To Catch a Parakeet

My dad is convinced he saw a yellow Parakeet at our bird feeder last night (at first he said it was a canary but I showed him pictures and when we looked at parakeets he said that was what it was). He said it spooked and flew off easily but always came back to the feeder. I got home late last night and it's raining this morning so I have not seen this bird for myself but he says it's definitely a domestic bird. Anyway, if it does happen to come back to our feeder and is indeed a parakeet, do you have any ideas of how I could try and catch it? If I just sit out there will it get curious and check me out? I don't have a bird cage, though I do have an old hamster cage, not sure if he'd fly in though.

First thought- is he absolutely sure it's a parakeet? Could it be a Goldfinch? If it is a parakeet, or any domestic bird, I'm not quite sure how to catch one outside. All I can think of is to try to gain it's trust, and, hopefully, over time, you'll be able to catch it.

when he said it was a canary I asked him if it was a finch and he said no, then I asked if it was an oriole, and he adamantly said no, he knows what an oriole is. So that's when I went online to show him pictures of all of those things, then as soon as we looked at a parakeet he said "that's it!". He also said it was fairly large (compared to the wild birds) and showed me with his hands, looked like 6 inches tall. Still hasn't come back yet though.

Go to Craigslist, get a cheap/free bird cage, fill a cup with seed and place inside, attach a string to the door, sit and wait, bird-in-question flies in pull the string to close the door. Well, that's what I would try anyway.

I just saw him and yes, 100% parakeet, yellow with green wings. But yeah, spooks just as easy as the sparrows but takes a LOT longer to come back. I'll try the hamster cage and see if we can get a bird cage. It'll have to be a very long string though. Would I be better off leaving the cage out for a couple of days so he can go in and out for a while before I try and catch him?

The only times we were able to catch escaped domestics was when they got too weak to fly away. I found a green and yellow parakeet once that way. He had really terrible beak mites and was underweight, but recovered and lived for many years after that. We found a tame ringneck dove in similar condition once. I hope you find something that works.

Not sure if he'd be willing to go in a cage, since he probably has experience in one. It'd be like trying to lure an escaped puppymill breeding dog gone feral into a dog crate.

Maybe you guys could build a snare or net trap and put it on the feeder? There are a bunch of how-to videos on youtube with different designs. This one looks promising.

[YOUTUBE]ZYuz8tkCnoQ[/YOUTUBE]

A bit tongue and cheek, but the way to catch my neighbor's parakeet is to be the tallest one in the room. She'll come and nest right on you. The good thing is that I feel like a pirate every time I go down there.

This has been my experience as well. It would pretty much be like trying to catch any other random wild bird, unfortunately.

That's a bummer, I was hoping they might be more able to warm up to people or would veiw a cage as a sleeping place since that's what he's used to. I'm sure he'll keep coming for food and water, the feeders and bird bath are always full, but once it gets cold I figure he'll die. I checked craigslist and no one has reported a missing parakeet.