When I was a young adult and working at the Ballard/Crown Hill Petco I had a
bird experience that really made me understand how surprising birds can be,
and set me on the bird loving trail.

Behind the store there is a fenced in area where pallets and broken
equipment are left for pickup. It is an unpleasant area, probably none too
safe, and full of large heavy items. A coworker on a break reported that
there was a kitten stuck somewhere in the mountain of stuff, and he couldn't
find it. Several of us went back and started looking, and sure enough we
could hear that kitten crying out. It is not uncommon for people to drop
unwanted pets off inside a pet store, and then just disappear. We weren't
surprised to hear a kitten, and so we kept looking and moving things. For
two days there was always someone out there trying to find and help that
poor kitten, by now everybody had heard it mewing. We were all frustrated
and worried, many of us had stayed after a shift or come in while off duty
to search - but we had no luck.

I'm sure you all know that it was a bird that learned to meow - in
particular this was a starling, one of those darling little mimics (insert
sarcasm). It took 3 or 4 days for us to realize that our stranded kitten
was perched behind the pile, or up on the flashing of the metal roof -
mewing and mewing and mewing for help. The good news is that big mountain
of junk got sorted and cleaned and the store was able to petition the
district manager to have it hauled off, leaving it safer and cleaner and
kitten free. I'm not sure why the starling started to mew, but the behavior
was reinforced by us leaving bowls of kitten food out to try and lure the
"kitten" out into the open. Eventually the starling left, not long after
the big clean up. He left me with a big impression of the cleverness of
birds, one that has developed into a great fondness. Go starlings!