Aww, what a pretty bird. Odds are against that it's actually him, but there's always that slim chance.

If the lady recognized him from the ad you made such a long time ago, maybe she has those original pictures saved? You could try asking her if by any chance, she did save them.

I do have all my ads. When he got missing, I downloaded pictures to Walgreens website to print them, and they are still there.
I am just saying that I find strange that lady was really determined he is my bird (even though chances are so slim) and that she didn't do what was really obvious in this situation - trying to find who could lose him recently in her area. Unless she knows something and conceals it. Maybe somebody walked up my porch and just took him from the cage... who knows (I was supposed to keep an eye on them thru the kitchen window but I guess I wasn't all the time). Maybe it was even her, but now she wants him to be back for some reasons. In some of my ads there is a large word REWARD across his picture. Maybe she wants to get rid of this (her) bird and expects to get money this way (instead just selling him). I don't know.

Chipper.

Chipper, did Chipper have noticeable ghost pearls on his back? I'm comparing the pictures side by side and the one I'm looking at, (the second one you provided), I'm not seeing pearling.

what are they?

Beaker has ghost pearls. Ghost pearls are what is left of a cock pearls after he molts them out or an indication that the cock is split to pearl. They are faint patterns of pearls on his back.

Susanne example:
http://www.justcockatiels.net/uploads/2 ... 2_orig.jpg

No
He was pretty much solid gray where he wasn't white. Trillie has them and he's obviously split to pearl, just look at some of his children.
Does bird they found has them?

I noticed the ghost pearls too. I knew that the wings didn't look quite right in comparison, but I didn't know how to describe it.

Chipper, if you look on the pictures of the bird in the car that the lady supposedly "found" you can see (especially in the first of the two pictures you showed), that the wings don't look quite as solid. There are very faint looking white spots, which are the ghost pearls that Bluekeet is talking about.

Well, the crest looked just as ferny as Chipper's and the feet skin tones match pretty much perfectly, but 2 things kept throwing me off: the ghost pearls and the amount of gray in the beak didn't match. Chipper has more gray in his beak while the other bird didn't have a dark upper mandible like yours does.

My educated guess would be it most likely is not him.

thanks both of you, I really appreciate it! I don't know as much about birds as you do. You're right, the beak wouldn't probably change a lot.
She also sent me a (not sure what to call it) - it's a video that consists of still images, and I can't do a thing with it in my phone! I could save images (that I posted here), but wasn't able to retrieve images from the video, and there is a better view of his back.
This story really thru me off emotionally for some reasons... I have a sick rabbit, and every time any of my pets sick is being very difficult time for me (just because I have so many pets that I have handful when they are all well)