Pet parrot Mr Mac goes missing for months, found on family farm 20km out of Parkes

The family turned to Facebook to report him missing. After four months they thought they would never see him again.

Then a day in April their son Sean received a phone call from Melinda Border who believed she may have found their pet. She lived on a property 20km north-west of Parkes.

Her nine-year-old son Samuel had befriended the parrot known as Mr Mac.

"We were surprised he was still alive... He survived on his own," Janice said.

"We found it hard to believe he had flown that far for a bird that hasn't had strenuous exercise!" James added.

"We were concerned he was killed or stolen... he got spooked maybe," Janice said.

The door on his cage sitting on the front porch wasn't shut properly.

Sean had originally found Mr Mac too several years ago when he was working out at GrainCorp. Worried the cats would get him, he scooped him up, sat him on his steering wheel and drove him home.

He's a parrot who can talk, his favourite line was "what are you doing?"

"He picked up a lot of stuff while he was here," Janice said.

"He imitated the phone ringing - thinking the phone was ringing, we'd go running to the phone and it was him!" She laughed.

"He can count too."

The Border family farm has towering gums - similar to what the Cassidy's have at their home in town.

Samuel's daily job is to feed the chooks and Melinda remembers him telling her one day that there was "this really special bird bopping its head and doing a little dance" out near the chook pen, but she didn't think any more of it.

That went on for a little while.

"Then Samuel's uncle was out near the chook pen and heard the parrot say 'what are you doing?'" Melinda said.

"I thought it must be someone's pet and 'how am I going to find them?' I didn't know exactly what kind of parrot it was.

"I searched Facebook and theirs was the first Facebook post that popped up, we were very lucky to get them straight away."

"What [Mr Mac] said confirmed it for us that it was him," Janice added.

The Cassidys happened to be on holiday at the time but once the Border family discovered Mr Mac was a pet, Samuel started to feed him sunflower seeds and form a bond with him.

"He obviously enjoyed the social side, when Samuel went out to feed the chooks he'd be there," Janice said.

"He's such a social bird, he's a charmer.

"We didn't know what to do. We wanted the best thing for the bird."

Janice and James were concerned with winter right around the corner at the time but once they saw the connection Samuel and Mr Mac had, they felt comfortable leaving him with the Border family.

"Samuel is very gentle and very kind with him - his whole attitude with him, we were very impressed," Janice said.

When the Cassidys were reunited with Mr Mac in May, at first it didn't look like it was going to happen.

Samuel circled the chook pen for about 20 minutes, then went looking for him. Eventually Mr Mac showed, flying down to greet his former owners.

"We Facetimed Sean because he was in the Philippines and he went off the deep end as soon as he heard Sean's voice, his head was bopping up and down, it was incredible," Janice said.

"It was a very special reunion to watch, you could see he instantly knew who [they] were," Melinda said.

"He was very excited to see them and was responding.

"Samuel hadn't handled him up until that point, he had stroked him when he was on the chook fence."

Mr Mac is doing just fine at his new home - Samuel has been bringing him inside during the winter nights and letting him roam free during the day.

Janice and James have also been visiting him from time to time.

"It used to be a chore going to feed the chooks, now Samuel is very happy to do it," Melinda smiled.

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