Budgie owner checking in here:
I hope you will do more than merely put up a few hastily hand-lettered posters here and there on your block in order to locate the little fella’s owner–somewhere, close by, there is a budgie owner who is devastated that her bird got out, and is going through agonies worried if Peter’s been eaten by a cat or a hawk or run over by a car or is starving to death somewhere and what if winter comes, he’ll freeze to death…
If he was hand-tame enough that he chirped when he saw you (i.e. he recognized “human being” as “safe”, as “familiar”, and not as “potential predator”), and allowed you to pick him up (instead of sidling and then scuttling away), that means that someone in your neighborhood spent a LONG time hand-taming him from 6-week-old chick-hood. How would you feel if you had raised a puppy almost from birth, and then it got out of the house and disappeared? You’d be anxiously scanning the “Lost & Found” ads, and out of your mind with worry.
And if he couldn’t fly, then his wings have been clipped, and that means, again, that someone in your neighborhood cares deeply about him, and is going through a very bad time right now.
I’d definitely pop for an ad in the Lost & Found of the newspaper, as well as putting up large, easy-to-read posters around your neighborhood, “FOUND A PARAKEET”. You might consider going door-to-door for about 4 to 6 blocks around, if your neighborhood isn’t totally drug-dealer-dangerous.
And I’d definitely tell the pet store where you bought the millet, and any other pet stores in town that sell “real” bird seed (as opposed to Wal-Mart), and ask permission to put up a big “Found yer bird” poster at any and all such places. Also places like Petsmart and Petco, who usually maintain big bulletin boards for Lost & Found and Free To Good Home index cards. And I’d give a call to any veterinarians in your town and give them a headsup. And leave a message at the local Animal Control and Humane Society, pound, etc. “hey, I found a parakeet, has anybody contacted you about losing one?”
I sense that you are strongly tempted to keep him. If you want a budgie, then go buy yourself a budgie–and we will be happy to give you advice about doing that–but please don’t keep this one until you have truly exhausted all avenues to find his true owner.
If you’ve put up posters and asked around, and it’s been a month and nobody has turned up, then I got no problem with you keeping him. But please don’t just shrug when nobody turns up right away and assume that nobody’s looking, because they are, same as they would be with a dog or a cat.
ETA: Sorry, I realize that sounds like a finger-wagging lecture, but that wasn’t what I intended. I’m just projecting how I would feel if my bird got out. I’d hope that whoever found him wouldn’t just shrug and keep him.