{"id":733939,"date":"2026-01-31T22:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T22:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/733939\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T22:30:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T22:30:15","slug":"a-missing-cockatiel-and-the-incredible-stockport-community-who-got-him-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/733939\/","title":{"rendered":"A missing cockatiel and the incredible Stockport community who got him home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Butters the lutino cockatiel went missing after his owner’s young daughter accidentally left the front door open<\/p>\n

16:15, 31 Jan 2026Updated 16:16, 31 Jan 2026<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

(Image: Supplied)<\/p>\n

A missing cockatiel has been returned home after an incredible effort of a Stockport<\/a> community. Butters, a lutino cockatiel, flew out of his home on Wednesday (January 28) after his owner’s young daughter accidentally left the front door open.<\/p>\n

Over the next 24 hours there were countless Facebook posts, search groups and one failed rescue before he was finally caught. The 13-month-old bird, who is ‘obsessed’ with his owner Laura Woods was able to return home after neighbours whistled his favourite tune – September by Earth, Wind and Fire.<\/p>\n

Laura, who lives on Offerton Estate, said: “It’s just crazy. Everyone is absolutely gobsmacked we got him home. It was just lovely to see so many people trying so hard to help something so little.”<\/p>\n

Try MEN Premium NOW for just \u00a31<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

She said she returned home from the school run on Friday at around 4pm. She was getting the shopping out of her car and said to her little girl to wait before going into the house as she knew her son, who was at home, had the bird outside of his cage.<\/p>\n

“She didn’t listen to me. The bird came flying out. He just flew out and I froze, I couldn’t believe he got out,” she recalled. “My little girl was crying and saying ‘I’m so sorry’ – I was hysterical.<\/p>\n

“When domestic birds go into open space it disorientates them. He’s used to having walls in the house, so he was going higher and higher. I was shouting his name and then I lost sight of him and he couldn’t see us.”<\/p>\n

Laura said she was ‘hysterical’. “I adore him,” she added. Friends then came round to help find Butters as she posted pictures of him in multiple community groups on Facebook. She went out with her friends shouting for him, to no avail.<\/p>\n

She researched different tips for catching domesticated birds including putting his cage into the garden in the hope that if he saw it he would fly into it. They continued until late that night.<\/p>\n

\"Butters<\/p>\n

Butters the lutino cockatiel(Image: Laura Woods)<\/p>\n

“I didn’t sleep at all. I kept going out to the window and whistling for him but I couldn’t see anything. The following day I went out really early. I got a few people together and we were all shouting for him,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Then a lady messaging my friend after my friend had posted on Facebook. She sent a picture of a little bird of top of the roof of a house and asked if it was the same bird. She had found him – I said ‘Oh my god, that’s him!'”<\/p>\n

Butters had been spotted on Kinross Avenue in Woodsmoor, around two miles away. Laura immediately made her way over. Those who spotted Butters asked what they could do to keep him in position.<\/p>\n

“I said his favourite song to whistle was September by Earth, Wind and Fire. She whistled a bit of the tune and he whistled it back. He recognised it. I told them to keep doing it until I got there and he won’t move.”<\/p>\n

She said as soon as she arrived, Butters saw her and ‘went ballistic’. “He’s very attached to me and doesn’t leave my side at home,” she said.<\/p>\n

As Butters was quite high up in a tree, neighbours allowed her into their gardens, through their garages and even moved fence panels to allow her closer access to the tree.<\/p>\n

She managed to climb up the tree and coax him down by mimicking the phrases he likes, but as he made his way to her, she slipped and frightened him, causing him to fly away again.<\/p>\n

“I couldn’t believe it, I had him! After that I thought ‘he’s never coming back’. Everyone was apologising. We went back and that’s when my partner said he was going to have one last look around the area close to that street.<\/p>\n

“He pulled up next to that road, he had his car window open and was shouting his name. The next minute he came flying over and did a circle, screaming. He ended up in a tree that was a lot smaller than the other one.”<\/p>\n

\"Butters<\/p>\n

Butters was spotted on a house roof in Woodsmoor, in Stockport(Image: Supplied)<\/p>\n

Laura raced round and with the help of a neighbour’s ladder, she was able to get up into the tree. “He spots me and was screaming for me. He made his way down the branches, his wings were getting caught and then he got to me and clung to me,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Everyone on the road had come out, they all froze in anticipation. I edged myself down, got into the car and my partner slammed the door shut. He just clung to me. Everyone started cheering then.”<\/p>\n

Laura said that because she made such a ‘fuss’ about him, everybody was aware and was willing to help. “A lot of people were saying ‘it’s just a bird, it doesn’t matter’, but he’s more than that,” Laura said.<\/p>\n

“For me, the lovely bit of all this is that so many people were coming out, rustling crisp packets, bringing us brews, moving fence panels. I was a stranger, they didn’t know me. But I think they could see I was heartbroken.<\/p>\n

“There is so much negativity at the minute, so for just a moment to see a community just pull together for a bird, was lovely. It gave me the chance to get him home.”<\/p>\n

Speaking of Butters now, she said: “He’s fine, it’s like nothing happened. He had a few feathers missing but he’s been fine.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Butters the lutino cockatiel went missing after his owner’s young daughter accidentally left the front door open 16:15,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":733940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,2465,217762,1288,16,15,217761],"class_list":["post-733939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manchester","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-manchester","tag-offerton","tag-stockport","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-woodsmoor"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115992083320502323","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/733940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}