AS free as bird? Not on this occasion, more likely to be feeling as sick as a parrot!A fire crew from Ipswich, more used to rescuing cats from up trees, was called out to a puzzled parrot which got itself wedged in a branch.

AS free as bird? Not on this occasion, more likely to be feeling as sick as a parrot!

A fire crew from Ipswich, more used to rescuing cats from trees, was called out to a puzzled parrot which got itself wedged in a branch.

And it was not a quick release for the creature either which had to suffer the embarrassment for almost an hour and a half while firefighters tried to get him out of his predicament.

The rescue operation began at 2pm on Saturday when a team from Ipswich headquarters at Colchester Road arrived – with turntable ladder – at the sticky scene in Uvedale Hall Residential Home, Needham Market on Saturday.

And it took them until 3.25pm before the parrot – a three-month-old African grey – was released but he appears to have survived the ordeal with only his pride hurt.

The fire service said the operation to catch the parrot was hindered when a harness became caught on a branch at the top of a tree.

The parrot then flew off into another tree.

Although the parrot's pickle happened in the grounds of the home in Uvedale Crescent, it had flown into difficulties from a neighbouring house.