California parrot that vanished for four years returns speaking Spanish: Paper

Los Angeles: The owner of a parrot that spoke English with a British accent says the bird went missing for four years, only to return speaking Spanish and asking for someone named Larry, a Southern California newspaper reported on Monday.

Darren Chick told the Daily Breeze newspaper that he doesn`t know where African grey parrot Nigel has been for four years but that aside from the language switch, the bird is doing fine back at home.

"He`s doing perfect," Chick told the paper. "It`s really weird, I knew it was him from the minute I saw him."

Nigel was discovered in the back yard of a Torrance couple who run a dog grooming business and originally was thought to belong to Teresa Micco, who had placed an ad for her own missing parrot, the Breeze reported

When Micco, a veterinarian`s technician, realized that Nigel wasn`t her bird, she was able to trace him via the original sales records to Chick, who was stunned to recover his lost bird after four years, the paper said.