Fourteen parrots stolen from man's home

COLORADO SPRINGS, April 17 (UPI) -- A Colorado Springs man says somebody stole 14 parrots from his home this week, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported.

David Ball, 48, said he arrived home Tuesday to find his exotic birds were missing -- all he found was empty cages amid a mess of feathers and bird seed, the newspaper said Thursday.

"It was a mess -- they definitely struggled trying to get the birds out of their cages," Ball said.

Ball estimates the missing birds could go for as much as $9,000 in a store.

The stolen birds include a blue-and-gold macaw; three blue-throated Amazons; three sun conures; three Nanday conures; an African Grey parrot; a Goffin's cockatoo; an umbrella cockatoo and a Senegal parrot.

Ball has alerted pet stores, online bird enthusiasts and the cargo director at the Colorado Springs Municipal Airport, the newspaper said.