Cries of "daddy" lure police, lead to parrot

FAIRFIELD, Conn. - Police say a Connecticut woman became concerned when she heard a voice near a school repeatedly calling "Daddy."

According to the Fairfield Citizen, the cries seemed to be coming from the top of a hill, so the woman, fearing a child might be in distress, started searching the area.

When she heard the call of "Daddy" yet again, she thought it came from the top of one of the tall trees nearby, so she called police.

Then she spotted the "crier" - about 25 feet up, perched atop a tree.

It was a large, green Amazon parrot.

Animal control officers were dispatched to the scene, and assisted by firefighters, managed to get the bird to fly into a nearby stand of bamboo, where a net was thrown over it. From there, the parrot was transported to the town's animal shelter.

Fairfield police Lt. James Perez told the Citizen newspaper the bird was talking nonstop saying, "Daddy," ''hello," ''what!" and other words.

Turns out the parrot had flown the coop - it was about a mile from home, and its owner had reported it missing.

Soon, parrot and person were reunited.

"We put a lot of effort into encouraging people to report things that are out of the ordinary," Police Chief Gary MacNamara said. "It must have been very scary to hear the cries of `daddy' and lucky that it ended in a humorous way."