British parrot disappears, returns four years later speaking Spanish

Nigel, a grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus) went missing in California, and came back four years later speaking Spanish. The bird happened to be microchipped, and when a woman found it and had it checked, it was finally returned to its British owner. The Independent tells the tale (click on screenshot):

Nigel, a grey African parrot, flew away from his home in California in 2010 but was returned to his British owner, Darren Chick, after he was discovered in Torrance, California.

Although the Spanish-speaking bird bit Mr Chick when he first saw him, the happy owner said: “He’s doing perfect.”

Mr Chick says his bird’s British accent is gone, replaced by fluent Spanish – and someone called “Larry”.

Even though he has no idea where the bird has been for the last four years, he claimed: “It’s really weird, I knew it was him from the minute I saw him.”

. . .Nigel was discovered by Julia Sperling, who owns a dog-grooming parlour, after she took him in as he matched a missing pet advertisement she had seen.

“He was the happiest bird. He was singing and talking without control. He was barking like the dogs,” she said.

“I’m from Panama and he was saying, ‘What happened?’ in Spanish.”

Below is a picture of Nigel from the Torrance [California] Daily Breeze, which actually found out where the bird had gone:

The multigenerational Hernandez-Smith family, who also lives in Torrance, was just happy that Morgan — their name for the bird that Smith’s grandparents bought for $400 in cash at a garage sale four years ago — had turned up safe after flying away from their house earlier this month.

Hernandez often let the bird fly free in their backyard, Smith said, but Morgan became spooked after coming face to face through a glass door with the neighbor’s cat. They thought he was gone for good.

When the family came forward in an email to a Daily Breeze reporter this week, it also cleared up one of the biggest mysteries — how the bird that once spoke with a cultured British accent was found suddenly speaking Spanish.

Hernandez was born in Guatemala and spoke mostly Spanish to the bird that had become his special friend, particularly in the two years since he lost his wife.

“My grandpa took especially good care of him and whistled classical tunes back and forth,” Smith wrote in her email to the Daily Breeze. Morgan, she said, also knows the first bars of the theme from “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and likes to imitate the early-morning beeping sounds of the trash truck as it makes its rounds.

“He often calls out several phrases in Spanish. He also calls out ‘Jerry,’ ‘Lorro’ and ‘Cosmo’ which are the names of (our dogs),” Smith wrote in the email. “He barks like the dogs.”

One of the other mysteries about the bird’s newly acquired vocabulary — his repeated mentioning of someone named “Larry” — was also solved.

Morgan often combined the dogs’ names together so that Lorro and Jerry became “Larry,” Smith said.

Jerry! If he can say “J” in English then he hasn’t completely lost his ability to speak English!

Nigel and Hernandez:

Grey parrots, well known for their mimetic abilities, are native to Central Africa: