Rescued Bird Comes Home Every Night to Be Pampered by Her Devoted Human

A tiny silvereye named Pickle, who was brought back to health by veterinary nurse CeeJay Donovan after being attacked by a cat, recovered enough to be released. Despite this newfound freedom during the day, Pickle decided she’d much rather spend her nights at home, being pampered with grapes and warm baths. Donovan said that Pickle is very much like a teenager.

She’s like a teenager. She comes in, she gets her feed, I do her laundry, she goes away again. If she hasn’t come home by 5:30, I’ll sometimes head outside and start calling her and then she’ll come home realizing that it’s time to come home.

Pickle has come quite a long way since her initial injuries, and Donovan expected her to be gone for good, but Pickle didn’t agree.

Using my nursing skills, I was able to nurse her back to health. After about a month of recovery, I decided to release her, and she stopped coming for about 2 weeks. So I thought, “Okay, great. She’s gone now. She can be a wild bird.” And then one day, 2 weeks later, she was just at the door, like squealing at the door to be led in. And I was like, “Oh my god, it’s Pickle.” So I opened the door, and she flew in to where her cage used to be inside.

Silvereyes are native to New Zealand, where Donovan lives, so she wanted to ensure that she was doing right by Pickle.

I called the wildlife center because she is a native bird, and I thought they would want to take her, but they were totally overwhelmed at the time, and they were like, ” Please, can you just take her?”