Taki’s Adventures

Taki, the beautiful wild rescue bird! This is the little bird that has captured the hearts of many. However, Taki kept following us as we tried to leave.

We have made this page for the safety and to help show people her adventures and help people understand that she is not a pest. Taki was found as a baby chick, she had fallen out of her nest at only 1-3 weeks old. We stumbled across her and tried to see if her parents were in the nearest trees. Unsure of 'the right thing to do' and fully aware that you're not supposed to touch wild creatures, we t

ried to let her be. Taki was very persistent as a baby, as we headed to our car to leave (hoping the mother would return) much to our surprise, she jumped into our car! At this point we realised we were being called to help. So, we took her home to help her get some rest, food and water. We had hoped with this, she may be able to build her strength and return to the wild. Taki was so young that she couldn't feed her self, fly or clean herself. Over the past 6 months we have taught her to do all of the above - YES, including flying! We started off by chewing small amounts of food and feeding it to her with tweezers like a mother would. We then started hiding meal worms in the ground and got her to dig them up. She got the picture! To help her fly we would put her on fairly high surfaces and allow her to float to the ground. We then started running with her on the ground beside us, eventually she started to get the wind under her wings and picked up some air time! Eventually she fully took flight and was able to play on the wind. She is now the most incredible acrobat in the sky. '

She bathes herself multiple times a day, finds her own food and loves being in the wild. She has spent time away from us, days, weeks and months in the wild. AND She survived! She now lives with a local wild life carer in Billinudgel, a small town in Northern New South Wales, Australia. From her home base she travels around on a daily basis visiting the local cafes and shops. She leaves home at about 8:10am every day and returns home with the school pick up in the evening. She is more than capable of navigating her home town and brings herself home when she’s had enough of adventuring! This page is for anyone who enjoys her story, wants to help us look out for her and see funny/cute photos of this incredible interaction with nature. IMPORTANT NOTE TO HATERS:

She is a starling, which unfortunately is known mostly for being 'non native' and a 'pest' - PLEASE UNDERSTAND - most starlings have now been wiped out. They are quite rare to see. YES, vets, wild life helplines and carers have all been part of this journey. We have been consistently told by professionals when we have taken to get her checked up that she is happy and we should enjoy this unusual experience with Mother Nature. At one stage she ended up in the wrong hands. Wildlife protection services wish to EUTHANISE (kill) her as her species are known to be a 'non native' introduced to Australia. TAKI DOES NOT HAVE A GROUP OF STARLINGS TO CAUSE DAMAGE WITH, SHE IS A SINGLE BIRD WHO DOES NOT DISPLAY 'NORMAL' STARLING BEHAVIOUR as she has never been taught or exposed to such things. SHE ALSO DOES NOT GO ABOUT DESTROYING THE NATURAL HABITATS OR STEALING NATIVE BIRD NESTS AS SHE SLEEPS AT THE WILD LIFE CARERS PLACE and only scavenges for bugs like every other bird. Please if you see her, feel free to contact as and we will come and retrieve her if you find her being pesky. Share your photos and videos if you want

27/05/2025

The other day I posted a little from my story with Taki and I was amazed by the beautiful response from the community 🫶

It reminded me of how many others hearts Taki touched ❤️

Taki had a way of finding people when they were needing it the most.

I would love to hear the many other compelling stories that others had with Taki.

So this is a call out to anyone else who has shared special moments with Taki, to tell their story too.

I would love to hear:
- your encounter
- when it was
- location
- your reaction
- what the interaction meant to you
- a photo or video.

It would be great to start mapping out all of Takis unique stories and timelines 🙌

25/05/2025

Taki will fly in my heart forever 🫶

This bird taught me many life lessons. She came into our lives, abandoned by her mother, attacked by the wild and scrutinised by society (would have been killed if put into the hands of wild life carers as she was a non-native to Australia).

Our belief is that every animal who is wild, should remain that way.

So ensured a life that encouraged the free & wild nature within her by keeping windows and doors open. She could leave any time she wanted.

We taught her how to scavenge and find worms in the ground… we explored Australia’s national parks, enjoying waterfalls and watching her to take to the sky, we ran on the beach as she flew alongside us, learning about wind and air pockets - doing her starling acrobatics…

This “open door” policy didn’t come without its difficulties, and every “wild life expert” had their opinions said it was IMPOSSIBLE.

It started in Melbourne and ended in Byron Bay. Yes! she made it 1700km+ on the road living van life with us, with the open door policy!

We truly thought she would eventually fly away on the road trip. But every time she did, Taki remarkably made it back to us.

She would disappear for months at a time, hunted by wild animals, her life threatened by wildlife rescue centres, locked away in aviaries and almost put down if it weren’t for intervention.

She became a local hero in the Northern rivers, visiting local schools, cafes, pubs and beaches…bringing joy to everyone who met her.

Her story was even captured by many news outlets and broadcasted nationwide!

The more you learn about her story the more astonishing it becomes.

Every wild life expert said she wouldn’t last more than 2 weeks, but she remained in our lives for 2 years, living completly wild and free until she finally went missing.

Maybe nature took her, maybe the wrong wild life association got their hands on her.

Whatever happened to Taki, she was an inspiration.

She taught us the valuable lesson that amazing things can happen when you let go of control and put your trust in nature.

I miss her everyday 🫶

12/09/2023

VIDEO PUBLISHED AN HOUR AGO IN SYDNEY

IF ANYONE KNOWS WHICH REGION IN SYDNEY THIS BIRD WAS HANDED INTO - PLEASE LET US KNOW

If this is Taki she looks in a state of shock as she wouldn’t normally allow people to touch her belly.

We wouldn’t be able to know whether it’s Taki until this bird is well enough to display it usual behaviours 🙏

03/09/2023

Old video of Taki singing to a friend she met in Burringbar ♥️

Burringbar was a place that Taki often visited and shared many special moments with the welcoming community 🙏

01/09/2023

With the help of the community last year we raised a certain $1772 to help care for Taki, however that money unfortunately did not get an opportunity to be used.

We have now donated that money to the Wire's organisation as many times when Taki went missing, it was the wonderful volunteers (who we cannot name) from this organisation that helped bring her back.

Despite having very strict regulations to follow, many of the individuals of this organisation saw the uniqueness of Taki's case and handled Taki with the free flying spirit that she was put on this earth to do.

She was found on January 4 2021 and arrived in the Northern Rivers in Feb 2021 to the last time she was seen in Dec 2022.

We thank everyone for their help over the years for welcoming Taki into their hearts, having her stay for little sleepovers when she stayed out too late, for sharing a beer at the Billi pub, for enjoying a coffee at the moonshine cafe, for enjoying a bakery treat at the Billi bakery and the many other generous businesses that welcomed Taki into their store.

We will continue to follow up with any inquiries about Taki, but we must remember she had a unique set of behaviours that could only be deciphered by a video and unfortunately, a photo would photo would not suffice.

We hope that her wild adventures are still continuing to this day

08/06/2023

WE DON’T WANT TO GIVE UP!

We are still hoping to find Taki so please share this far and wide.

If you believe you have encountered Taki please send us a video so that we can assess whether the bird presents behaviours like Taki’s.

We are offering this money to the ACTUAL Taki, which will be easy to assess via VIDEO FOOTAGE as no other bird behaves like her.

A PHOTO is not enough to determine this.

We thank the community for their continuous support 🙏❤️

We’ve been contacted by many of you to keep posting about this - she’ll turn up eventually. We just like to know she’s safe & well.

30/04/2023

I am terribly sorry that we have been inactive on this page.

We were hoping that the next time we’d be posting it was going to be with some good news.

However, I regret to inform everyone that Taki has still not been found and the last VERIFIED spotting of her was 4 months ago.

We are still hoping for the best and will continue to follow up with every inquiry but after 4 months of waiting, I do not believe it is ethical to hold on to the funds raised to help her survive.

As Taki is the community bird, I believe this should be a community decision to which the funds are donated. Please comment below on organisations or community projects we could give it to.

Thank you everyone for your continuous support

07/02/2023

Little baby Taki back in January 2021 ❤️

It has been a while since we have had contact with with this special creature.

We and community miss her very much but unfortunately still no sightings of her.

For those on the page remember we raised some funds to help care for her back in September 2022.

Unfortunately those funds where never utilised and if they are not utilised for her by mid March then we will be looking to donate the money to a noble cause.

As Taki is the community bird I would personally like to donate the funds to a community project, however open to suggestions 🙏

Lazy Ghost - Summer Is Here (Official Music Video)

20/01/2023

https://youtu.be/MDdobQoN5Og

A local bands music videos were Taki is shown 2minutes in and riding the lead singers head at 2.55minutes ❤️

Taki decided to crash the party (as usual) on the day they were filming

This video was taken back in November but we are still out there looking and following up with every inquiry

Lazy Ghost - Summer Is Here (Official Music Video) Listen to Summer Is Here - Online NowDirected & Cinematography by Bradley Murnane & billyzammitProduced by Spill FilmsAssist & Art Department by Georgia Ston...

15/01/2023

A lovely journalist has done a story on Taki.

We are hoping that the wider coverage will give us a better chance finding her

If you would like to view the article you can download the app and view it via this link below ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

Where is Taki Now?

Where is Taki Now?

14/01/2023

POSTED EARLY DECEMBER

Imagine stopping on the side of the road, at a cafe or perhaps doing the school dip off and having an unsuspected visit by this beautiful creature.

This is what Taki gave many of us in the northern rivers.

It’s been about a month now since we last saw Taki but we are still remaining hopeful that she is still out there somewhere

We are following up with every lead and talking to reporters to get her name out further to hopefully find her make sure she is safe

We thank the community for remaining vigilant 🙏

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