By Bonnie Friedman
Journal staff writer

Bunnies and chicks are traditionally associated with Easter, but it was an African Gray Parrot that made an appearance at a Jersey City firehouse yesterday morning.

When Josh Medina, a firefighter at Rescue Squad 1 on Communipaw and Monticello avenues, reported for work yesterday morning, he noticed the large silver-feathered bird wandering outside the station, shivering in the cool morning air.

Recognizing the bird as not indigenous to the sidewalks of Jersey City, Medina and his comrades managed to shoo the parrot into a cardboard box, then brought it into the station house.

"I gave him pumpkin seeds and a cut apple but he wouldn't eat it, he just picked at it," Medina said. (Actually, the firefighters couldn't tell the parrot's gender.)

Capt. Dennis Harris, who owns a cockatiel, was quickly appointed the station's aviary expert - even earning the nickname "Vet." He said he was worried about the bird's mental state as well as its physical health.
"After they get separated from their owners they become stressed out and go into depression," Harris said. "They even start to pluck out their feathers as a way of rebelling and committing suicide."

In an unbelievable coincidence, Firefighter Billy McClintock was searching the newspaper for a garage sale ad and came across a classified that read: Lost African Gray Parrot, 10 inches long, gray with red tail.
The firefighters called the phone number in the ad and, moments later, Rosaria Lawlor, a Somerset County resident, was on her way to the firehouse to see if it was indeed her bird. Meanwhile, a firehouse neighbor, Juan Landron - who owns two parakeets - was appointed temporary guardian of the wayward bird.

At 4 p.m. yesterday, Lawlor arrived at the station, weeping at the prospect of being reunited with Sahara, her 7-year-old parrot who went missing last May.

"It's like my kid," Lawlor said. "If it's not my bird, I'm going to be so completely disappointed."

For the last 11 months, Lawlor has done everything possible to try to find Sahara, including placing ads in six newspapers and mailing fliers to vets and pet shops in a 30 mile radius. The separation has been devastating not only for her and her husband, but also for her 7-year-old Macaw named Valencia, who still calls out for his long lost sister.

"They grieve the same emotions as people," Lawlor said. "They get very attached to people and other birds."

Lawlor tried to hold her emotions in check as she saw the bird, but told firefighters it did look like her missing Sahara. She cradled the parrot to her chest and began to sob again at the prospect of a reunion.

But there was only one way to be sure: Sahara, who was purchased from a breeder, came with an identification number and her birth year - 1997 - imprinted on a band worn around her leg.

This parrot, too, had a band on its leg. But although it also was born in 1997, its identification number did not match - a disappointing end to what Lawlor had hoped would be an Easter miracle.

A distraught Lawlor perked up when Landron offered to let her take the bird home while he and the firefighters continue to look for its owners.

Though Lawlor admitted she is worried that she will become attached to this parrot, she said she'll also do everything she can to look for its owner.

And in the meantime, Lawlor still keeps a cage in the backyard in the hopes that Sahara will one day find her way home.

Anyone with information about a missing African Gray Parrot can call Rescue Squad 1 at (201) 434-9314.