SOLVED. Children's book from 80s or 90s - Boy has large exotic bird egg in treehouse, hatches into a huge bird. Boy struggles to find food the bird likes, bird wreaks havoc in town, ruins big outdoor party. Lighthearted story, beautiful illustrations [s]

[Kevin]

I'm trying to remember the name of a children's book, that was roughly for ages 3-9. I remember a lot of details from the book, but googling isn't bringing up anything at all. If I had to guess I would say that it was likely published in the 80s or 90s. It clearly wasn't very popular based on how little help I'm getting from search engines, but it was a legitimate kids book, from a real publisher, with beautiful illustrations.

Here is what I remember:

- a boy finds a comically large egg, and decides to keep it in his treehouse to see what happens

- it eventually hatches into an enormous black bird, I remember it looking kind of like a massive crow with a toucan style beak

- it takes him a while to figure out what the bird will eat - I remember the bird eventually settling on eating only butter sandwiches, or jelly sandwiches, or something like that

- there is a big outdoor party in the town that the bird disrupts, causing chaos, stealing butter sandwiches, knocking everything over, etc

- I distinctly remember their being some kind of policeman or constable at this outdoor party

Thank you so much in advance for any ideas!!!

[Kevin]

I just remembered - the bird actually will only eat CAKE, and ends up stealing the big cake from the town celebration

[bookel]

Beautiful illustrations ... do you mean it is a picture book, or chapter book?

[bookel]

Google Books search.
enormous egg treehouse black bird only eat cake book

The Horn Book Guide to Children's and Young Adult Books
1993 · ‎Snippet view
FOUND INSIDE – PAGE 58
A gentle , amusing tale , illustrated in watercolor . sw Trivizas , Eugene The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig ... egg appears in Duncan's tree house and hatches into an unidentifiable black bird that will eat nothing but cake...

There we go. The year, 1993. Now to get title and author.

Search "egg appears in Duncan's tree house and hatches into an unidentifiable black bird that will eat nothing but cake"
In Google Books. Voila. Title and author appear.

The Horn Book Guide to Children's and Young Adult Books
1993 · ‎Snippet view
FOUND INSIDE – PAGE 58
MMB Vesey , Amanda Duncan and the Bird 32 pp . Carolrhoda LE ISBN 0-87614-785-6 14.21 ( 4 ) A mysterious egg appears in Duncan's tree house and hatches into an unidentifiable black bird that will eat nothing but cake.


Vesey, Amanda. Duncan and the bird.
Duncan and the Bird

[bookel]

Here it is, first published 1992. Free to borrow.
https://openlibrary.org/works/OL82894...

[Kevin]

Duncan and the Bird is exactly right - thank you so much, I'm very grateful for your help. Now I can go to sleep peacefully!