A pet parrot that spoke with an Afrikaans accent when it disappeared from its home four years ago has been reunited with its owner – and the bird now speaks isiZulu. The reunion was brought about by a Durban veterinarian who mistook Liefie, an African gray parrot, for her own missing bird.

Teresa Micco tracked Liefie’s microchip to Christof Van Wyk , an Afrikans man lives in Cape Town.

“I introduced myself and said, ‘Have you lost a bird?'” Micco told iMzansi. “He initially said, ‘No.’ But he thought I meant recently.”

When she verified Liefie’s name and said she had his African grey parrot, “He looked at me like I was crazy.”

He said his bird went missing four years earlier.

Little is known about Liefie’s whereabouts the past four years, but Van Wyk says the bird’s Afrikaans accent is gone, and it now chatters in Spanish.

Christof says last week’s reunion brought tears of joy to his eyes – despite the fact that Nigel bit him when he first tried to pick him up.

Micco said the behavior was not unusual and that Liefie would settle back in soon enough.

“He’s doing perfect,” Christof told the iMzansi. “It’s really weird. I knew it was him from the minute I saw him.”

It’s the fifth parrot reunion facilitated by Micco, who has been running ads for her own missing bird for nine months. That parrot, Benjamin, flew the coop in February when it darted out a door that was left open.

Julia Sparrow found Liefie outside her home and brought him to Micco after seeing one of her ads.

But first, she took Liefie to her dog-grooming business.

“He was the happiest bird. He was singing and talking without control,” Julia said. “He was barking like the dogs. I’m from Durban and he was saying, ‘What happened?’ in Zulu.”

Source : iMzansi

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