Escaped Stanton Heights macaw back home safe after crashing into house

A young macaw named Filo that flew the coop at its Stanton Heights home nearly a month ago was safely captured Monday in the Pittsburgh neighborhood after it dive-bombed a man and crashed into a house.

The chance rescue took place one day after the capture of Kody, the National Aviary eagle that was on the loose for a week, in Pine.

Stanton Heights resident Ed Waraks said he was out walking his dog shortly before noon Monday when he heard the bird’s piercing caw. He then spotted its brightly colored feathers as it bobbed on a branch of a nearby tree.

“We saw and heard the bird every day when it first took off, but it hasn’t been around in the past week or so,” he said. “I thought it was gone, but there it was up in the tree staring right down at me.”

Waraks said the bird then spread its wings and soared downwards toward him before banking right.

“I froze for a second and then ducked because it was coming right at me,” he said. “It just cleared the fence and then crashed into my neighbor’s house and landed between two bushes.”

Acting quickly to detain the bird, Waraks grabbed an empty dog pool and covered Filo as it was recovering from the impact.

“Ed came running in the house waving his arms and yelling, ‘I got the bird! Call the lady looking for the bird. I got it!’,” said Waraks’ wife, Linda.

The couple have joined scores of residents in the city’s East End on social media who have been tracking the bird’s travels since it escaped Sept. 7 from the Stanton Heights home of Haedar and Nuha Kadhim. They live a few blocks from where Filo was found.

It has been spotted in the neighborhood park on Farmington Street, in Allegheny Cemetery and as far away as Bloomfield.

When Filo escaped, the macaw was only 3 months old, too young to display gender and typically too young to fly, so its wings had not yet been clipped, the couple said.

Haedar Kadhim arrived within minutes, armed with a blanket, plastic garbage can and the bird’s cage.

“We lifted up the dog pool and threw the blanket over the bird,” he said. “Then we transferred it to the garbage can and put the lid on it.”

Rather than risk losing the bird again by transferring it to the cage, Kadhim walked the garbage can back to his house.

He said Filo did not suffer any injuries from hitting the house, but it will take some time for it to regain health.

“It only weighs about a pound,” he said. “At this age, it should be about 4 pounds. So it wasn’t able to get much food while it was gone. They don’t know now to land, so I have no idea how it got water to drink.”

Kadhim said the bird also managed to learn how to mimic speech while on the lam. The family encouraged people who spotted the bird to engage it in conversation because macaws sometimes respond to human voices.

“It didn’t know any words before it left, but now it says ‘hello,’ ” he said.

After feeding the bird and clipping its wings, Kadhim reunited Filo with its parents, Cuckoo and Lulu. It was the only bird to hatch from the five eggs the bird couple produced this year.

“I’m really so happy that Filo is back home,” said the couple’s daughter, Banien, 8, as she smiled broadly. “I held it and fed it since it hatched. It was part of our family. I didn’t think we would ever see it again.”