Mystery of African grey parrot on Dublin airport runway solved

Hugo was spotted by a firefighter during a routine inspection

Hugo, an African grey parrot, was found during a routine runway inspection (Dublin Airport Twitter )

An African grey parrot that was found on the main runway at Dublin Airport has been reunited with its owner after a social media campaign.

Hugo was spotted wandering around during a routine inspection by firefighter.

After she was rescued, Dublin Airport’s official Twitter account posted a picture of the parrot in an attempt to find the owner.

After several false alarms, the mystery was solved when the Lidl supermarket chain noticed a "Missing Parrot" poster in one its stores.

"So we called the number to check and it's his parrot," their account tweeted to Dublin Airport.

The parrot belonged to Lubomir Michna who lives in Dublin but is originally from Slovakia.

He was able to prove the parrot was his by getting Hugo to repeat some of the Slovak sayings he had taught her.

He said Hugo had escaped after a door was accidentally left open at his house.

He made the posters after discovering the bird was missing.

Dan Donoher, who looked after Hugo after she was rescued, said he had no doubts the parrot was with her rightful owner.

"As soon as the carrier opened, Hugo jumped onto Lubomir's arm and cuddled into his neck," he told the BBC. "You could see they have a really close bond, it was lovely."

The African grey parrot can live for up to 60 years and has the ability to mimic human speech.