Rogue cockatiel suspected of helping family's pet escape

A pair of cockatiels have taken flight after a daring escape from a cage. Captain, the recently bought pet of the Chandler family of Chelmsford, Essex, is believed to have been freed from his garden cage by a rogue cockatiel. The grey and yellow cockatiel, accused of unlatching the door to the wooden garden enclosure, had been spotted in the vicinity in the weeks running up to the escape. Bridget Chandler, 30, and two-year-old daughter were so upset following the great escape that they bought a budgie as a replacement.



Mother-of-three Mrs Chandler said: "I'm gutted. He is our Captain, but it is my daughter who was really upset. I had to get her the budgie because she was crying. I think the wild cockatiel might have freed Captain – it's a bit of a Romeo and Juliet escape plan." The Chandlers, who own a horse, chickens, ducks and a lizard, bought Captain for £40 about three months ago. Last month neighbours told them a wild cockatiel, whose owners are still unidentified, was flying around the outside of their property, and was seen perching on their roof.

On Tuesday of last week, Martin Stimson, who lives nearby, spotting the bird swooping over gardens in the neighbourhood. It was later that same day, as Mrs Chandler was tending to her chickens with her back to the cage, that the escape is believed to have taken place. "I came out to feed my chickens and the cockatiels were calling to each other. It has never gone out of its cage before. They must have worked together," she said.



"I could then hear them up in the trees but there was no chance I was going to go up and get them. If anyone sees it let us know." Anglia Ruskin University researcher Dr Rachel Grant, who specialises in the behaviour of parrot species, said the family's 'great escape' theory was "not impossible". "The cockatiel is not as intelligent as other parrots as it has been widely domesticated," she said. "But the wild cockatiel was probably fiddling with the cage through trial and error. They investigate with their beaks any sort of latch, nuts or bolds. It would be that rather than a calculated escape."