12-year-old Russian boy befriends sparrow

A young Russian boy's friendship with a wild bird is tugging at heartstrings this week.

Vadim Veligurov, 12, found an abandoned baby sparrow near his grandmother's house in the historical town of Minusinsk in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, where he was spending his summer holiday.

The unlikely duo have been inseparable ever since.

Vadim named the bird Abi, and decided to care for her until she grew strong enough to fly away. Instead of returning to the wild, however, the sparrow had no intentions of leaving her human friend.

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Abi regularly sits on Vadim's shoulder, follows him to the playground, and eats out of his hands. The little bird is even comfortable stealing tiny bites of ice cream cone from Vadim's mouth, Reuters photos show.

Now that the summer break is over, Vadim will be taking Abi with him to his hometown of Dudinka, the administrative capital of the Taymyr Peninsula in northern Russia, Metro reported.

Last year, a 10-year-old Ohio boy befriended a bird named Scraggy after his feathered companion crawled onto his lap one day.

Read their sweet story at the Daily Tribune.