safety for flighted birds – Pamela Clark, CPBC

Part Six: Ensuring the Safety of Your Flighted Parrot

The biggest risk for flighted parrots, upon which all agree (whether pro-clipping or pro-flight), is that of permanent loss outdoors.

It must be recognized, however, that this risk is equal for both clipped parrots and those with full flight. Although risk of escape is often touted as the most important reason to clip wings, it is actually clipped parrots who are most often lost in this manner. There are a couple of scenarios in which this happens.

First, parrots who live with clipped wings for years stop trying to fly. Since the birds no longer try to fly, their owners believe that they can’t or won’t fly and take them outside unrestrained. Still others believe that their strong bonds of love would prevent the parrot from making the choice to fly away.

While the latter is a sweet sentiment, an unrestrained parrot will fly away if startled. If the bird has flight capability and startles, so that his flight is fueled with adrenaline, and the day happens to be windy, he can easily be lost for good. He will not have the flight skills to come down out of the tree or return to the area, lengthening his time outdoors and putting him at greater risk of predation. The flight that carries the parrot off under these circumstances is not a choice. It is a reaction to a scary stimulus.

Notice how the flight feathers cross over the tail and are a richer, darker blue.

Further, most people who routinely clip wings don’t know what flight feathers look like once they have grown back in. Flight feathers are longer and often cross over the tail. They also tend to be a different color than the shorter wing feathers in multi-colored parrots. Not recognizing that the parrot has molted and now needs another wing trim, these owners again take their birds outdoors on their shoulders, believing that the birds are not able to fly off because the bird is “clipped.”

Finally, even light-bodied parrots with well-clipped wings can get away under the same circumstances. For example, cockatiels and small conures often fly well even with wing trims. It is not safe to take any parrots outdoors unless in a safe enclosure, or unless in the very rare circumstance that they have been thoroughly trained by an expert for free flight.

The level of risk, when it comes to losing a fully flighted parrot, is lower than you might imagine. Those who lack experience with birds who fly often imagine that they are just waiting for an opportunity to fly right out any open door. This is not the case.

Parrots like what they know, what is familiar. No parrot makes the decision intentionally to leave the safety and security of his home to fly out a door into the unknown. In the majority of cases in which this happens, it is because the parrot is trying to join the owner.

It is a parrot’s nature to follow the flock. When you live with flighted parrots, they follow you from room to room unless prevented from doing so. The attempt to follow you as you leave the house or to join you as you return from being gone is a natural extension of this behavior. While exceptions will always occur, this is how most flighted parrots are lost outdoors.

Understanding this dynamic then makes risk management in this area more straightforward. The best solution is to establish a double-entry system to which all family members agree to adhere. This might be as simple as exiting the house into the garage first, rather than using the front door, and then leaving the house through the garage door. Granted, this is inconvenient, but so is searching for days for a lost parrot.

Others build small enclosures inside or outside of their main entry door so that they can exit into the enclosure, and then when assured that they don’t have a parrot with them, exit the secondary enclosure. For example, if your front door leads into a hallway, a second door could be installed at the end of that hallway inside the home.

For those of us who don’t have the possibility of either option, creativity must come into play and vigilance must be practiced. I live in a small home with two exit doors in the main living area. My front door offers a straight shot out of the house. Therefore, I have furniture in front of that door and keep the deadbolt locked all the time.

Instead, I use my kitchen door for all entries and exits. My kitchen is long and narrow so it is harder for a bird to fly down that length and get outdoors. When I am ready to leave the house, I walk to that door, then turn to see where all the parrots are. If they are all quiety perched at a distance, I exit quickly. I have also trained my dog to sit and wait until I give her the cue, so she too exits quickly with me. (This is a system I would not recommend; it works for me only because I live alone and have few visitors.)

No matter how good your loss prevention efforts are, accidents do happen and parrots don’t always behave in predictable ways. That is why, if you choose to live with birds that fly, you must plan for the day when they do get outdoors.

About 12 years ago, I lost Marko, one of my greys, outdoors. I arrived home from work. My daughter was visiting and had let the birds out of their cages. As I entered the house, I found my progress blocked by my two enthusiastic large dogs happily greeting me. At the same time, Marko flew to me. She landed on my shoulder as I was trying to get inside and then, startled, continued out the door.

However, I had her back within 20 minutes because I had prepared for that day. My preparations, outlined below, should be those that you follow as well. I once spent years offering advice on an internet discussion list for people who live with flighted parrots and it was extremely rare for anyone not to get their parrot back, if they followed the suggestions below:

Teach your bird to fly to you on cue. Not just sometimes over a short distance. Work on this behavior on a daily basis until your parrot has such a rock solid recall that he will fly to you from any room of the house as soon as you call. A parrot who has a strong history of flying to your hand will be more likely to leave a tree branch or rooftop to fly down to you. Trusted resource Stephanie Edlund offers a course on how to each recall to a parrot.
Ensure that your parrot has excellent flight skills – that he can fly around sharp corners, upwards and downwards at steep inclines, can hover, and has stamina. This means that he flies a lot, which means that you have to provide him with a lifestyle in which he gets to fly a lot. If your home is small, take him somewhere larger to practice. Learning to fly upward and downward is easiest in a two-story house. If your home is on one level, ask him to fly downward to you from hanging perches and upward to you from the floor. Endurance can be encouraged by asking him to fly from one location to another in sequence, which can be turned into an enjoyable game for you both.
Provide your parrot plenty of time outdoors in a safe enclosure. An aviary is the best option for this. A google search will locate the many companies that make and ship these. Alternatively, a deck or porch can also be turned into an aviary. A parrot who spends plenty of time outdoors will become used to the sights and sounds of the neighborhood. Once used to the stimuli present around your home, your bird will be much less likely to startle and fly far away if caught outdoors. Make sure you always use a carrier when transporting your bird out to his aviary and back again.
Get your parrot used to a sound that is associated with warm, yummy food. A spoon clinked against the side of a glass measuring cup works nicely for this. To do so, regularly share a bit of warm (not hot) food with your bird. Suggestions include oatmeal, mashed sweet potatoes and scrambled eggs. Clink the spoon against the cup before every bite. Following this practice weekly will create an association in your bird’s mind between that particular sound and the comfort of a warm treat. You can then use this sound to encourage your parrot to come down out of that tree!
Never use force with your parrot. If you do, you’ll be giving him a good reason not to fly back to you if he is lost.
Familiarize yourself with recovery strategies. You will dramatically increase your chances of getting him back if you do the right things at the right times in the case of loss. Barbara Heidenreich has an excellent article on this, which should be printed out and kept in a safe place in case it is needed.

Windows are often touted as dangerous to flighted parrots. Certainly enough parrots have been injured, fatally or otherwise, by flying headlong into windows. However, this is the sort of thing that happens with inexperienced flyers who startle and fly without thinking. Fully flighted parrots with good skills do not fly into windows, unless very unusual circumstances are in place.

If you have determined that your parrot is a good candidate for flight and are transitioning him from a clipped lifestyle to full flight, then you will have to protect him from flying into windows as he develops his skills. There are a number of strategies for this:

Rub a thick layer of bar soap over the windows to create an opaque appearance, then remove this little by little as your parrot learns that the window is a solid surface. This is the best option.
Install the Wingdow perches on your larger windows. This is an expensive option, but one that would increase quality of life over the long run.
Alternatively, always have curtains drawn or blinds down to cushion any impact and to present the window area as a solid surface. Gradually open these as the bird learns.
Masking tape, if applied in abundance to the window surface, may also help to convey this effect, but is a lot more of a hassle. A strip or two, or the use of decals, will not be effective.
Parrots can be allowed to hang out on window sills to interact with the glass, again teaching them that a solid surface exists. (I’m not sure how effective this is, but I and others have used it when training fledgling birds.)
During warmer weather, when windows are likely to be open, make sure that all window screens are firmly attached. More than one parrot has been lost when it flew into a window screen that was loose.

The other risks related to living with flighted parrots all reside within the realm of risk management. Here’s the definition of risk management: The forecasting and evaluation of risks, together with the identification of procedures to avoid or minimize their impact. In other words, you have to be observant, evaluate your environment, use your imagination to identify potential problems that could occur and then, by planning ahead and implementing prevention strategies, make sure that those things don’t happen.

In reality, the risks in most homes are fewer than have been imagined and described by those who haven’t lived with flying birds. Parrots are learners and wicked smart. They will over time learn about the things they should avoid. However, accidents can happen and a distracted parrot who is still learning to fly can land in a spot he did not intend.

The following should not be considered to be a finite list and is not a replacement for evaluating your own environment:

Keep cook pots covered when on the burner.
If you take a pan off of a hot burner, replace it with a tea kettle full of water to cover the hot surface.
Don’t use ceiling fans – take the blades off, or disable the switch, or purchase the type that has a cage around it.
Keep your toilet lid down or your bathroom door closed.
Never use fly strips.
Keep electrical cords out of reach.
Get into the habit of looking up before you close a door – parrots have been known to perch there.
Don’t keep toxic houseplants.
Do not allow your parrot to hang out on your shoulder. If you do, the day will come when you absentmindedly walk out the door to get the mail with him along for the ride.
Discourage him from spending time on the floor by teaching him to station.
If you live with smaller parrots, don’t leave tall glasses filled with liquid out unsupervised.
Provide a barricade around a wood stove and make the area otherwise unattractive.
If you have a dog who exhibits a prey drive, hire an experienced positive reinforcement trainer to help you resolve that behavior.

Living with a flighted parrot brings many joys, but also great responsibility. This is the Catch-22 of parrot ownership. Sooner or later, if we truly love the spirit that resides within those feathers, we grow uncomfortable with wing clipping. Once that happens, and we begin that journey of living with flighted parrots, we no longer have the option of living thoughtlessly or carelessly within our own homes.

Thank you for reading my blog. I am Pamela Clark, an IAABC Certified Parrot Behavior Consultant. My passion is helping people with parrots by offering behavior consultations and publishing information you can trust. To access free resources or subscribe to my newsletter (which is a different publication from this blog), please visit me at http://www.pamelaclarkonline.com. Until next time!

Part Five: Cooperative Living with Flighted Parrots

Often, when I talk about living with flighted parrots to someone who has always clipped wings, they get a look on their face that could be interpreted as a combination of horror, perplexity, and complete consternation. You can tell that they can’t even begin to wrap their minds around what that might look like, or why one would want to.

I stopped clipping wings back in the late 1990’s. As I had gained more hands-on experience with birds, it just seemed to be a no-brainer that they should enjoy flight. So, I made the decision with an abundance of enthusiasm and the confidence that, “I’ll just figure this out!”

I don’t actually recommend this approach to those of you considering transitioning from living with a wing-clipped parrot to living with a bird who flies. It’s much easier to have a bit of guidance from someone who has experience in this area. Thus, I offer this blog post to you, so that you can avoid some of the hassles that I had due to my own inexperience.

Keys to Success

The ability to live cooperatively with flighted birds depends upon three main areas of management: (1) setting up the environment effectively, (2) training yourself to be continually mindful, and (3) learning how to efficiently provide behavioral guidance. You’re going to have to accept the fact that you’ll be doing some training to maintain compliance.

If you don’t, you will have an out-of-control experience with your bird and will wind up relegating him to his cage whenever you can’t directly supervise. One hallmark of quality of life is the ability to make choices. That is why a flighted bird is so lucky. His ability to move around is not compromised, so he can make a lot more choices.

If allowing flight means that your bird stays in his cage for longer periods, you have accomplished nothing for his quality of life. You might as well keep clipping wings so that he can at least be out of his cage more often.

Managing the Environment

I once adopted a baby grey to a family who were so committed to allowing flight that they had remodeled their entire home to realize this first goal of having the ideal environment. All doorways were turned into arches to eliminate molding. Kitchen cabinets extended all the way down to the floor. The refrigerator fit into a recess in the wall so that no bird could perch on top of it to chew the gasket. It was quite remarkable.

You don’t have to go to that extreme, of course, but a bit of work is needed to achieve the objective of flighted feathers and earth-bound humans living side by side in cooperative fashion.

Birds want to perch up high and flighted parrots go where they want. They will perch on bookcases and chew the spines of the books. Many seem to have a particular fondness for lampshades. They enjoy sitting on top of doors to chew the molding.

Therefore, you will need to provide your flighted bird with his own “furnishings,” in order to keep him off of your own. The ideal environment will have a perch in every room to which your parrot has access. It is a bird’s nature to follow the flock and a flighted parrot will follow you from room to room. Skillful placement of hanging perches, free-standing perches and table-top perches will help to guarantee that the experience is fun for all. At the end of this post, I have included a list of perches that I know from personal experience to be attractive to parrots.

Hanging perches are especially valuable. While these may seem, at first glance, inconvenient to install and maintain, they will make life so much easier. Birds naturally seek the highest place to perch. By providing perches that hang from the ceiling, your bird will be more likely to choose those instead of your own furnishings.

It is a parrot’s nature to chew where he is perched. Window ledges and the corners of walls will be at risk. Home improvement stores sell acrylic corners that can be easily screwed in place to protect these. Bannisters can be wrapped with sisal rope.

If there is enough space above your kitchen cabinets for a bird to perch, it will be best to place a piece of acrylic or wood on top that extends an inch or two past the cabinets to prevent chewing on the tops of the doors. The same suggestion would hold true for the top of your refrigerator. It’s huge fun to perch on the blades of ceiling fans and chew these. It’s best to purchase a fan inside a cage – they do exist.

Electrical cords can be a hazard and replacing appliances gets to be a real drag. These can be protected either by using cord channels or black pliable irrigation tubing slit down the center and placed around the wire.

If you allow your birds to perch on your shower rod and happen to have a shower curtain, placing a second rod above the one that holds the curtain will prevent the need to replace that regularly.

If your bird never fledged or has been clipped for a few years, he might not fly much or venture into other rooms at first, causing you to think that my suggestions are somewhat over-the-top. However, as he builds his flight skills and gains confidence, he will eventually begin to explore your entire house and it will become his territory as well.

Managing the Mess

It’s hard to say whether flighted birds create more mess than their clipped counterparts. Parrots are just messy – period! The answer probably depends upon where diets and enrichment items are offered and whether your bird likes to fly with his food and eat it in different locations. There are some actions you can take to minimize the mess.

Locate hanging perches directly over cages or play stands. If that’s not possible, use area rugs. Purchase two sets. I like the ones that have non-slip backing and can be washed and dried. I haven’t yet tried the Ruggable brand, but they look ideal for this purpose and look a little classier. When you need to wash the rugs currently under your perches, simply lay down your second set.

If there is a tight spot that tends to collect droppings because you can’t get a rug to fit, Glad Press and Seal is invaluable. Having a light adhesive backing, it can be applied directly to a clean (uncarpeted) floor and then replaced when needed. For smaller messes, keeping a good quantity of small cleaning cloths and a spray bottle filled with cleaning agent is a good strategy for quick clean-ups.

Probably the best way to deal with mess is to contain it to certain areas. This will involve encouraging your bird to stay on the perches you have provided, which is covered in the section on Managing their Behavior.

Managing Ourselves

A friend once made me laugh by commenting that the only people who could use the remote controls in her house were the ones with long fingernails. We’ve all lost a remote control or three, depending upon how quickly we learn and how distracted we tend to be. We count ourselves lucky if they only take the buttons.

Parrots love electronics. Even the best among us have experienced a sneak attack on these valuables. Dr. Susan Friedman in a presentation once used a photograph of what her computer keyboard looked like after her Umbrella Cockatoo had quietly let himself out of his cage in the early hours of the morning. Of course, a clipped parrot could manage the same, but those who fly have increased access.

We have to learn to remember to cover computers with towels, put remotes away in a cupboard, keep certain doors closed, and not leave anything out in plain sight that might be attractive for chewing. This is essentially an exercise in mindfulness and the ability to anticipate problems.

We must think ahead when making purchases. For example, you might decide not to replace your old, worn furniture with a set of rattan. You get the idea. This is probably going to have to be a learn by doing experience. Be assured, the fun of living with a flighted spirit makes it worthwhile.

Managing Their Behavior

Life with parrots is always easier when we accept the fact that we must actively steer their behavior into desirable channels. When you live with birds who fly, getting into the mindset of living as a trainer is essential.

If you don’t, your experience may very well get out of control. Parrots constantly offer behavior, as all animals do. This is especially true of birds who fly. The more active a bird can be, the more behavior he can offer, and the more opportunities he has to act on the environment. Some of this behavior, you won’t like.

If you don’t step up and teach him what you want him TO DO, you will wind up behaving toward him in a very aversive manner – chasing him off locations where you don’t want him to be, acting like a crazy person when you find that he’s destroyed your containers of expensive make-up, and using force to get him back into his cage. Besides being incredibly uncool, this type of behavior will break all trust and make having a parrot no fun at all.

Thus, you’ve got to teach the behaviors that will allow him to be successful and for you to have control over your experience. I will describe these briefly; information on how to teach most of these is available in abundance online.

Five Essential Behaviors to Teach and Maintain

Step-Up: The majority of birds who have been deemed good candidates for flight already step up, at least some of the time. Likely, you will just need to maintain compliance by making sure to always reinforce this with a preferred food or head scratch. A valuable practice: Ask your bird a few times a day to step up, provide a reward, and then put him right back down again. This is good advice for any parrot.

Step-Off: Birds who are strongly bonded to you may have a more difficult time with this one. If so, choose a reinforcer of high value to the parrot and show it to him when giving the cue, at least in the beginning. Reinforce every time you cue this behavior with a high value treat.

Stationing: Teaching your parrot to primarily use his own “furniture” is an essential practice. Three important benefits derive from this:

It keeps him off of your shoulder, which avoids the formation of a pair bond and fosters his continuing independence.
It helps to prevent damage to household items.
It prevents cavity seeking behavior.

Instructions for stationing can be found on my website.

The Drop: You will thank yourself a millions times over if you teach your parrot to drop an item on cue. It saves a lot of money in replacing pens and will keep him safe if he ever picks up anything dangerous.

Offer him an item to take with his beak, such as a poker chip or whiffle ball. Once he takes it, show him a food treat or something else he might want more and ask him to “Drop.” Once he has, give him the other them. Practice this often with a variety of things, gradually working up to those that are more valuable to him.

The Recall: Teaching your bird to come when called is a must. Having a rock-solid recall is essential to a happy relationship and drastically increases your chances of getting him back if he is lost. This can be taught a couple of different ways. My favorite: If he has a habit of flying to your shoulder, turn when you hear him coming and say “Fly here” while holding up your hand so that he lands there. Reward him with a treat. As he learns that “Fly here” means to come and land on your hand, you can begin to cue him from a variety of different locations.

Following these simple suggestions will go a long way toward ensuring that you establish a happy and cooperative existence with your parrot.

One final suggestion: If you have never lived with a flighted parrot or currently have challenges with your bird who flies, please either call me for a consultation or get help from another qualified mentor. As Dr. Patricia McConnell once wrote about dog training: “You wouldn’t try to learn basketball just by reading a book, so if you need to play the game, do what any parent would do for their child, and find a good, knowledgeable coach.”

Resources for Perches

The AviHang and AviStation from My Birdie Buddy
Oddball Perches and Crawlers from Oliver’s Garden
Planets from Parrot Planet Paradise
The Get A Grip Climbing Nets from StarBird Parrot
Bungees from Super Bird Creations
Window Seats and playstands from Wingdow

Sneak Preview

My friend, Chris Shank, and I often discuss parrots and their welfare. We share some serious concerns about both how baby parrots are hand-raised in captivity and the recent insistence among free-flight enthusiasts that candidates must be hand-reared and encouraged to develop a bond of dependence in order to be successful.

Chris has free flown her cockatoos for over 30 years and is an expert on the subject. Several years ago, two Bare-eyed Cockatoos were raised here by their parents and became successful free fliers through positive reinforcement training.

This spring, two parent-raised Bare-eyed Cockatoos have gone to nest and are currently sitting on eggs. Therefore, their offspring will be second-generation parent-reared birds and will become free flyers themselves. Chris will be revealing her experiences here as a guest blogger so that you all can share in this fascinating and exciting experience. We hope to show that hand-rearing is not necessary to have a trusting relationship with a young parrot and that a young parrot raised to be independent can succeed at free flight.

Please note that neither Chris nor I advocate free flight for the average owner, especially the flight of a single parrot.

Part Four: To Clip or Not to Clip?

The previous three episodes of this blog examined all of the reasons why allowing flight must be thoroughly considered before any decision to clip wings is made – in each and every case. Flight is the very best choice for physical and psychological health for the parrot and offers many benefits to the caregiver as well.

In a perfect world, all baby parrots would be parent-raised, fully fledged, and never have their wings clipped. In a perfect world, no one would adopt a parrot unless they could keep the bird fully flighted. However, this is not a perfect world.

The complicated lives of the complicated people who live with complicated parrots can make this decision a challenging one for those who have embraced wing clipping in the past. In addition to that, not every adult parrot is a good candidate for flight. This blog will take a look at how one goes about deciding this crucial question: “Is allowing flight the right choice for me and my parrot?”

It’s a Study of One

Careful consideration must be given to all aspects and all projected consequences of each option. Many questions must be asked and answered about the home environment, the family, and the parrot. When owners take the time to do a thorough analysis, the choice then can be made with confidence.

If we decide to clip those flight feathers, we may regret the need, but we will rest confidently in the knowledge that the choice is the right one, because the other has been thoroughly researched and found impossible. If we decide to allow flight, our commitment to this will be complete and this will serve us well as prepare to live with a bird who flies.

Each parrot and his environment are a study of one.

Assessing the Environment

Not every home can safely accommodate a fully flighted parrot. Future episodes of this blog will deliver specific recommendations for how to live safely and successfully with birds who fly. Today, we will merely take a look at some of the considerations necessary to making a decision.

Can you secure your home by arranging your entrances and exits in such a way that the parrot cannot be lost if he chooses to fly to you? Companion parrots will rarely fly out an open door without reason. They are typically afraid of the unfamiliar and will not consciously make a decision to leave the familiarity of the home for the strangeness of the outdoors.

They are most frequently lost when they try to join us as we leave or enter the home. Especially at risk are parrots who have gotten used to hanging out on shoulders. When we open a door to either enter or exit the home, a flighted parrot will often try to join us. Hitting the shoulder at the same moment that we open the door often provides that perfect instant of startle when they instead fly off out the door. Having a double-entry system will prevent this.

Family Members and Visitors

Are all family members reliable, in terms of keeping doors shut and remaining mindful about the use of ceiling fans and other hazards? If you have several small children around, the danger of loss could increase if doors are constantly being left open. Yours may be 100% reliable, while their friends may not. Living with parrots might need to wait until they are older.

It doesn’t do a bird much good to be flighted if he spends the majority of each day in his cage for safety’s sake.

Even adult visitors will need monitoring. One African grey loved to fly in a circuit around the living area. There was a sliding glass door between two of the rooms that was always left open…until a well-meaning visitor closed it and a tragedy occurred. Dangers must be anticipated and prevented, which requires constant mindfulness.

An Outdoor Aviary?

Is there room for an outdoor aviary or screened-in porch and are you willing to go to the expense and inconvenience of providing such a safe space out-of-doors? Aside from the fact that parrots need exposure to real sunlight for health, a flighted parrot will be safest if he is exposed regularly to the sights and sounds of your neighborhood. In the event of loss, this familiarity can keep him from startling and flying too far away for recovery.

Other Pets

Are there other animals in the home who might pose a danger? Most cats are not much of a risk to medium- to large-sized parrots, but will absolutely be attracted to the manner in which small birds fly.

Dogs with a prey drive may well leap up to catch a flighted parrot, but leave a perched bird alone. Dogs (and possibly some cats) can be trained a “leave it” cue, but this would require a good degree of training skill and persistent effort on your part.

Occasionally one parrot will develop aggressive behavior toward another. Training can resolve this situation as well, but in rare cases it could be best for everyone’s safety to perform a partial clip until such training is well under way. It is not typically necessary to perform a full wing clip to solve this problem temporarily. Removing about 1.5 inches of length from the first two or three leading primary flight feathers makes it more difficult to fly, which generally leads to a drastic reduction in such aggressive behavior.

Assessing Ourselves

As much as we might like to think that we are good candidates for living with a flighted parrot, not all of us are. We must honestly assess ourselves, as well.

Am I interested in training my bird and am I willing to devote the time to learn how? As I stated in my last blog post about the benefits of flight to caregivers, clipping wings and training are too sides of the same coin. (In reality of course, clipped birds need training too.) While clipping wings may accomplish a measure of compliance, you have no such advantage with a flighted companion. Reinforcing cued behaviors to maintain compliance and teaching a recall behavior are essential.

Training birds is fun, results in better relationships, and doesn’t take more than a few minutes each day. But, if you are unfamiliar with effective training strategies, this will require study, planning and preparation. If you feel that your life is out of control and you lose your keys once a week, it might not be the right time to live with birds who fly.

An Inconvenient Truth

Are you willing to tolerate some damage to household items? This should be minimal if you set up the house correctly and work on behavioral management. However, it will still happen.

Parrots often change their behavior as they get older and we will at times be absent-minded. How many remote controls are you willing to replace? Is it important enough to you to allow your bird flight to put up with the occasional need to repair woodwork or replace closet doors (as a real-life example)?

Parrot Perches

Parrots need their own “furniture.” For flighted birds, this is essential. Since they can go where they want, they will use yours if they don’t have their own. To me, there is no greater frustration than watching a parrot perch on a bookcase and chew the spines of my beloved books.

Setting up an appropriate environment for flighted birds will remove your home a few steps from Martha Stewart standards. Can you make peace with this?

Assessing the Parrot

Not every adult parrot is a good candidate for flight.

First, any decision to clip wings should never be made for the purpose of correcting behavior problems. It was common, when I was working as a veterinary technician, for a client to come in stating that she wanted her birds wings clipped because he was becoming “uppity.”

In other words, the owner wanted the clip for the purpose of making the parrot feel less safe so that he would be more compliant. This is not ethical. “Uppity behavior,” and any other problems, can be addressed through training – using positive reinforcement effectively, coupled with thoughtful arrangement of the environment. If you have a behavior problem, please call me for a consultation before you think about clipping wings.

Fully Flighted = Excellent Skills

In regards to the parrot himself, any decision to clip should be based upon safety considerations. Many older parrots will not learn to fly even if you allow their flight feathers to grow out. This creates a dangerous situation.

A bird with flight capability, but who lacks flight skills, is at greater risk of both physical injury and permanent loss than the parrot who practices flying regularly. Most of the accidents and injuries that are touted as reasons for clipping have occurred because of limited or nonexistent skills.

It is also too easy to imagine that the bird who doesn’t fly… can’t or won’t fly. These birds are regularly lost when owners take them outside on shoulders or perches, imagining that they will never fly off. All it takes is a startle, generating a spurt of adrenaline, a bit of breeze, and that bird is gone. Sadly then, he is often lost for good since he doesn’t have the skills to keep himself safe and then fly back.

If you are going to allow your parrot to keep his flight feathers, it is crucial that he uses them to fly as his primary means of getting around. Only in this way will he develop the skills he needs. Fully flighted parrots must develop stamina, the ability to maneuver in tight places, and to fly upward and downward at steep inclines. This will make their recovery more certain if they are ever lost outside.

Evaluating Candidates

Great candidates for the recovery of flight are those young parrots who were fledged well by the breeder, but then had their wings clipped before adoption. Typically, once they molt for the first time they regain flight easily. Unfortunately these days in the United States, breeders who fledge babies are rare.

Young parrots who never fledged, but who are allowed to retain flight feathers after the first molt, often also learn to fly well. That instinct to fly usually remains for at least a year after clipping. These individuals may need a little encouragement, but can still become great flyers.

Evaluating older parrots for flight can be difficult. I remember one conversation I had with Barbara Heidenreich and Chris Shank on this topic. We agreed that a heavy-bodied bird who had been clipped for eight years or longer is not likely to regain flight and would be a poor candidate. Exceptions exist, however.

Parrots with long tails (cockatiels, conures, macaws, etc) are often described as “light-bodied.” These individuals may be more likely to regain flight, even after a few years of clipping. Parrots with short tails (Amazons, caiques, African greys, etc) are termed “heavy-bodied” and often have a harder time learning to fly later.

For these birds, initial attempts at flight are not reinforcing. Flying is too hard and they frequently decide that it is not worth the effort, especially if they have been clipped for long enough that they have lost that urge to change location frequently that is a hallmark of the parrot spirit.

Small cockatoos do frequently regain flight, even after an extended period of clipped wings. Their dynamic, sprightly personalities seem to provide them with more drive for frequent activity. In addition, they tend to have wider wing spans in relation to their body size than other species do, which makes those early attempts less punishing.

Get a Mentor to Ensure Success

I strongly encourage you to engage the services of a mentor if you do decide to allow your clipped parrot to regain flight. It can be invaluable to speak with an experienced advocate who will evaluate your home for dangers, help you set up the correct environment, and provide you with the training knowledge you need.

I’ve never yet talked to anyone who regretted the decision to allow flight. It’s an emotional experience that words struggle to convey. The rewards so far outweigh the inconvenience. It’s akin to touching the wildish heart of the natural world.

Please stay tuned for the next episode of this series, which will provide information on living successfully with flighted birds, including setting up your home and the necessary training.