Vermont lineworkers rescue scared pet parrot stuck in tree

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (WCAX) - Green Mountain Power lineworkers made an unusual rescue in Southern Vermont. As our Cat Viglienzoni found out, they got there just in time to rescue an unlikely pet from a high-up perch.

Thea Everest of Massachusetts loves her macaw, Kaiba. So, she brought Kaiba with her to visit her dad in Brattleboro last Sunday to celebrate her birthday.

Kaiba is a rescue whose previous owners had shorn his wings. So despite being a bird, he actually doesn’t really know how to fly. Everest says she’s been trying to teach him over the last year and a half but it’s been a slow process.

“Normally, I’ll put him down right before we go inside so he can use the bathroom,” Everest explained. “And a bird flew by like right next to him and he got spooked.”

Which sent Kaiba some 60 feet up into a tree; he didn’t know how to get back down and she couldn’t reach him.

“Being in that tree, I think he was stuck and scared,” Everest said.

Macaws hail from the Amazon. With wind chills of 19 degrees that day, Kaiba was in danger of freezing and plummeting to his death.

Someone on a local bird social media group suggested contacting Green Mountain Power.

“I was like, ‘Hey, I know this is a weird call,’ and they’re like, ‘It’s OK, we like the weird ones,’” Everest recounted. “I was like, ‘Amazing, I’m excited.’ I was freaking out. I’d been nervous the whole day.”

“We never know what our calls are going to be when we get there,” said Chris Gouger, a GMP lineman.

Gouger and fellow lineworker Nick Bills didn’t know they’d be on bird patrol that day.

“I thought I’d misheard it at first,” Gouger said.

They say when they got there, they weren’t sure if their bucket truck would reach Kaiba.

“We just barely had enough reach the bird,” Gouger said.

“I was so relieved,” Everest said. “It kind of saved his life that day.”

The rescue was a first of its kind for Gouger and Bills.

“This was the first that was actually a bird up in a tree,” Bills said.

“Normally, if we’re removing animals from the tree or line, they’re usually not alive,” Gouger said.

Everest says she hopes to continue teaching Kaiba to fly so that if there is a next time, he can get down on his own.

GMP says it doesn’t usually get many animal rescue calls but when there are power lines nearby like there was in this case, they will take the lead.

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