• Welcome to Avian Avenue! To view our forum with less advertisments please register with us.
    Memberships are free and it will just take a moment. Click here

Older bird learning to fly

Ripshod

Biking along the boulevard
Avenue Veteran
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Joined
12/6/18
Messages
7,529
Location
UK
Real Name
Linden
There's already a thread on here by junglechicken about a bird returning to flight after losing that ability. This question is slightly different.
Tau has never flown. Before I got her she'd spent all her time in a tiny shared cage, and when I got her her flights were so damaged I had to trim them back. She has adapted well. Looking forward now she will inevitably grow in some new flights and will need to learn to fly. I do understand that her bones will be much harder and more brittle than they would have been at fledging age. Would all thus make her more prone to injury (I imagine it would)? Should I move her into the bedroom away from all the hard furniture for training, until she has some control?
I imagine a few collisions with the ceiling and a few bruises. I can also imagine she might not even want to fly now she's used to climbing everywhere, but natural instinct is to fly when scared or threatened which she has attempted on a few occasions. Does anyone have experience of this unique situation?
 
Last edited:

sunnysmom

Ripping up the road
Avenue Veteran
Celebirdy of the Month
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Joined
9/16/13
Messages
28,803
Location
Pennsylvania
Real Name
Michelle
If she never learned to fly as a baby, I'm not sure if she will.... I found this article. I don't know if I agree about the clipping part but it has some other good ideas: Flight Training for the Clumsy Parrot

Also, my senior tiel had to relearn to fly. He did and could fly fairly well. But he actually preferred walking. I know a lot of people don't like birds on the floor but we used to let my tiel play on the floor. (In the wild, tiels do spend quite a bit of time on the ground.) So he would walk and run and play that way most of the time.
 

CeciliaZ

Biking along the boulevard
Avenue Veteran
Mayor of the Avenue
Joined
11/7/11
Messages
9,146
Location
Mentor, Ohio
Real Name
Cecilia
My newest addition is a tiel, Phoebe that I adopted from the humane society. I don't know how old she is other than she is an adult. She came from a hoarding situation of over 600 birds. So I assumed that she also was not allowed to fly. All my birds are fully flighted and are allowed out of cage time to fly and play. I do have a bird room with several places for them to land - a climbing net, some perches, and hanging playstands as well as playstands that are on the floor. I was worried about letting her fly but I did not want to deny her. She watched all the other tiels fly and I finally let her try - she hovered in a small area quite a bit before attempting to fly any distance - But she did it! She has no problem with control now. Cover mirrors, windows, etc. Good luck!
 

Brittany0208

Rollerblading along the road
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Joined
4/8/18
Messages
2,877
Java is definitely a clumsy 'flier'. He wasn't allowed to fledge by his breeder and now that he is missing a leg, he's anything but graceful. He crashes and spirals until he ends up on the floor. No coordination whatsoever, but I have been working with him over the months. He may still never be an aerobatic flier but I'm hoping he can at least get from A to B without hurting himself. All in all, it's possible, but it won't be easy.
 

BirdField

Walking the driveway
Avenue Veteran
Joined
6/21/17
Messages
255
Real Name
Finn
I think a lot of birds are (unfortunately) clipped before fledging. I know most chain stores do it and I know my local parrot specialty store does it, too. I think the biggest difference with Tau is that she never was even able to try. The clipped birds at the stores can at least hop around and glide to the floor when taken out.
I think it'd still be possible for her to fly, I'd just imagine it'd take a lot of building up her muscles, recall, and very very gradual steps. Hopefully she can learn, but you'll want to pad her flying area because I can only imagine she'll be crashing a lot. Good luck to you both!
 

simon777

Sprinting down the street
Avenue Veteran
Joined
11/21/18
Messages
440
Location
parakai new zealand
Real Name
Iliel
Simon was 2 when I first got him and he could only glide down because he had been clipped all his life. I let his feathers grow so he would be able to fly. The first time he got lift was a very happy day for him. The look on his face was 'wow wow I can fly'. I hope you get to see that look on Tau's face one day. Encouragement to try to fly and extreme praise when she does, even a tiny bit, should help. Lots of luck.
 

JLcribber

@cockatoojohn
Avenue Veteran
Celebirdy of the Month
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Shutterbugs' Best
Avenue Concierge
Joined
10/16/09
Messages
22,620
Location
Alberta, Canada
Real Name
John
If your bird is a fully mature adult and never flown the odds are very low it will ever fly. Not because it can't fly but because the bird has never learned the psychology behind flight and developed those neurons in the brain when it was very young. That is the time a bird needs to learn flight. It is scared to fly. Does not want to fly.

It's possible your bird can learn to fly but it will never fly well or be an effortless natural thing. It will always take effort and concentration.

A good read for you.

Thinking on the Wing | The Parrot University, llc
 

Begone

Joyriding the Neighborhood
Avenue Veteran
Celebirdy of the Month
Avenue Spotlight Award
Shutterbugs' Best
Joined
11/29/12
Messages
15,651
I say that their is always a chance.
The last miracle I heard of was a 7 year old Amazon that never had fly before that did learn.
And you have a much smaller and lighter bird so the chances are bigger.

But take it really slow, train only every second day, and on a bed will be fine so she don't hurt herself.
Start with letting her making a jump to you, and then just make the distance longer and longer.
Encourage her for every time she will try, it doesn't matter if she make it or not. She needs to create a self confidence, that is your first goal.
Once she is able to fly again you will have a totally different bird. So all work is always worth it.
Good luck! :)
 

Monica

Cruising the avenue
Avenue Veteran
Celebirdy of the Month
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Joined
5/18/10
Messages
11,253
Location
Hell, NV
Real Name
Monica
Target training is honestly going to be your best bet! Teach your bird to target towards a stick, then use it to teach step up... then do an extended step up where she has to reach a little further... then a little further with beak... then a hop.... hop with a flap, etc.


It will take time, and if she balks at any point, go back a step and repeat until she's confident enough for the next step. Over time, you'll be able to teach her to fly without worry! :)
 

Tara81

Rollerblading along the road
Avenue Veteran
Joined
11/27/16
Messages
1,533
Real Name
Tara
When I got my tiel she was 2 months old (pretty young) and did not learn how to descend or fly very well. She was shy in the new home as well so I taught her to step up for millet, then hop for the millet, then fly for the millet, just without a stick (easier for me lol). I do use the stick in target training to teach her to touch new things / new toys for trick training however ;)
 
Top