Do you TRAIN your birds to fly?

[jeanna]

I was reading the post about the lost macaw stuck in a tree and many people mentioned how birds are afraid to fly down unless they are trained to do so. Do you train your birds to fly? Do you challenge them to develop new flight skills? What have you taught them?

I definitely train mine with various drills/games. I've always believed that the reason why people lose their birds is because their birds don't know how to REALLY fly. Maya came to me fully flighted at 4 months old with absolutely no control. All she could do was fly forward and into things. When she started to figure things out with landing, turning, and hovering, I started to teach her commands. Some are just for fun, but I believe others are absolutely essential. She also obeys them mid-flight. She is recall trained to land on whatever I'm holding up (finger, fist, forearm, perch, etc) because I may be calling to her from a tight spot. She's trained to land on someone else I send her to if they're holding their arm straight out. She's trained to fly down not only straight down at a steep angle, but steep angle down with a turn to get to me. She's blind recall trained, she will find me hearing my voice without seeing me. I basically make hide and seek a game that challenges her to fly in as many different ways as possible. She figured out she can fly to multiple spots to listen before taking off again to where I might be visible. If she can't fly to get to me, she lands on the floor as close as possible and runs towards me (super cute). I've basically thought of everything using my house as an obstacle course because I know the pain of losing a flighted bird who can't come home.

All this training shows when we're outside in her aviator harness. I like to set her down near me with the leash on my wrist. Sometimes she spooks and takes off but I just say "Maya come here" for her to turn on a dime and land on my hand. That way I avoid the elastic stretching and her struggling with it. I think if she ever got out without a harness, she'd still turn back towards me on command. I also take her out whenever possible and walk around the house and neighborhood so she's familiar with where we live.

Jasper is just starting to fly, he doesn't even have all his wing feathers. But already he is being recall trained and trained to fly to his tree on command over a few feet.

I'm very curious to know what others teach their birds! Am I missing anything?

 

[Anne & Gang]

sounds like you are training them incredibly well...and hopefully, nothing will ever happen that you have to put that training to the test. but I often think that if a birdie flies away, instinct takes over and training or not, the bird is afraid to fly down..because down is not a good thing for most birds..their instinct tells them th is is where the predators are..I honestly believe that this is why a lot of birds who get away are afraid to fly down.

 

[waterfaller1]

I have been working with both of mine. Holly is like a helicopter, she can go straight up and down, and will land on my arm. Cochise is more challenging, but he does swoop downward. It does sound like you are doing an excellent job!

 

[Bokkapooh]

I trained Gra to outdoor free flying. Not Mera. I'm a bit slack at training her. She flies to me on command, but that's it. Not to another person or onto a handheld perch. Something I will work on.

Opa is recall trained and was being trained for the outdoors before his accident, but since I have.sacked. He will fly to me in command, if he sees me.

Bokka will fly to me, Moby will follow me, and Pinky follows me.

The rest is a hit/go.

All in all I think I need to train my birds better/more.

 

[lotus15]

I work on recall training with Lola and she is pretty good about coming to me as soon as I say, "Come here!" I practice with having her fly downward especially. Unfortunately when she's frightened, all of the training tends to go out the door.

 

[Chicklet]

I've trained Briar since he was 4 months old, he knows recall and "go perch" on an object I point to. I've also worked with him flying almost straight up and down in case he ever got stuck in a tree he would know how to fly down to me.

Rista on the other hand is just starting to get comfortable with his wings, and so far all I've got is a so-so recall and an excellent flight response to anything fearful

Finn (blue budgie) will also fly to my finger if I have the almighty millet

 

[Nelson & Gang]

I read that thread & it scared the crap out of me. I had a U2 fly away from me many years ago & land on a nasty neighbor’s roof ~ it was very hard to get him down & luckily he did not fly farther or higher. It was an eyeopener. We were taking him from the aviary back to the house and he had a full clip so we didn’t think he could even fly – boy were we wrong!

Since that time ~ I have always worked w/ flight on our birds. We teach them in the house to fly to us and land on our arm. I have never worked w/ recall training or flight outdoors and am hesitant to do so simply b/c I live in the country surrounded by farmland & trees.

Another reason that working w/ flight if you have the ability to is because it’s good for them to develop the wing and other body muscles used in flight. Birds that do not have that muscle will not be able to fly as long w/out being winded … and of course – their being in better shape is also better for their overall health.

We do not transport our birds in or out of the house to the aviary w/out carriers. Whether that training will help them or not (or me) should they ever fly when outside … well, I dunno. But, it can’t hurt.

 

[CeddysMum]

Ceddy's recall training is a work in progress although she has become better lately and we're just starting to blind recall, e.g. around the corner of the L-shaped lounge room and also for her to come down from the curtain rod and high wall unit onto my arm.

Since she freaks out about wearing the harness I have no idea how I could train her to come down from anything higher but I'm planning for her to come to me or at least towards me even if she can't see me. Hopefully we'll never have to put it to the test but the training can't hurt.