Billy Joel’s ‘Uptown Girl’ helps lost cockatiel find its way home

nypost.com:

Piano Man” played an unusual role in the rescue of a pet bird in South Carolina. Last month Christine Iturrino was loading groceries into her Myrtle Beach home when Joel, the pet cockatiel she had adopted from a bird rescue group 18 months ago, flew out of the door.“In a panic, I tried to grab him, which you’re not supposed to do with birds,” Iturrino, 58, told the Washington Post. “That freaked him out and he flew away toward the ocean, screaming all the way.

I was heartsick.”Iturrino, a bus driver, said her flying friend liked to listen to 1980s pop music and had free rein in her home, only staying in his cage at night.In a Facebook post about the missing bird, she wrote that he particularly liked “Uptown Girl” by Billy Joel, which she assumes inspired his name.

After Joel got loose, a devastated Iturrino printed up “Parrot Alert” fliers offering a reward and tacked them up all over her neighborhood. “He’s very people friendly, so I had a lot of hope.

But I was still pretty upset, especially as more time passed. I began to worry I’d never see him again,” she said.But after “the longest time” — or nine days later to be exact –Iturrino received a text while at work. “I work at the beach — I think we found your bird,” it said.The message was from an employee of Sky Wheel Myrtle Beach, 200-foot Ferris wheel with 42 enclosed gondolas.The employee, Theresa Glazer, sent a picture of Joel perched on her shoulder inside the SkyWheel ticket booth.During a morning safety check at the wheel, employee Gavin Scire, who is often referred to as Spider-Man for his climbing prowess, was about 100 feet up on a ladder when he heard chirping.He looked over and saw Joel hopping on one of the bars.