Colchester woman, 86, appealing to find missing macaws

Brightly coloured military macaws Mina and Solo have gone awol after they managed to break free from their aviary in Abberton after chewing through the wire. 

They have not been seen by owner Dorothy Schwarz, 86, since April 26. 

Dorothy, who is known as Dot, writes about parrots and is a free flight trainer.

She describes the birds as her “substitute children” and regularly enjoys watching David Attenborough tv shows with them. 

Macaws can fly up to 15 miles a day meaning the birds could have travelled as far as Liverpool, Exeter or even Amsterdam. 

Companions - Dot pictured with Mina and Solo (Image: N/A)

Her husband Walter, who wrote for the Guardian for more than three decades, died in 2018.

She said: “I’ve had parrots for about 25 years, and they became my life after my children left.

“My ambition in life was to free-fly parrots. I studied it in America and everywhere I could and did manage to do it.

Parrot - four-year-old macaw Mina (Image: N/A)

“I had two free-flying parrots, one, unfortunately, died of sepsis so young Solo replaced him.

“Mina and Solo have become a totally bonded pair and will eventually breed if we get them back.

“They’re perfectly well trained and shouldn’t have run off.”

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Dot said they were a huge part of her everyday life.

She regularly takes part in free-flying, allowing them to fly around for a short time, or goes on walks with them, before calling them back to the “anchor tree” in her garden.

Dot also has another grey parrot, Casper.

Sad - Dot has been left with just one parrot, Casper (Image: Newsquest)

“We enjoyed watching TV together, either the news because of loyalty to my late husband and all of David Attenborough's nature programmes”, said Dot.

“They also free fly around regularly.

“Mina started to take Solo to the village, and she’d come back without him, so we’d have to fetch them.

“I then stopped letting them out together and let one fly for half an hour and then the other.

Flight - Dot regularly let her macaws fly around the area (Image: N/A)

“When they didn’t come back, we looked around the area and have put things on Facebook and put out flyers, but there have been very few sightings so far.

“I think they are either holed up in a wood and at the end of the summer they’ll come back for food, or someone has taken them in.”

They are described as medium-sized, with long green tails and red tufts on their head.

Mina also has a ring on her leg.

Dot is also offering a reward to anyone who can get her birds home.

To contact Dot with any sightings, call 07557 359182.