On Wednesday, May 7 1997, while I was on my way home from work, our beloved Hahns Macaw, JB escaped from my wife, Beth. She had taken him out to enjoy the sunshine when he got spooked and flew away. JB's wings were clipped, but recently he had new flight feathers growing in that were too new to be clipped. Beth hadn't noticed the new feathers. It happened around 6:30 PM and we searched frantically until it was too dark to see. Neither of us went to work the next day. We spent the day contacting vets, pet stores, newspapers, etc. and distributing posters all over town. Our search ended on May 18 around 11:00 PM. A friend called and said he had found JB in his backyard clinging to a cinder block dead. I inspected his little body and could find nothing visibly wrong. I suspect the elements, stress and lack of food is what killed him. He looked like he had just given up. We buried him in his Happy Hut which he loved to play peek-a-boo in, in our front yard. Beth and I are completely devastated by our loss of JB. He made our life so much richer. We will miss him terribly.

About JB

I first saw JB about 2 years ago in a pet store on the day after my birthday. He crawled up my arm and perched on my shoulder. We bonded immediately. It was like he was telling me that this is where I belong. I inquired about the price and was stunned at how much they wanted for him. I went home that night and thought about it all night I had always fancied having a parrot sitting on my shoulder. I guess it is that "pirate" thing that lives in kids and always seems follow us. The next day I brought JB to his new home. Beth was furious with me, but it only took JB a couple of hours to win her heart. Our lives were forever changed on that day.

Not having any idea what we were in for, everyday was a new learning experience for the three of us. We had no idea what the demands of owning a pet bird were. JB made sure that he let us know. I began reading and talking to other parrot owners, determined to give JB the best possible life with us. JB was the inspiration for setting up Those Majestic Macaws web site and the creation of the macaws mailing list. Because of the joy JB brought to us, we now have many other birds.

Hahns Macaws and JB included, redefine the meaning of cuteness. JB was always outgoing, playful and loving. Whenever Beth would play '70s disco music, he would dance around on his perch, bob his head and say "dance". He loved to play peek-a-boo and always greeted us with a "hello" or a "bye-bye" if we were leaving. We are now left with a void in our hearts that will never be replaced.

What To Do If Your Bird Escape

While all our efforts to find JB were in vain, I'm hoping some of the things we learned from this experience and suggestions we received, may spare someone else from this grief.

If your bird should escape, immediately put its cage outside in plain view with food in the bowls and leave it there until your bird is found. If possible, mobilize your neighbors to help look for it. At the very least, go door to door and notify everyone in the immediate area. If by chance you can locate your bird in a tree, most fire departments will be willing to help. Listen for your bird to call out to you. Since it is unlikely a bird who is scared will call out constantly, its important to retrace your steps many times. Using a bicycle can help you cover more ground. Call all the pet stores and vets and notify them. That is usually the first place someone will call if they find a bird. It's my understanding that birds will fly to the highest point and slowly move closer to ground as hunger and needs for companionship take hold. Many people have told me that their lost bird was recovered in 3 or 4 days.

Since you are reading this you have computer access. Email the editors of the newspapers in your area if possible. Take out ads in the lost and found sections. Make sure you offer a reward. You don't have to specify the amount. Have them set the ad in bold print. This usually costs a little more, but will make it stand out to casual browsers. In our case, the editor of one of the papers choose to do a full color feature article on JB on the front page. Most importantly, put posters on every phone poll at every intersection in town. You probably have a printer attached to your computer, so its time to put it to work. Hang them in grocery stores, libraries, pet stores, vets and every other public place that will allow you to hang them. Amazingly many places won't let us hang posters. The post office and convenience store were places that would not allow us to hang posters. If you have kids, have them pass out posters at school. Churches are another great place to get the word out. Call the ministers or priests and have them mention it during service. One thing that didn't occur to us, would have been to see if we could get the Boy Scouts involved. Two days after JB left, everyone I talked to had seen the poster. We distributed several hundred posters we printed.

We chose to engage the help of three psychics, Jane Hallander and Marie and Robert Gandrup. Gillian Willis had suggested this to me as an option to try. Jane uses the help of her telepathic African Grey "Jing" to communicate with crows to help locate lost pets. Marie and Robert are able to locate pet by using maps. JB was found not far from Marie's last reported location.

About Clipping Wings

Although JB's wings were clipped, this terrible thing still happened. JB had new flight feathers coming in and they were still blood feathers and could not be clipped yet. It is important that you always inspect your birds wing feathers before taking them outside. I've seen wings clipped in several different methods. Many people prefer the so called "convict" clip. Where 2 or 3 of the outside primary flight feathers are left and the rest are clipped. While this cut looks better, these feathers provide thrust in flight. Even though a bird will appear not to be able to fly with this cut, they can. Particularly when spooked. Consult with someone with experience on the best way to clip your feathered friend's wings. When properly clipped, a bird should be able to land gently on the ground and not be able to maintain level flight or gain altitude. There are many commerical tethers available on the market which will prevent tragedies like this from happening.

Things You Never Knew You Needed

One of the things that we found frustrating throughout our ordeal was our lack of preparation. Things we needed, we just didn't have around. The following is a list of items that might help:

Photos - Have scanned photos of all your pets on file. If a situation like this occurs, you can very easily drop their picture into and word processor to make posters. We printed our posters on an HP Color Deskjet. While the ink isn't permanent, they held up very well in the rain and wind. The black ink seems to be more permanent than the color. After a few rain storms, the color seemed to wash away, leaving a still very readable poster. JB's photo just became B/W.

Staple Guns & Tape - You will need a staple gun or two and lots and lots of staples. You can really plow through the staples using four per poster. We ended up purchasing two staple guns. Beth preferred he Black and Decker staple gun. They are much easier to operate than other guns. Scotch tape works OK on glass, but if need to hang a poster on a porous material like brick, strapping and duct tape work best.

Maps - I lived in St. Albans, WV all my life. In responding to sightings about JB I found myself in areas I never knew existed. A good city map is important. Depending on where you live, you may find the typical fold-out map just doesn't have the detail. We ended up having to purchase city maps in book form from a locate map company. In rural area like ours, you may also need state road maps with route numbers on them. Because of all location confusion we were having, I ended up buying Rand-McNally's Street Finder program. This allow me to locate places by name and route number. I also used it to map sightings and locations we got from Marie hoping a pattern would appear.

Phone Contact. - Since there is so much wonderful technology available these days that is fairly inexpensive it can be a big help. We used Select Phone to call people in areas where people thought they had seen JB. Select Phone allows you to print all the phone numbers in a given area, listed or non-listed. While we did a lot of door to door contact, being able to call 50 residence, for example, really helped get the word out.

Answering Machine - A good answering machine is another big help. We received many phone calls when we weren't at home. An answering machine that you can call into and retrieve messages is very helpful. I know Beth and I both probably checked messages every 10 minutes when we were away from home.

In The End

Even though we mounted a very active search for JB, I just wasn't to be. The whole experience has drained both Beth and I totally drained. It is so easy to loose hope at times like this. It was very hard for us to stay focused on searching for JB and caring for all our other birds. If the pain of having a lost bird isn't enough, we also received many cruel prank calls. We also received calls about other found birds and we've helped return them to their homes. I suppose some good came from all of this in the end. Perhaps if you should ever loose you bird, maybe something here may help bring your baby home.

Barry Thaxton

May 19, 1997