Fugitive toucan captured in S. California
Fern, the toucan free since May, sits in a cage at Omar’s Exotic Birds in Brea, Calif., Thursday morning. (Associated Press)
Omar Gonzalez, left, owner of Omar's Exotic Birds in Brea, Calif., speaks with Courtney Chapman of Fullerton, Calif., as she arrived at his store to pick up her toucan named Fern, Thursday morning, Dec. 29, 2016. On Tuesday, Fern flew into a Yorba Linda auto repair shop, where an Omar’s Exotic Birds employee, Connor Chubbuck, captured her. On Thursday, she was reunited with her owner. (Mark Rightmire/The Orange County Register via AP)
Fern, the toucan that flew out of Courtney Chapman's backyard aviary in Fullerton, Calif., in May, sits in a cage at Omar's Exotic Birds in Brea, Calif., Thursday morning, Dec. 29, 2016. On Tuesday, Fern flew into a Yorba Linda auto repair shop, where an Omar’s Exotic Birds employee, Connor Chubbuck, captured her. On Thursday, she was reunited with her owner. (Mark Rightmire/The Orange County Register via AP)
Courtney Chapman looks at Fern, the toucan that flew out of her back yard aviary in Fullerton, Calif., in May, for the first time since losing it, at Omar's Exotic Birds in Brea, Calif., Thursday morning, Dec. 29, 2016. On Tuesday, Fern flew into a Yorba Linda auto repair shop, where an Omar’s Exotic Birds employee, Connor Chubbuck, captured her. On Thursday, she was reunited with her owner. (Mark Rightmire/The Orange County Register via AP)
Fern, the toucan that flew out of Courtney Chapman's back yard aviary in Fullerton, Calif., in May, sits in a cage at Omar's Exotic Birds in Brea, Calif., Thursday morning, Dec. 29, 2016. On Tuesday, Fern flew into a Yorba Linda auto repair shop, where an Omar’s Exotic Birds employee, Connor Chubbuck, captured her. On Thursday, she was reunited with her owner. (Mark Rightmire/The Orange County Register via AP)
Conner Chubbuck an employee at Omar's Exotic Birds in Brea, holds Fern, the toucan that flew out of Courtney Chapman's back yard aviary in Fullerton, Calif., in May, at the store in Brea, Calif, Thursday, Dec. 29, 2016. On Tuesday, Fern flew into a Yorba Linda auto repair shop, where Chubbuck, captured her. On Thursday, she was reunited with her owner. (Mark Rightmire/The Orange County Register via AP)
YORBA LINDA, Calif. — A toucan that became a local sensation while living wild much of the year in Southern California has finally been captured. The brightly colored female bird named Fern was spotted Tuesday in the rafters of a Yorba Linda auto repair shop.
A service adviser made calls to animal experts including Omar’s Exotic Birds, which dispatched an employee who captured Fern. The bird escaped in May from an aviary in Courtney Chapman’s Fullerton home after Fern and a male toucan were delivered by a breeder. Chapman tells The Orange County Register she had been told the chances of getting the toucan back were slim to none.
— Associated Press
