Panic flights

[Heather F]

Mango came to us about 6 months ago with a mostly grown-out clip and it is now all grown out - it's lovely to see her stretch out her wings and no longer see gaps in the flight feathers. She is getting stronger and more confident with her flight too... But that brings us to a problem.

I know that for birds when they startle it is instinctual for them to take off and fly and then their mind engages and they can see that it's okay and they can calm down and land. I wonder if maybe Mango was clipped too early and didn't quite form the proper neurological connections, because if she startles badly enough she seems to get the "take off and fly" part but not the mind re-engaging part because she's not so good at judging where things are and she's bounced off walls a few times as a result. Hasn't happened often but boy is it scary.

Up to now she hasn't been able to get up enough speed to actually do herself injury. But her clip is fully outgrown now and she's starting to fly more to get from one place to another and it worries me that one day there will be a loud enough noise or a scary enough shape out the window and she will panic and take off and smack HARD into something.

Any advice?

 

[Tommymarshall]

can you get her outside?
I don't know your situation. Yard? Small apartment? Windows and semi circles are not good. There are a multitude of bird stops for windows online

 

[Tommymarshall]

 

[JLcribber]

It probably is partly the psychological thing. The only way to overcome that and become a better flyer is to practice and learn from their experience.

Adapt the environment to make it safe and try not to startle her until she becomes a better flyer.

 

[Tommymarshall]

That's totally what I was getting at JLcribbler! If she could get mango outside in a flight suit it totally could help. Learn mangoes wings, as well as trust.
But either way I totally agree with JL very important to birdy proof!

 

[sunnysmom]

I agree. I think it's just practice. When we first got Sunny he would do the same thing. I don't think he had much out of the cage time, if at all, for years and kind of had to relearn everything. He had a couple nasty crashes which scared me to death. But after that, he got the hang of it and became I good little flyer.

 

[Begone]

The easy thing about flying is to take off and to fly, the difficult thing about flying is to land, and to judging how long the flight is to different things.
The only thing Mango needs now it practice, and you should not wait with that if you are concern about a panic flight.
Let Mango fly to you and for every flight change the distance. All from very short - long - to very long. You can fly train several times/day. Don't forget the treats she loves!
And you must cover the windows with something. I have covered all my windows with window blinds. (have the blinds outside the window)
Both Eloy and Akela get scared if their is hawks outside flying, and without covered the windows the flight would have been very dangerous for them.
So my advice, fly train her until she is a good flier and cover the windows. Good luck!

 

[Heather F]

Yeah, we've already got the curtains drawn whenever the birdies are out (and most of the day these days anyway to keep out the heat - our apartment faces south). Apparently there are monsters on the balcony. (Although they are perfectly happy to go out on the balcony in their travel/sleep cages on a nice warm day.) The house is pretty much as bird safe as we can make it without literally padding the walls, no idea how we would even go about doing that without causing property damage.

I'm not keen on harness training and taking her outside. It's possible that she would tolerate it, but she's a small conure and we live in a building with a lot of dogs and a neighbourhood with hawks. That said, we used to do flying practice with Frodo bribing him to fly to each other in the hallway. Maybe we could try doing that with Mango to practice her flight skills, although she isn't as treat-motivated as he is...

But hearing from others that they have had this and that it DOES get better is very comforting. We brought Frodo home at 9 weeks old and he has never been clipped so we have never experienced a bird who never learned proper flight skills. (Although come to think of it Frodo was clumsy as a baby, too. But he never flew straight into a corner and tried to keep going until he fluttered down onto the floor, as Mango has done when panic flying before.)

 

[Begone]

Maybe we could try doing that with Mango to practice her flight skills, although she isn't as treat-motivated as he is...

Just wait when she is outside and wanted to go to her cage and eat, it's easier to train and motivate a hungry bird. (and this will only be for some minutes so it's not cruel at all)

 

[Heather F]

Update:

Two months later Mango is doing MUCH better with her flying. She hasn't had any more of the really awful panic flights where she startled and went into a total freakout bumping into things and fluttering down into a corner and trying to hide under the first thing she could find in her blind panic, which were what prompted me to post this thread in the first place. She only actually had a couple of those, but for weeks my heart stopped every time she took off thinking she might have another episode like that. But now she can hear a noise, take off, realize it's not a threat, and settle back down -- or do a lap around the room just for fun first.

She still isn't as agile or as confident a flyer as Frodo (who has never been clipped) and we remain in the habit of keeping the curtains closed when any bird is out because you never know. But it seems that some of the neurological connections that were maybe missing because she was clipped before (and maybe too early) have sorted themselves out.

 

[Begone]

Great update!
But have hope, she can be a very good flyer, but it will take time and she has to strengthener muscles and learn how to use them before that happen.
I will say, wait 1 year, and then see if she isn't a excellent flier. I think she will be.

 

[Jaguar]

Glad to hear she's doing better!

My tiels have been really high strung lately, even just opening the door can send them rocketing off. They are both pretty adept fliers, yet they hit things that have been there for years, skim the ceiling, crash land in the laundry hamper, etc. The bedroom is small enough that they can't get enough speed to hurt themselves, but if anything they've only gotten worse in time One of them hit the TV and left a perfectly wing-shaped dust mark!