission deferred questions to local animal welfare groups. The Animal Care and Control Team of Philly, which gets less than a dozen calls a year about pet birds, a spokesperson said, hasn’t noticed an uptick in those calls.
Nor had any other avian-related groups, like the Audubon Society, Bird Safe Philly, or the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, which all noted they primarily or exclusively deal with wild birds. No one had asked the Philadelphia Zoo to take in any surrendered or lost exotic birds, a spokesperson said. And multiple pet store chains did not respond to questions about whether they lost a flock of birds.
Susan Tyson, an avian veterinarian and owner of Avian & Exotic Philly Vet in Old City, said her clinic has treated four loose budgerigars, or “budgies,” so far this year, including at least two since July.
“We’ve always had people finding loose animals,” Tyson said, “but I’d probably say in the last maybe four years it’s increased.”
Is there a bird liberation movement?
This isn’t a captive bird mutiny. Tyson believes most of these birds inadvertently escaped from homes or pet stores. Navin Sasikumar, president of the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club (DVOC), suggested some might have been intentionally abandoned by their owners.
“Probably other people who have pet birds saw [the posts] and thought, ‘Hey, these birds are being rescued — I have birds that I don’t want anymore, maybe they’ll be rescued too,’” Sasikumar said.
“Or it could just be extra attention,” he said. “There might have been other escaped birds around, but no one was really paying attention until one [post] caught on.”
Tyson agreed that social media might be feeding this perceived proliferation. “It’s like monitoring for breast cancer,” she said. “We’re doing it more, so we’re seeing it more.”
In late September, one of these wayward fledglings found itself in George Armistead’s Upper Roxborough backyard. He was sitting on his porch about 5 p.m. on Sept. 22 when “this thing” — a baby-blue budgie — “dropped out of the sky.”
“I was just totally flabbergasted,” Armistead, 52, said. A lifelong birder and former president of the DVOC, Armistead said he’s seen only a couple non-native budgies and maybe a handful of other exotic birds loose on the streets of Philadelphia.
This budgie’s plumage seemed fresh and uniform, and it was banded with a small ring typically used for research, tracking, or breeding, which lead Armistead to think it wasn’t a house pet. Instead, he thought maybe “a crateful of these things got loose.” (Tyson said there have been cases of birds getting loose while being delivered or transported.)
Armistead doesn’t support the caged bird trade — he called it “unnatural,” akin to keeping killer whales in aquariums — but he captured the creature, fearing for its own safety in the elements.
Think freeing pet birds is kind? Experts say it isn’t
The greatest risk these loose birds pose is to themselves, experts said: Tropical species will likely be picked off by raptors or killed by the Pennsylvania winter. And while releasing a caged bird might sound idyllic, “the reality is much more ugly,” said Victoria Sindlinger, a senior at the University of Pennsylvania and founder of its Quackers Bird Club.
“It’s just really not going to be suited for life outside or life in this climate, and it is going to die,” Sindlinger said, “and unfortunately, it’s probably going to not be the quickest death.”
Ultimately, rescuing and caring for these animals is up to “individual people’s goodwill,” Sasikumar said. Tyson advocates for all pet birds to be microchipped, like cats or dogs. Her military macaw, Suzy, is microchipped, she said. Sindlinger added that bird ownership should not be taken lightly.
Meanwhile, Armistead’s budgie — which he’s been calling “Pudgie” — has taken up a residence in his spare bedroom, away from the family’s very curious cat. He’s looking to find Pudgie a permanent, loving home.
For now, he said, “my wife has gotten rather attached to it.”
