Eleven-year-old Kári Kamban Sigurbogarson has a pretty unusual pet, having recently adopted an orphaned thrush chick, Vísir reports. The young thrush enjoys going on walks, and wakes Kári by singing at 8:00 every morning.
Kári found the bird more than a week ago in Laugardalur, where it was abandoned and in a pitiful, haggard state, and its parents were nowhere to be seen.
“The bird was in a little forest, there were no other birds nearby, and she was so gentle and good-natured that I could pet her right away,” says Kári.
He then took the bird into his care in order to feed her so that she might survive. When she was a fledgling, Kári and his family brought her to their summer cottage with the intention of releasing her into the wild, but then she didn’t want to leave.
“We brought her to the cottage and tried to let her go, but she always came back,” says Kári.
After several attempts, the family decided to let Kári keep the bird and bring her back to their home in Rekjavík’s Hlíðar neighborhood. The two of them are great friends and talk a lot, as can be seen in the video below.
The thrush has been named Selma, and she is free to come and go as she pleases. She’s gotten countless chances to fly away into nature, but seems not to want to leave Kári, who takes good care of her.
“If you go somewhere, she chases you,” says Kári.
Selma enjoys going on walks with Kári. At night she sleeps either out on the balcony or in Kári’s bedroom, and in the morning she wakes him up with song.
(Video: Stöð 2/Vísir)
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