A Kensington man’s all-out search for his crooning Amazonian parrot has taken him to animal shelters and psychics — and now it may take him to Broadway.
Allen Kirson, who hasn’t given up hope that he will find his beloved “Captain” — a feathered phenom that’s gained international fame for its ability to sing both arias and folk songs — has completed a play about the search entitled “The Moveable Feast: Searching for Yehuda Bird.”
Previews for Kirson’s play, which he says will be “60 percent scripted and 40 percent improvised” will take place Thursdays at 8 and 10 pm at Congregation Sheves Achim on Avenue H from now to the end of February. But, after that, who knows? That answer may be just as mystifying as the one that’s confounded Kirson for the last two months: why did Captain fly off his shoulder during a visit to Ocean Parkway last November?
“I’m still shocked she left me,” Kirson said, recalling his green-and-yellow comrade. “We had real conversations. Most pet owners have psychic connections with their pets [and] she was my companion for six years.”
Ever since Captain left, Kirson’s been fliering most of South Brooklyn with wanted posters as he searches the streets for his beloved bird.
So far none of his efforts have bore fruit — even after seeking the counsel of some Midwood rabbis and an animal astrologer.
Kirson did come within a feather of finding his beloved parrot last weekend, however: after getting tipped off by an animal rescuer that a green-and-yellow parrot was perched high in a tree in Owls Head Park in Bay Ridge, Kirson rushed down — but the bird flew away as he put a ladder up to the tree to get it.
But Kirson swears that the parrot, which had a yellow chest, wasn’t Captain.
“I feel in my gut that [Captain] is in somebody’s house in the area,” said Kirson, who was so concerned that someone scooped up the rare and valuable bird that he’s posted a $1,000 reward for it. Birds of Captain’s caliber range from $500 to $1,200.
Only a spectacular animal could merit such a vigorous search, but the yellow-naped bird Kirson says can survive on berries and nuts for months, fits the bill.
Captain’s reputation for her ability to sing arias had made it as far as London — though Kirson says his unique bird’s passion was folk music.
“She was really a country-western bird,” said Kirson, who sang with the bird every morning. “She could do harmony and she loved Bob Dylan, Hank Williams and Shlomo Carlebach.”
Yet Kirson hopes his crooning parrot — whose clipped wings prevent her from flying long distances — hasn’t taken her show on the road.
“You lose a pet, you suffer for at least a year,” Kirson said. “I’m going to keep looking for a year. If by next Thanksgiving I haven’t found the parrot, then I’m going to give up.”
“The Movable Feast: Searching for Yehuda Bird” at Congregation Sheves Achim [1517 Avenue H at E. 16th Street in Midwood, (718) 338-8442] every Thursday at 8 and 10 pm from now until the end of February.For more information visit www.flatbushminyan.com.
Reach reporter Eli Rosenberg at erosenberg@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-2531. And follow him at twitter.com/emrosenberg.
