A feathered friend joined pupils at  Farnworth  school after flying straight out of its home.

The Rio Quaker parrot was spotted by St Peter's Primary School teacher Dianne Buckley at breaktime, when the bright blue-bird perched on the school’s fence.

Dianne said: “The Year One children had gone out for playtime when I spotted the parrot, it was perched on the fence before it came and landed on my shoulder.

(Image: Dianne Buckley)

“It was obviously somebody’s pet - it was tame, we made sure the children didn’t frighten it.

READ MORE:

J Maher's store in Great Lever to close after fifty years

CPC report 2024 praises Bolton Council's approach

Bolton Royal Hospital's record breaking number of patients

“Luckily my colleague managed to grab her, and we kept her in the school's IT suite under a basket whilst we worked out who we should contact.

“The kids nicknamed her Bluey – we gave her cucumber and seeds and put a branch in there for her whilst we waited. She was having a right feast!

“The kids wanted to keep her as a school pet, but we knew she had a home to go to.

“We knocked on doors to see if anyone had lost a parrot, but no one came forward.”

Dianne and her colleagues managed to contact Stephanie Williams, who owns a bird rescue centre, Every Feather & Wildlife Rescue, who was able to identify the bird through a tag on its leg.

(Image: Dianne Buckley)

Dianne added: “She was so affectionate, I didn’t know why people would choose a bird as a pet before this, but I get it now.

“She seemed to know she was lost, we thought maybe she’d heard the kids' voices and was attracted to that because she’d been around people.

“She wasn’t fazed at all by the children and was dead chilled.”

The parrot was identified by Stephanie as a Quaker parrot, which originates from South America.

Stephanie, who has run the bird rescue for 12 years with her sister, said: “We got a call from a school in Farnworth, apparently a parrot had flown on to someone’s head!

“We first looked on Facebook to see if anyone was looking for a lost parrot.

“We were searching for about two or three hours before we found the owner, he was on holiday in Spain and had left the bird with a pet sitter.

“He commented on our post ‘that’s my bird!’ so we confirmed with pictures that it was indeed the same parrot.

“He told us her name was Rio and when we called her name, she became excited and we knew we’d successfully managed to locate her owner.

“She was so tame, you could see how well loved she was. That’s a great thing about the job is reuniting lost pets with their someone who’s looking for them.

“The owner’s friend came to collect her a couple of hours later, she was happy to go and was returned safely.”

Got a story? E-mail me at Leah.collins@newsquest.co.uk