Free-flight

[anatess]

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?

[Shadera]

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.

[littleindiangirl]

Got a link to a vid? I'd be interested in seeing that.

[anatess]

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.

[spottysnake]

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.