Wayward Walnut Creek Pet Bird Reunited With Owner

WALNUT CREEK (CBS SF) -- A wayward pet cockatiel, who eluded capture last week, was back home Sunday and reunited with its owner.

It was two weeks ago that a missing pet cockatiel named Juniper garnered the attention of both Bay Area social and tradition media after patients at the Muir Orthopedic Center in Walnut Creek noticed it sitting on the 3rd floor window sill.

Teresa Clemens recorded a video of the bird that was later posted on social media. The window doesn't open and Teresa says it was obvious the bird needed rescuing.

"We all were just…our hearts were melting for this little guy who was clearly someone's beloved pet," she said.

But Clemens says no one would help. She says the County fire department refused to come and building management would not call their window washing company to assist with a rescue.

When a gust of wind lifted the bird up onto the roof, Clemens says a building manager refused to send anyone up to look for it.

"He basically said, well, hopefully he'll be there in the morning," she said, "and we can see if we can get back up there then."

By Tuesday morning, the bird was gone. Clemens was angry and Juniper's owner, Diana Santana, was distraught.

"I mean, if it was a cat on that windowsill it would have been seen, like, terrible not to do something," Santana said. "But with a bird, I guess, like ... there's just not that sense of urgency."

Pet cockatiels can't survive in the wild for more than a few days and Santana thought her little friend was gone. But apparently Juniper was a lot tougher than that.

On Saturday, Santana got a call from Feathered Follies exotic bird store saying her cockatiel had been discovered in the parking lot of De La Salle High School in Concord.

Baseball player Brenden O'Reilly was the one who found it.

"My coach called me over and said there was something crazy on his car so we came over…and turns out it was a bird," O'Reilly said. " We really weren't sure what to do with it."

He turned it over to his neighbor Lynda Jenkins, who took it to the store for a health check and clean up. But it turns out the stores' owner, Lisa Myers, actually raised Juniper as a hatchling and confirmed his identity with his legband.

"He stepped right up for me started singing so I knew right away," Myers said. "I didn't even have to look at the band…that it was a baby I raised."

The store is connected to a search network called "911 Parrot Alert" that helps owners look for their wayward birds and because a whole lot of people DID take rescuing a pet with feathers seriously…Diana and Juniper are now back together.

"The more people that know about this, the better. It's a cooperative effort, it takes a village," said "911 Parrot Alert" member Carol Kessler. "Sometimes it takes months, sometimes a week, sometimes it takes a couple years…it happens!"

The rescue organization says it's important to begin searching immediately with as many people as possible…and don't give up hope. Continue to spread the word in case someone else found a lost bird but doesn't know who to return it to. For more information about the missing bird search group, click on www.911parrotalert.com.