NewsBite

Teresa Micco finds Darren Chick’s English speaking parrot four years later in Torrance talking Spanish

QUE cosa! A parrot that spoke with an English accent is returned to its owner four years later talking Spanish.

A PET parrot that spoke with a British accent when it disappeared from its home four years ago has been reunited with its owner — and the bird now speaks Spanish.

The reunion was brought about by a southern California veterinarian who mistook Nigel, an African grey parrot, for her own missing bird, the Daily Breeze reported.

Teresa Micco, of Torrance, tracked Nigel’s microchip to Darren Chick, a briton who lives in the of city.

“I introduced myself and said, ‘Have you lost a bird?”’ Micco told the newspaper.

“He initially said, ‘No.’ But he thought I meant recently.”

When she verified Chick’s name and said she had his African grey parrot, “He looked at me like I was crazy.”

He said his bird went missing four years earlier.

Still missing her own parrot ... Veterinarian Dr Teresa Micco found a Spanish-speaking African grey parrot that was lost four years ago when it spoke English. Picture: Point Vicente Animal Hospital
Still missing her own parrot ... Veterinarian Dr Teresa Micco found a Spanish-speaking African grey parrot that was lost four years ago when it spoke English. Picture: Point Vicente Animal Hospital

Little is known about Nigel’s whereabouts the past four years, but Chick says the bird’s British accent is gone, and it now chatters in Spanish.

Chick says last week’s reunion brought tears of joy to his eyes — despite the fact that Nigel bit him when he first tried to pick him up.

Micco said the behaviour was not unusual and that Nigel would settle back in soon enough.

“He’s doing perfect,” Chick told the newspaper by the week’s end.

“It’s really weird. I knew it was him from the minute I saw him.”

It’s the fifth parrot reunion facilitated by Micco, who has been running ads for her own missing bird for nine months. That parrot, Benjamin, flew the coop in February when it darted out a door that was left open.

Julissa Sperling found Nigel outside her home and brought him to Micco after seeing one of her ads.

But first, she took Nigel to her dog-grooming business.

“He was the happiest bird. He was singing and talking without control,” Sperling said.

“He was barking like the dogs. I’m from Panama and he was saying, ‘What happened?’ in Spanish.”

Originally published as Teresa Micco finds Darren Chick’s English speaking parrot four years later in Torrance talking Spanish

Add your comment to this story

To join the conversation, please Don't have an account? Register

Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout

Original URL: https://www.thechronicle.com.au/lifestyle/home/pets/teresa-micco-finds-darren-chicks-english-speaking-parrot-four-years-later-in-torrance-talking-spanish/news-story/aded928fc7244c7fd7f3e0db48a85de7