Nigel the English-speaking African grey parrot vanished from his owner's home four years ago, making a return fairly unlikely.

So when Darren Chick received a knock on his door in Torrance, California, last week, a reunion with his long lost parrot was the last thing he expected. Nigel's whereabouts for the past four years remains unknown, but he returned with a new marketable skill: speaking Spanish.

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Nigel the parrot speaks Spanish which is weird because he used to think he was British http://t.co/WzbadeF85T pic.twitter.com/SVhhoI7OXs — Daily Breeze (@DailyBreezeNews) October 14, 2014

Teresa Micco, a local veterinarian in Torrance, facilitated the reunion. Her efforts to find her own lost parrot led her to the owners of a local dog spa, reported The Daily Breeze. The owners of the dog spa contacted Micco when they realized that ads for her lost parrot matched the description of a bird found at their home. Though Micco was saddened to learn that the parrot wasn't in fact hers, she set out to help find its rightful owner after noticing a small microchip embedded in the bird's skin.

Though the microchip was never registered, Micco was able to trace the records of paper sales back to a local pet store, which pointed her to Chick. Luckily, Chick was still living at the same address in Torrance that he had lived at when he purchased Nigel.

“So I showed up at his house and knocked on the door,” Micco said. “I introduced myself and said, ‘Have you lost a bird?’"

Chick was initially hesitant, but the reunion ultimately brought tears to his eyes. Nigel bit Chick when he first attempted to pick him up.

“He’s doing perfect,” Chick said of Nigel. “It’s really weird, I knew it was him from minute I saw him.”

Denise Gillen, who worked as a senior bird keeper at the San Diego Zoo for 18 years, told Mashable that African grey parrots are some of the animal kingdom's most intelligent birds. She cited a study that shows these birds can reason at the level of a 3-year-old human.

Gillen suggests that it's likely that Nigel came to live with Spanish-speaking people during his mysterious four-year absence, and was quickly able to pick up on phrases. Gillen also cited her own experience as a former owner of an African grey parrot, sharing that her bird could pick up words and tunes within minutes; in fact, it could even be trained to correct pronunciation. With this in mind, she said, it seems likely that Nigel will be able to relearn English with little trouble.