As we were standing there, the corner neighbor came home. I stood my ground by the bird and the neighbor drove around me. He got out of his car and came over to see what all the excitement was about. Meanwhile, R's mother came to out to see the bird. As we tried to scoop the bird up with a piece of cardboard, it flew about 3 feet ahead of us. As we followed it, trying to capture it, we realized it did not seem to have a "bad" wing. The neighbor commented that it, perhaps, was a pet bird - not a wild bird- whose winged were clipped. This would explain it only being able to fly short distances and not very high off the ground. Everyone concluded that this seemed to be the most reasonable conclusion.
We ended the evening by taking the bird into our house, placing it in a guinea pig screened cage over a cardboard box on the coffee table. The sweet little bird began to chirp when Pocahontas would talk to it.
We put up "Found" signs on two mailboxes and then called the vet to get an idea of what to feed it. We gave it water and millet and it began to eat hungrily. It semed perfectly contented in the house and used to normal household noises.
Looking it up on the internet, it looked most like a wild canary, which is a common pet bird.
It was safely delivered to the humane society this morning, where they confirmed it was definitely NOT a wild bird. The main traits being: very calm bird, overweight, and long claws.
The children all wanted to keep the cute little bird, but their mother had to deny this request!
Soon after we brought the bird inside, there was a downpour! We have been greatly blessed with rain almost daily for the past several days. Then the sun came out and we found this beautiful double rainbow in the sky.
