THE owner of an African parrot with a love for the great outdoors has expressed her thanks to staff and pupils at a primary school who helped track down the bird when it escaped.

Year-old Opal, an African grey parrot escaped from Nicola Cook's home in Smarden, near Ashford, while her husband was distracted bathing their baby.

The bird managed to unhook the door of its cage and fled through the conservatory door, which had been left ajar.

A distraught Mrs Cook, immediately launched an appeal to get Opal back. She distributed leaflets throughout St Michael's, High Halden, Headcorn, Pluckley and Smarden.

Mrs Cook said: "Because Opal usually answers to the call Whit Whoo, I spent several evenings wandering around the lanes calling out 'Opal, Whit Whoo' - people must have thought I was mad."

But her persistence paid off, when Headcorn School contacted her to say that it had seen the parrot. The bird had arrived in the school grounds last Monday, when it had distracted pupils from their drama class, with its talking from the trees.

Mrs Cook then concentrated her search on Headcorn and while the school caretaker and dinner lady searched the school grounds, head teacher Jim Holditch reproduced flyers for all the children to take home asking parents to look out for the bird.

Mr Holditch said: "It was quite a coincidence, because we were in the middle of our multi-cultural week and we were looking at Africa, when suddenly an African parrot popped up."

But Mr Holditch said the children were very concerned when they learnt the parrot was lost. "They were outside every break and lunchtime scouring the trees. We had plenty of sightings - but most of them turned out to be sparrows."

Three days later, Mrs Cook received a call from a woman in Pluckley. She had found the bird in Headcorn, caught her and taken her home to care for her.

Mrs Cook said: "We were so grateful to get her back - and so thankful to everyone who helped search for her."

She added: "I was just so grateful to all the children and staff at Headcorn school. They were so enthusiastic in helping me search for her."