OSCAR the African grey parrot has been reunited with his owners after he took an unscheduled trip to Castlepoint shopping park.

The adventurous bird escaped from his Ferndown home and flew almost five miles to Castlepoint (pic-tured), where he made his presence felt by landing on startled shoppers’ shoulders.

Five-year-old Oscar, who is grey with bright red tail feathers, was safely captured by members of the shopping park’s security team and returned to relieved owners Mark and Julie Hanna.

Oscar had been missing for two days by that time and the couple had put a lost pet notice on the Gumtree website in an attempt to try and track him down.

This was spotted by Castlepoint staff who were happy to return Oscar to his rightful home.

The couple then invited Peter Matthews, general manager at the shopping park, to come and meet Oscar properly so they could thank Castlepoint employees for their efforts.

Mark told him Oscar had flown out of the kitchen door within seconds of it being opened.

“He has never done that before and we don’t think he will again as he was exhausted after his flight past Bournemouth Airport to Castlepoint,” he said.

“We hoped when the security team called us that it would be Oscar they had found and he looked very pleased to see us when we opened the box.

“We cannot thank everyone enough, including the public who helped look out for him.”