An animal rescue group in Alabama is working to reconnect a homing pigeon with its owner after the bird found itself a long way from home.
According to the Monroe County Animal Shelter, a man in Mexia contacted them saying a pigeon with bands showed up at his home.
After picking up the bird, two shelter employees worked on tracking down the bird's owner.
Using their microchip scanner, the employees scanned the numbers of the bird's band and came across the website North of England Homing Union.
Following instructions through the website, they found out that the bird was from England, which is about 4,000 miles away.
"We are currently working on a game plan to return this champion pigeon to its owner, which was extremely happy to hear from us," the group said on its Facebook page.
The shelter added that they took the bird to Airport Animal Clinic to get checked out by a veterinarian. Besides being underweight, the pigeon looked pretty good.
In an interview with The Guardian, the bird's owner said the pigeon was on a trip from the Channel Islands to Newcastle, England.
What probably happened was that the pigeon ended up on a ship heading across the Atlantic and ended up in Alabama, the media outlet reported.
