ATHENS, Texas (KETK) – Earlier this month we brought you the story of a crazy adventure about how a golden pheasant that went on the run in Tyler and was later saved by an East Texas rescue. Now we have an update.

Sean O’Neill has raised Chinese pheasants for years. This story starts when he had to temporarily relocate his exotic birds to East Texas. They went to his sister’s house in Athens, where a pen was built in her backyard until a windstorm came through.

“The tree above the pen snapped, came down, hit the top of the pen, and all the birds got out,” said O’Neill.

He lost hope of ever seeing his 10 pheasants again and he never thought one would show back up. Until now, when O’Neill’s sister saw our story about the animal making his way around Tyler neighborhoods for three weeks.

“I was like, no, it couldn’t be,” said O’Neill.

O’Neill wasn’t sure the bird, who “4 Love of Parrots” a bird rescue in Winona had named “King Tut”, was his. That’s when the process of verifying the long-lost Chinese red pheasant began.

“I found out that they will survive in the wild and they will fly approximately about a mile, a mile and a half a day, you add up, it could definitely get out to Tyler,” said O’Neill.

After a very adventurous journey, King Tut is now back home and doing well.

“I never expected the bird to show back up because there’s a lot of predatory animals in Texas and I thought for sure he was somebody’s meal,” said O’Neill.

O’Neill is now in the process of rebuilding the old pen so the brightly colored bird can have more room to roam. As far as keeping the name “King Tut” he thinks it’s a good fit, though there is another contender.

“Houdini would also be a good name, for his escapism,” said O’Neill.

O’Neill said he hopes to start breeding King Tut soon and should have more pheasants again in about two years.