A British parrot named Nigel disappears for four years only to return speaking Spanish. Weird, huh!
When Nigel, the African grey parrot, flew away from his Californian home in 2010, he mimicked the crisp and impeccable British accent of his owner Darren Chick. But by the time he reunited with his owner after 4 years, the British accent was gone and Nigel now chatted in Spanish and sometimes asks for someone named “Larry”.
Nigel was discovered in Torrance by Julissa Sperling, who owns a dog-grooming business and took him in as he matched a missing pet advertisement she had seen. Julissa came across Nigel when he was whistling and chattering outside her front door, according to the Torrance newspaper, the Daily Breeze.
Sperling told the Daily Breeze: “He was the happiest bird. He was singing and talking without control. He was barking like the dogs. I’m from Panama and he was saying, “What happened?” in Spanish.”
Sperling knew the pet must have an owner, and set out to find them. She started her search online, and found another owner, Teresa Micco, who had been searching for a similar-looking parrot who disappeared for a quite a while. She soon realized that it was mistaken identity and Nigel wasn’t her bird.
Micco, then, decided to do what it takes to reunite Nigel with his original owner. Micco traced the owner through the original sales record to Mr Chick. She asked Mr Chick if he had lost a bird. “He initially said no. But he thought I meant recently.” Micco said.”He looked at me like I was crazy,” She added.
Despite Nigel initially biting him when they were reunited, Mr Chick said seeing his long-lost pet for the first time in four years brought a tear to his eye. He added: “He’s doing perfect. It’s really weird, I knew it was him from the minute I saw him.”
