That reminds me. Once I took my pure-white budgie, "Pearl" in a cage down to my parents' house which was a couple of miles away, to visit my sister's bird. This was out in the country, heavily wooded and pasture land.

Anyway, we closed the doors and windows and let the two birds hop around on the floor. Everything was fine until my live-at-home brother went through and left the outside door open.

My bird promptly raised up and flew out. I ran after her but she was gone. I saw her cross the country road and into the woods; she was gone.

Well. There were a lot of owls around and the temperature dropped into the 40s at night. I took my cage and went home.

About 9 o'clock the next morning my brother called. Your bird is back, he said, excitedly.

I grabbed the cage and drove down there. Pearl was in the orchard on the other side of the house, not the side she had escaped from.

She was maybe 20 feet high in the tree. I opened the cage and called her and held the cage up so she could see it. Limb by tree limb, she made her way home.