Dublin Airport and Lidl team up to save African grey parrot
Dublin Airport and supermarket Lidl have made unlikely partners in the rescue of an adult African grey parrot which was found wandering around on the transport hubâs busiest runway.
The airportâs official Twitter account shared a picture of the female bird and an appeal to track down her owners on Tuesday after rescuing it on Sunday.
The tweet said: âOur firefighter Craig Wade found this African grey parrot during a routine runway inspection earlier this week.
âSheâs being given specialist care & is calm & doing well. Weâd like to reunite her with her owner. Please RT to help us find them & DM us if she is yours.â
Our firefighter Craig Wade found this African grey parrot during a routine runway inspection earlier this week. Sheâs being given specialist care & is calm & doing well. Weâd like to reunite her with her owner. Please RT to help us find them & DM us if she is yours. đŠ đŠ pic.twitter.com/aIIImvzL6p
â Dublin Airport (@DublinAirport) February 19, 2019
Paul OâKane, communications director at Dublin Airport, said firefighter Craig Wade found the bird on the runway while carrying out a routine inspection for âforeign object debrisâ.
âCraig was down at the eastern end of the main runway used by 90% of flights when he spotted something.â
He got out of his vehicle to find the foreign object was actually an adult parrot happily walking along the runway.
âWhile it was designed for take-offs and landings, itâs not particularly designed for African grey parrots,â he added.
As parrots are not native to Ireland, Mr Wade quickly realised it was a pet and he âneeded to persuade it to moveâ, Mr OâKane continued.
After a brief and unsuccessful pursuit, the bird flew on to the firefighterâs vehicle before hopping into a makeshift carrying box with air holes and water.
âOnce they had her there they wanted to get their vehicle off the runway as quickly as possible,â said Mr OâKane.
After contacting animal experts, Dublin Airport appealed to help find the birdâs owners on Twitter, and Lidl was quick to respond.
âGuys this is going to sound unbelievable but thereâs a âMissing Parrotâ poster in one of our stores, so we called the number to check and itâs his parrot! Weâll drop you a DM now,â said the supermarket.
Guys this is going to sound unbelievable but there's a "Missing Parrot" poster in one of our stores, so we called the number to check and it's his parrot! We'll drop you a DM now đŠ
â Lidl Ireland (@lidl_ireland) February 19, 2019
A Lidl Ireland spokesman said the poster had been on display in the chainâs Finglas store, some 2.5 miles (4km) away, for a few days before the parrot was found.
âWhen we saw the tweet from Dublin Airport yesterday, we couldnât believe our eyes,â he added.
Both Lidl and Dublin Airport are working to reunite the parrot with its owner, using the birdâs ID tag, although a number of people had come forward to claim her as their pet.
It is still not clear how the parrot made her way to the runway, especially as Dublin Airport has âa wide variety of bird-scaring techniquesâ, said Mr OâKane, including âkites designed to look like hawksâ and âshotgun-type noisesâ.
âClearly none of these seemed to have much impact in frightening this particular bird,â he said, which âseemed relatively content when Craig came across herâ.
Mr OâKane and the Lidl spokesman promised to update the public when the parrot had been safely reunited with her owner.