I fed him, then let him loose. He was gone for 15 minutes and then came back. I let him go again the next day, and once again, he was gone for 15 minutes and came back. Finally, one day I watched to see if I could figure out where he went for that short a period of time. He was flying to a nursery school that's half a block from my house and playing with the children in the yard.
Recent evidence suggests that birds are a lot more intelligent than previously believed.
Irene M. Pepperberg, Ph.D., an animal behaviorist at the University of Arizona in Tucson, has been working with a Congo African Grey parrot named Alex for years, and Alex's accomplishments are amazing. He can name more than 100 objects in Dr. Pepperberg's laboratory, differentiate between different-sized objects, describe color and material, and name quantities up to six. Contrary to conventional wisdom that birds just mimic words uncomprehendingly, Alex's achievements demonstrate a level of language intelligence comparable to chimpanzees and gorillas who have learned sign language.