The bird escaped from a house in the Sagamihara district of Yokohama on Sunday morning, Kyodo News reported, and made its way to the city centre. After finding its way into a hotel, it came to rest on the shoulder of one of the guests before it was apprehended.

 

The hotel handed the budgerigar over to police, who put it in a cage and transferred it to a nearby police station.

 

Despite giving no indications that it could talk, the bird suddenly piped up late on Tuesday night and began repeating its home address – which its owner had apparently drummed into the bird for just such an unlikely eventuality.

 

Specifying the address down to the number of the house and the block on which is stands, the bird enabled police to track down its 64-year-old owner.

 

“We had not expected his owner to be identified in this manner,” one of the officers involved in the case said.