Skip to main content
Hamburger Menu Close
Advertisement

Living

‘They fly while you walk’: How Singapore's pet birds are lost and found

Spotted a lovely bird in your area? Its owner may have spent months searching for it.

‘They fly while you walk’: How Singapore's pet birds are lost and found

Spotted a lovely bird in your area? Its owner may have spent months searching for it. (Photo: Jean Loh)

Every morning, Jean Loh prepares a salad for her six lovebirds – two parents and four babies. She serves it to them in their aviary, a converted bedroom within her 4-room flat, and clears what’s left of breakfast service after a couple of hours.

May 21, 2023 would’ve been just as uneventful, except two-month old Draki was nowhere to be found when Loh returned. Cause of disappearance: Jailbreak, as the members of Lost & Found Birds SG, a Facebook Group, call it.

TWO MONTHS ON THE TRAIL

“I realised that the baby birds had chewed a hole in the mosquito net (covering the window)... I was really shocked and sad, and quickly called my husband to tell him Draki had escaped,” Loh said.

Loh started keeping birds during the pandemic when she rescued Draki’s father, Clover, from a crow’s attack. Unlike Clover, Draki’s wings aren’t clipped and should have a better chance of survival. But flying wasn’t his strong suit.

“He flies every day in the house, but after one round from the bedroom to the living room, he will be catching his breath. Babies are like that. No stamina.”

The baby bird was expected to glide only as far as the gust of wind carried him. Yet, Loh would spend every waking day in the next two months searching for Draki, at times with his parents in tow.

“I told Sofie and Clover that Draki is missing, that they have to help find him by calling as loud as you can. Sofie was the best. She’s the mama bird so she called really loudly.”

Alas, it didn’t help that many residents in Loh’s neighbourhood kept lovebirds. All of them responded to Sofie’s calls, snuffling any chance of their hearing Draki. When Sofie got tired, Loh improvised by recording her calls and blasting it on loop.

“When night falls, you start to imagine the worst, like if they had been attacked by a crow, an eagle, or other predators like cats and dogs,” Loh recalled.

“My birds, even the babies, kept looking out of the window every day. For a few moments, they would chirp very loudly but I never knew what they were chirping at.”

Draki and his family. (Photo: Jean Loh)

Loh posted on social media platforms and even took time off work to put up posters around the neighbourhood, but it began to seem like a fool’s errand. These were desperate times, and desperate measures led Loh to the office of an animal communicator.

With details like Draki’s gender, age, and birthplace, the animal communicator claimed that she could “see through his eyes”. Crucially, Loh would be able to ask him questions. Divine intervention concluded with both good and bad news: Draki was supposedly in a turquoise-coloured estate, but he wasn’t ready to come home.

That didn’t stop Loh from doubling down on her efforts in the nearest turquoise-coloured estate. She stuck posters everywhere and knocked on doors in the following weeks, long enough for her search team to become recognisable among the park sweepers and coffee shop uncles there.

“They said: Haiya. You won’t find it lah. They have wings. They fly while you walk,” Loh recalled.

“Our energy levels were draining, so we started to distribute our flyers twice or thrice a week instead of replacing them so actively. We were very disappointed. If really can’t find, then no choice. Hopefully he finds a good family and lives a happy life.”

On what was supposed to be her last visit to the animal communicator, Loh was told that “Draki was ready to come home”. Optimism was beginning to look a lot like naivete at this point, but she heeded her advice to start putting up posters again.

Two days later, a WhatsApp notification appeared at the top of her phone screen. A lady had found a lovebird that bore a striking resemblance to Draki, only with a darker crest. Loh didn’t dismiss this immediately, considering that lovebirds' colours change as they grow. Besides, they haven’t seen Draki for two months now.

Draki in the home of a couple who found, fostered, and returned him. (Photo: Jean Loh)

The only way to know for sure was to bring “Draki” home to his family, and when she did so, all the birds swarmed him the moment they were let out of the room.

“His siblings immediately acknowledged him. They were so close and didn’t look like they were strangers, but I wanted mama bird to verify whether it’s Draki.

"Surprisingly, Sofie did not attack him. Mama birds are quite fierce and they will attack strangers, but she was very calm and she preened him. She doesn’t preen just any bird. It was touching to see mama bird and his siblings acknowledging Draki.”

Draki being “acknowledged” by his family. (Photo: Jean Loh)
Jean and Draki at the vet for a check-up after his prolonged disappearance. (Photo: Jean Loh)

“A PIECE OF MY HEART WENT MISSING”

Unlike Loh, other bird owners aren’t so lucky. For instance, Chen Xuanyu, another member of the Facebook group, hasn’t found her pet parrot, Diamond, even after upping the reward to S$3,000 from S$2,000 reward after a month.

“Diamond flew out of the kitchen window on Jul 22, 2023. He was likely spooked by the moving laundry with the strong winds that evening. It was within seconds that we heard him flap his wings (and rushed over), but we did not catch any sight of him,” said Chen.

Chen has had the 11-year-old Congo African Grey (CAG) since he was a baby, and likewise, he has seen his owner through her life’s milestones.

“Diamond accompanied me to my first date with my husband then, and became our ‘matchmaker’. He is in our wedding photos and has witnessed my little bump through my pregnancy.”

Like Loh, Chen had pulled out all the stops in search of Diamond. At one point, she rang up every bird store in Singapore to ask if anyone had recently sold a CAG.

“It seems more frequent for lovebirds and cockatiels to be found, compared to CAGs. I received encouragement from many members that there are cases where (birds and owners) are reunited after eight to nine months or longer.”

At the time of our conversation, Chen’s baby was almost due. Regrettably, Diamond, who is practically family, would not be around for this momentous occasion.

“I have to stop myself from thinking what may happen to Diamond. Any thought of him brings tears and worries. A piece of my heart went missing the moment he flew off.”

Beyond financial rewards, the lengths bird owners like Loh and Chen go to recover their beloved pets are extraordinary. Some hire bird patrollers, while others enlist cherry picker lifts to rescue birds stranded in tree canopies, all while enduring hours under the scorching sun. But how can members of the public help?

HOW YOU CAN HELP

It starts with distinguishing a wild bird from a domesticated one. While you can watch for human interventions, such as a ring on its foot or clipped wings, a bird's behaviour is telltale.

Domesticated birds tend to be friendlier with humans and are easier to secure when they’re lost. Lim Yangzhi, a relatively new member of Lost & Found Birds SG, had a firsthand experience of this one afternoon in January.

“I was in the kitchen and thought I saw a bird fly past me. I looked up and realised there was a little budgie (budgerigar) perched on my window. And I screamed,” says Lim. He did what any tech-savvy millennial would do: Identified its species using Google Lens.

(Photo: Lim Yangzhi)

“It was a nice surprise but we had absolutely no idea what to do, (though) my boys, who are four and two years old, were very excited.”

Even when Lim attempted to release the budgie, it refused to leave his shoulder. He thought, "There must be a Facebook group for this", and he was right. In that group, bird owners provided real-time guidance, even during the Lunar New Year, until the budgie was eventually reunited with its owner.

(Photo: Lim Yangzhi)

With that said, Frederick Lee, a fellow member of the community, cautioned against disclosing all the bird's details in your Facebook post, lest it falls into the hands of a fake owner or, worse, a reseller.

“I can only speak for myself – I think asking for evidence is very important, and be sceptical always. There will be people who have suffered loss, and might be projecting their loss onto this particular animal,” Lee warned.

As a general rule of thumb, share just enough information in your post to grab the attention of the rightful owner, but leave some room for ambiguity. This precaution enables them to provide additional details for the purpose of verification.

Now, what happens if their owner never reaches out? According to Loh, these communities may also connect inexperienced rescuers with fosterers, similar to how Draki was rehabilitated before being reunited with his family. Until that reunion occurs, an owner can do nothing but persist.

"Keep putting up posters even if there isn't any response. Put up your posters every week if you're able to, because you never know,” she said.

Source: CNA/mm
Advertisement

RECOMMENDED

Advertisement