Cockatiels acting strangely lead a bird rescuer to a black mamba hidden in their nesting box

What began as an ordinary feeding session at a bird sanctuary in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, turned into an emergency when a black mamba was found inside a cockatiel nesting box.

What happened?

The warning came from the cockatiels before anyone saw the snake. According to The Witness, the birds huddled on one side of the aviary and would not come down to eat.

Craig Fry, a bird rescuer at the sanctuary, said the birds' unusual behavior on Saturday afternoon was the first sign that something was wrong.

"I noticed everyone was on one side of the aviary, and nobody was coming down to feed," he said. "That's when I knew something wasn't right." 

He first thought there might be a bird inside one of the nesting boxes, but, as The Witness reported, he chose not to put his hand inside.

"There's a small hole in the box, and I thought I saw something move," he said.

After stepping back to get a clearer view, he realized he was looking at a black mamba.

"This mamba just looked at me," he said. A snake catcher, Dean Boswell, was then called to remove it.

Boswell said extracting the snake from the box was not easy.

"It was very difficult to get out because it didn't want to leave the safety of the box," he said.

Its full size only became obvious once it started coming out. Its length was estimated at about 2.1 to 2.2 meters (around 7 feet).

Why does it matter?

Aviaries, nesting boxes, sheds, and other enclosed spaces can attract prey animals, which in turn can attract predators. Birds are common prey for black mambas. 

Experts warn against reaching blindly into outdoor boxes, roofs, or storage spaces when something seems out of the ordinary.

As habitats shift, prey sources move and decrease, and human development extends further into wildlife areas, encounters like this may become more common.

What are people saying?

Fry said the snake's size was especially shocking given how small the nesting box was.

"It just kept coming out. It's not the biggest box in the world, but this huge mamba kept coming out," he said, according to the Witness.

He also said that he found a puff adder at the sanctuary the next day.

After catching it, he added, "I've been catching puff adders for years but this was one of the biggest."

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