Swearing Cockatoo, 82, Must Prove Identity By Using Signature Foul Language On Skype Interview

A swearing cockatoo named Robbo, who has learned plenty of salty language over his 82 years, was stolen on May 18 from his home at the Phillip Island Grandprix Visitors Gardens in Australia. According to The Age, the New South Wales police say that they have found the foul-mouthed sulphur-breasted cockatoo in a backyard during a search of a Sydney home.

Phillip Island is a popular tourist destination that attracts over 3.5 million people a year, including bird-lovers who want to see the wild Little Penguins come ashore at Phillip Island Nature Park. Robbo, the over-the-hill swearing cockatoo, has lived at the nature center for 40 years, where he wowed the guest with his sometimes colorful grasp of the language.

But there is no shortage of this species in Australia or even in Sydney. And one aged sulphur-crested cockatoo looks much like another.

The distance from Phillip Island to Sydney is over 500 miles.

Hmm. The old bird didn’t fly that far. The theory appears to be that the bad guys busted by the Sydney police also took time out of their busy day to kidnap an octogenarian cockatoo.

Peter Mitchell, an official at the gardens, said that he couldn’t confirm that the bird the police found was indeed Robbo. According to The Telegraph, he said that the old bird wasn’t very resilient or interested in moving any great distance:

“Last time we tried to move him — to a new home only five meters away he got very stressed and very sick and the vet told us to move him back straight away.”

But to find out for sure, after the Sydney cockatoo has been treated by animal rescue workers and is recovered well enough from its ordeal, Mitchell plans to interview the bird by Skype. He’ll know the old parrot by his “colourful language that sometimes pops out in front of the public which can be quite embarrassing…So we’ll try and get him in front of a camera – it’s not your usual application for Skype.”

If they do get their lost parrot back, maybe it would be wise to microchip Robbo the swearing cockatoo to make him easier to identify if pranksters take off with him again.

[sulphur crested cockatoo photo credit: Glen_Wright via photopin cc]