Look! Up in the sky

It’s a bird with flying colors

Residents of Oak Harbor may have seen a bit of the Amazon flying by Wednesday.

The sight came in the form of Isabelle, a blue-and-gold macaw owned by Richard Davis, an Oak Harbor city councilman.

Isabelle, a three-year-old Macaw, flew the coop last Sunday from Davis’ home near the high school and spent the next four days flying over the city.

Davis said that Isabelle is still a juvenile and only knew how to fly up, therefore she had trouble with her landings.

Sunday night the talkative fowl spent the night stuck in a tree on Heller Road. Throughout the week, she could be seen at Burley Funeral Chapel and flying over Whidbey Island Ford.

“I saw it flying overhead and thought to myself ‘what kind of bird is that?’” said Kevin Helwick, general manager of Whidbey Island Ford.

He saw Isabelle heading west over Safeway and into the neighborhood behind the supermarket.

Davis said he met a lot of people trying to track down his missing macaw.

“It’s been a lot of fun in one sense,” Davis said. In addition to Isabelle, he owns three other birds: an Amazon parrot and two love birds.

Isabelle eventually veered over to Wal-Mart where the bird came to rest on a fence near the loading dock behind the building.

Kristal Olson, Wal-Mart stocker, approached Isabelle and let the bird walk up onto her shoulder, where she stayed until Davis came to pick her up.

“When I first got here, she could hardly lift her head she was so exhausted,” Davis said. But she perked right up after getting some water and some rest.

Reunited with Isabelle, Davis said his next step would be nursing her back to health. He also plans to get her wings clipped.

You can reach News-Times reporter Nathan Whalen at nwhalen@whidbeynewstimes.com or 675-6611.