How Many Primaries Are Needed for Flight?

[juliashmulia]

Even partial, semi-flight, or at the very least, a safe glide to the ground...

Right now José drops like a rock, straight down. His muscles are definitely atrophied from years of being cage bound. He is a rescue in his 20s. This is a permanent injury. His previous owner states that it happened when he “fell inside his cage” one night and “severely injured” his wing, but “didn’t need to see a vet”. This likely happened at least a year ago, if not more.

I’m José’s 4th and final home and the two homes before me took him to a total of 3 avian vets (2 that are boarded) to have it looked at. I was not present but I want to know if anything can be done.

Does anyone has insight or experience with an injury like this? He is not hand tame and I don’t want to put him through the stress of being toweled to examine him, but it appears he’s missing the last 2 or 3 outer flight feathers.

I obviously will take him to see my personal avian vet at some point, but he’s still relatively new to me and I’m working on building trust.

Can new flights be imped onto the little undercoverts there (not positive that’s what they’re called)? I desperately want him to fly, but even if he can’t, I don’t want him to fall and get injured. His fear of falling causes a severe lack of confidence in him.

 

[Macawnutz]

If this happened a year ago or more you should have had regrowth by now. So, he is not just missing feathers but has some sort of injury there? It looks to me as if you are missing 3-4 primaries but you seem to have full wing span. One or both wings?

 

[Lady Jane]

In most bird species, there are 10 primary feathers on each wing. If these flight feathers are damaged or lost, a bird cannot fly. Secondary feathers: These run along the ‘arm’ of the wing and sustain the bird in the air, giving it lift. The number of secondary feathers varies with different species.

 

[Hawk12237]

Nice senny you have there. I encountered roughly the same problem as you when I took in birdell a rescue senny that was surrendered. The rescue clipped and literally butchered his wings! I
It was well over a year before he got his flight feathers back....the primaries took longer, I can't say why that is. But after ,oh, 18 months, ( I'm guessing here) he finally took his first flight. Was clumsy at first, but he built his muscle tones back up.
And like yours, his confidence level was very low, and did fall a couple times trying to fly.
Here s a pic of him missing target and landing in dish water sink as I just finished dishes. Other pic shows he grew his feathers back out, took a while, but it eventually happened.
The vet told me back then to supply more protein in his diet to help in feather growth and muscle tone, and back away from any fatty foods.
The vet even supplied me with some emeraid powder to mix up and feed him once a day to help
supply nutrients to his wings. It helps.

Here he missed his landing and took a dip in sink.
The bird in cage you see is a fake bird. My wife collects cages....


And after his wings grew back...sitting on my hat.

 

[juliashmulia]

If this happened a year ago or more you should have had regrowth by now. So, he is not just missing feathers but has some sort of injury there? It looks to me as if you are missing 3-4 primaries but you seem to have full wing span. One or both wings?

Yes as I said in my post this is a permanent injury. It’s just on his right wing, and I agree there are about 3 missing.

 

[juliashmulia]

In most bird species, there are 10 primary feathers on each wing. If these flight feathers are damaged or lost, a bird cannot fly. Secondary feathers: These run along the ‘arm’ of the wing and sustain the bird in the air, giving it lift. The number of secondary feathers varies with different species.

I just didn’t know if they could fly with most of the primaries but not all, or if donated primaries could be imped.

 

[juliashmulia]

Nice senny you have there. I encountered roughly the same problem as you when I took in birdell a rescue senny that was surrendered. The rescue clipped and literally butchered his wings! I
It was well over a year before he got his flight feathers back....the primaries took longer, I can't say why that is. But after ,oh, 18 months, ( I'm guessing here) he finally took his first flight. Was clumsy at first, but he built his muscle tones back up.
And like yours, his confidence level was very low, and did fall a couple times trying to fly.
Here s a pic of him missing target and landing in dish water sink as I just finished dishes. Other pic shows he grew his feathers back out, took a while, but it eventually happened.
The vet told me back then to supply more protein in his diet to help in feather growth and muscle tone, and back away from any fatty foods.
The vet even supplied me with some emeraid powder to mix up and feed him once a day to help
supply nutrients to his wings. It helps.

Here he missed his landing and took a dip in sink.
The bird in cage you see is a fake bird. My wife collects cages....
View attachment 330023

And after his wings grew back...sitting on my hat.

View attachment 330024

I really doubt that they’ll grow back. I think the follicles are permanently damaged

 

[tka]

You need a feather shaft to imp feathers. The process involves trimming the shaft of the new feather, inserting and gluing in a splint (a small stick, often wood or bamboo) into the hollow shaft of the old shaft, then inserting and gluing the splint into the shaft of the new feather. The splint keeps the two feathers attached. If the shaft isn't there, I don't think imping is a possibility.

The little undercoverts are far too small to imp a flight feather to, and probably won't cope with the huge forces placed upon them by flight.

I would be inclined to seek out an X-ray and try to see if there is follicular damage or whether part of the wing is missing. You need to know what you're dealing with.

 

[Macawnutz]

I really doubt that they’ll grow back. I think the follicles are permanently damaged

Are there broken feathers there or are they completely missing?

 

[Begone]

Sennies are excellent flyers, so if he only miss 2 - 3 on one wing he should normally not drop like a rock. He should fly well even with those 2 - 3 lost flight feathers.
Is he really flapping his wings correct?

It can be no confident, lack of muscles or some other damage to the wing.
Therefore I agree with tka.
First you need to know what you are dealing with, so do an x-ray of that wing.

I obviously will take him to see my personal avian vet at some point, but he’s still relatively new to me and I’m working on building trust.

Better to take him to the vet now for that reason. Once home you can start building trust.

 

[Hawk12237]

Yes as I said in my post this is a permanent injury. It’s just on his right wing, and I agree there are about 3 missing.

I seen that, about the injury... But I'm one that likes to look on the bright side and hope. I've seen miracles happen with birds before. So I never give up hope. Judging by the video of your bird stretching his wings, it looked like he had a good range of motion, and just needs to rebuild muscle tone, but then that's just my opinion.
As I said, I've seen miracles happen with birds before,
And once told one bird would be paralyzed on right side, wing and leg... Well, the leg curved in, and couldn't walk on it
Hobbled, but his strength came back to allow him to fly...
And got better in time. This was a hawk, that was shot with an arrow. My family spent months nursing it back to health.
It learned to catch food again with one foot. And I was happy to see it fly again. Awkward at first. And quite clumsy.
But after a few weeks could fly a good ways and land on one foot. The other foot was paralyzed, useless.
Don't give up hope, birds have a tendency to surprise you. I'm willing to bet your bird will again fly.