King, the miracle survivor! The male gang gang cockatoo, named by his rescuer Nigel Williamson, was hit by a car on King Road in Harkaway on Monday and released back into the wild on Wednesday morning.
By Glen Atwell
AN ANIMAL rescue, a great escape and a tale of survival, it’s a story with more TV drama than the Bold and the Beautiful.
If only King, the gang gang cockatoo saved from the grille of a car by renowned animal rescuer Nigel Williamson, could talk instead of squawk, he’d be an instant Hollywood hit.
On Monday the cockatoo was plastered all over TV news after he survived a smash with a car on King Road in Harkaway.
He was whacked at 80km/h and moments later the driver of the Hyundai Excel saw nothing more of the bird than a flutter of feathers in her rear-view mirror.
She assumed the worse, and continued her journey home.
But once home she checked the front of the car for damage and was shocked to discover the bird had been wedged between the plastic grille and the radiator.
Shock struck again when the bird began to squawk, signalling its status as stuck, but still alive.
The quick-thinking driver phoned Nigel, a Devon Meadows resident, who arrived on the scene to find the bird trapped in the bumper of the car.
“Normally birds that get stuck like that end up dying, or we pull them out with a broken leg or wing. Some even have serious internal injuries,” Nigel said.
“Somehow, miraculously, this bird survived without any major damage.”
Nigel believes a small air-intake in the grille was the key to King’s survival.
“There is a gap, about an inch wide in the bumper.
“It looks like he’s shot through that and somehow ended up with his head and wings poking out.”
“King was king hit,” Nigel said.
The animal rescuer slowly and carefully removed King from the grille, and spent the next two days nursing his patient back to health.
“We’ve looked after him and he started becoming aggressive and agitated in his cage, which is a good sign for a rescued wild bird,” Nigel said.
“We released him on Wednesday on King Road.”
As King flapped his wings and disappeared into the distance, there could have been only one question on his mind… Today Tonight or A Current Affair?
