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Free-flight
I have a 9-year-old African Grey parrot that I have hand-fed since he was about 20-days old. We have a pretty good bond as a result. I saw a video of Chris Biro and his partner training their birds for free-flight last week and I got intensely interested in it! My bird is only partially clipped since I have a dog. He was flighted up to a year old before I had his wings clipped. I didn't want to do it and it took me months to finally decide to get his wings clipped. I felt that a bird needs his wings to be a bird. Anyway, all books that I've read recommended clipping and peer pressure finally made me decide to clip. Now, looking at Chris Biro's videos, I felt I had a chance to train my bird to free-fly. I don't think I'll have the courage to do it outdoors without a harness, though. So, I'm going to try free flight training when I get my next bird (once the kids are old enough to take full responsibility of the snakes' husbandry).
What do you guys think?
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BP owner since Oct 2008, so yeah, I'm no expert.
0.1.0 pastel bp
1.0.0 spider bp
0.1.0 albino bp
1.0.0 bumblebee bp
1.0.0 yellowbelly bp
0.0.1 normal bp
1.0.0 normal western hognose
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO what a ride!"
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Re: Free-flight
I'd never free-flight a bird I couldn't emotionally handle losing. In other words, not for me. I love the videos I've seen and think it's fascinating, but the dangers are just to great for me. I have 7 parrots, all clipped.
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The Following User Says Thank You to Shadera For This Useful Post:
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Re: Free-flight
Got a link to a vid? I'd be interested in seeing that.
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Re: Free-flight
Originally Posted by littleindiangirl
Got a link to a vid? I'd be interested in seeing that.
This is the best one in my opinion:
YouTube - Buckle, A Baby Shamrock Macaw
It shows the bird from being a baby to a free-flying one.
There are more videos at http://www.wingsatliberty.com/videos.html
I've been researching this extensively for the past 2 weeks... talking to a LOT of people on it and most agree that they are more confident of the bird not getting lost when trained as a free-flying bird than being a clipped bird. Although, there is 1 prominent incident of a lost bird - Andrew's African Grey - although Andrew admits that it was his error in judgement that caused the bird to be lost. The bird was not trained for wind-flight yet and she caught a draft and couldn't find a way to get back down. There is also the incident of Tinkerbell in Taiwan (or Singapore?) who was trained for free-flight but when she was flying came in contact with a flock of pigeons and went with the flock instead of coming back to her owner. She was recovered but the owner decided to never fly her again except with a harness. Chris Biro himself lost 2 macaws on one of his bird shows but they were both recovered the next day.
So, yeah, I guess there is always the chance of the bird getting lost, but I think it is the same chance as a clipped bird. Of course, having a flighted bird is MUCH MORE responsibility to the owner than a clipped bird. And I am only talking about TRAINED flighted birds. I mean, having an untrained (or improperly trained) flighted bird is just an accident waiting to happen, that's for sure.
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BP owner since Oct 2008, so yeah, I'm no expert.
0.1.0 pastel bp
1.0.0 spider bp
0.1.0 albino bp
1.0.0 bumblebee bp
1.0.0 yellowbelly bp
0.0.1 normal bp
1.0.0 normal western hognose
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO what a ride!"
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Registered User
Re: Free-flight
I think it's important for birds to fly for exercise and mental stimulation, but outdoor free-flight without a harness with a pet is not a risk I would want to take. You can get an aviator harness or other such flight harnesses and do outdoor recalls without the risk though, which is great.
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