As soon as Aileen Harley saw the lost bird ad online, she knew she had to do what she could to help.
“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this budgie!'” Harley said. “My heart went out to the bird.”
She immediately messaged the woman who’d placed the ad and arranged to visit her house.
Janet Kaytor first noticed the bird in her front yard on Friday, May 24.
“It looks like a home budgie,” Kaytor said. “Maybe he got out of somebody’s house.”
The bird has been spending most of its time in an evergreen tree in front of Kaytor’s house in the Penbrooke Meadows neighbourhood in southeast Calgary.
“I happened to have some wild bird food, so we brought some out and the bird came down,” Kaytor said. “I could get within (reaching distance) and he was fine with that but if I try to get a bit closer he flies away.”
Hoping to reunite the bird with its owner, Kaytor was grateful for Harley’s offer to lend a hand in trying to capture it.
“My mom had budgies growing up,” Harley said. “So I knew the cold nights would be detrimental to it. I have a big heart and wanted to try to come and help as much as I could.”
Harley brought along various items to try to lure the bird closer.
“My (squeaky) cat toys,” Harley said. “Hoping maybe they would entice him to come closer.”
She also brought her mother along on one visit, trying to team up to catch the budgie.
“When he was in the garden I had my mom on one side and I went around the other side,” Harley said. “I was hoping to get close enough where I could just drop the towel on him and scoop him up but he’s quick.”
Kaytor’s husband also tried to trap the budgie, starting by laying a large gift bag in the garden.
“He put a bunch of bird seed in the bag and then kind of a trail leading up to it,” Kaytor said. “The bird followed the trail close to the bag. My husband, as soon as he tried to grab it, the bird was gone.”
Harley is planning another capture attempt.
“When I can find a net that’s big enough I will come back,” Harley said. “And see if we can’t coax him.”
The longer the bird stays in Kaytor’s yard, the more concerned she becomes.
“I worry about him,” Kaytor said. “He’s outside and there are predator birds. I don’t want to see him die in the cold.”
Both women are optimistic that their efforts will eventually pay off.
“I’m sure we could find him a home if we could catch him,” Kaytor said.
“I definitely think there’s somebody in Calgary that would love to have him and take really good care of him,” Harley said. “He’s beautiful.”