PET budgies Tom and Ben are such birds of a feather that they sought each other out despite living in different houses, streets apart from one another.

Pale blue Tom escaped from Wendy Heath's home in Maple Grove, off Fulford Road, this week and flew four streets to visit his little yellow and green friend Ben, who lives at Wendy's mother's house.

The pair had met on a couple of occasions when Wendy left Tom with her mum, Mavis Heath, during trips away - and their friendship clearly blossomed.

This week Mavis was out in her back garden, with Ben in his cage, enjoying the sunshine and chatting to a neighbour over the fence when they spotted a budgie on top of the cage.

Mavis managed to get both birds inside and rang her daughter, knowing she had a similar coloured bird. And sure enough her daughter was frantic with worry after Tom escaped the day before when she was cleaning his cage.

Mavis, who lives in Alma Grove, said: "It was absolutely amazing that Tom found his way to my house. He survived all night and finally turned up on top of Ben's cage.

"It's quite a long way from my daughter's house to my house, I can't believe he found it and then found Ben's cage. He must have a homing device - but for the wrong home!

"They must really like each other."

Updated: 09:51 Saturday, September 01, 2001