Crews in Selmer work to rescue bird from tree

SELMER, Tenn. — You’ve seen cats in trees, maybe a dog or two, but today’s pet is a little more exotic and a lot more difficult to get down.

Photo courtesy: Bryan Huff

You would expect it to be the beginning of a joke, a bird in a tree that won’t come down, but that was real life for a woman in Selmer Tuesday morning.

“I’m going to give her lots of lovins, then I’m going to spank her, I think. She’s going to be grounded until she’s 50,” said Brandy Smith, the owner of Carolina, a six-year-old Macaw.

Carolina is in the neighbor’s trees, where she’s been for four days now after she got spooked and flew away from her owner.

“First we saw where she went, and then we would just follow the sound of her voice. We would call her, and she would answer me back. Then when we did lose her Saturday night because it was already dark, we had a neighbor call us and say she was in her tree,” Smith said.

When we got there Monday, the rescue effort for Carolina became a community effort.

“Small town Selmer, nobody knows how to get a Macaw out of a tree, but I guess we’re going to find out,” Smith said.

A tree company had someone try to climb the tree to get her down, but with no success.

“I got up there in the bucket, then I climbed out of the bucket. I went further up to the bird, and as I got close to it, it flew away. It’s a little aggravating when you get so close,” said Robert Pelissier, a tree climber and retired firefighter.

“So we brought our truck out to reach a little further, then the bird flew a little bit higher,” said Darrell Roberts, Battalion Chief for the Selmer Fire Department.

But all of that was still to no avail, which prompted the group to get creative.

A man from the local newspaper tried to lure her out with a drone, and got some pictures too.

“This is going to be our last shot at getting her down, and if we don’t get her down this time, we’ll just have to wait her out and let her do her own thing,” Smith said.

But even when the fire department sprayed water in her direction she just flew to the woods.

“She’s my baby. She’s a part of my family. We want her back home. We miss her,” Smith said.

Experts from Union University and the Memphis Zoo told Smith that Carolina will come down when she is ready. When that is is anyone’s guess.

WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News sent a crew to the house Tuesday afternoon to see how Carolina is doing.

Currently, they’re taking a break to see if she comes down on her own.