1st time, got ordered around in human-speak with context :p

When we reached the field we normally fly in, Cairo immediately said, "Fly fly!" Loud and clear. We never heard him practice this before, so it was a wonderful surprise!

Then after a quick warm up, the humans went to eat breakfast with Cairo having his inside his Celltei Birdie GoGo, and Cairo let us know his thoughts. He flock-called us with the whistle and kept telling us, "fly fly!" We wrapped up breakfast pretty quick and went back to the field to go 'fly fly'.

[ame="https://youtu.be/vbxXcKIaPzY"]https://youtu.be/vbxXcKIaPzY[/ame]

Afterwards, he was pretty tired and there was no more mention of 'fly fly'

That's wonderful...we are just teaching Ellie to fly to us outside (harnessed, with extension) on command

Sonny is now nearly 14 months old and is free outside each day from about 3.30. Comes back home after about an hour. He joins the local Galahs sometimes but mostly flies with the rainbow lorikeets. I have some videos now but can't figure out how to edit etc. One day I will and can post them. He's losing the odd tail feather so looks a bit ragged in flight but he still has all the moves. Nothing can catch him which is a good thing I guess. I think the furthest he goes away is a couple of miles but can't really tell but we do see him disappearing sometimes.

I think a lot of parrots use words in context, Both of mine do. The figure out WE are like pavlovian dogs and respond in a certain way to certain speech and it reinforces that.

Hahahahaha! Yup, who is training whom? That's great! Are you flying him on a harness? Or free flight? Any chance of catching his flights on video?

He wears his Aviator harness attached to a kevlar kite line. He was free-flight trained with his previous family, but I'm a bit too nervous, even though he recalls just fine even when he's acting aggressive. So this is our compromise to make him happy

[ame="https://youtu.be/aLthYCyXF7s"]https://youtu.be/aLthYCyXF7s[/ame]

And here's a slow-mo of him landing:

[ame="https://youtu.be/KBzIMnqP00A"]https://youtu.be/KBzIMnqP00A[/ame]

Spectacular videos, Cairo is a terrific flyer!!

Cairo is such a beautiful bird especially when he's flying. He seems to be so happy and I' am happy for him and you!

I love these videos! Thanks for sharing! Cairo is a strong flier. And I don't blame you for not trying the free flight with him. There's just so much that can go wrong. Scary.

Haha, we're still practicing how to manage strong winds. The poor guy tries so hard and puts every ounce of energy into aiming for his landing.

And apparently, with his previous family, he could fly for 5 minutes straight. But we're not pushing for that. I just tell him to keep going if he flies close to check-in to see if I want him to land, but if he comes in intent to land, then I'm more than happy to accept. He's been wonderful lately with recalling (*cross fingers that I don't jinx it).

I'm just happy that he is building up a healthy vascular and respiratory system, he has a way to expend his energy, he gets to work off his favourite native fruits and training-treats (almonds), and he loves it so much.

It's actually quite interesting to hear when "fly fly" is on his mind. After a flight session, he doesn't mention it for another 24 hours or so - he'll ramble on about other things. But after a day or two of not flying, it'll pop up again. I normally tell him the night before we flying in the morning, so when I tuck him in bed, he'll start talking about fly-fly. Or if I'm home during the day (since we always go flying every weekend), he talks about fly-fly.

The little rascal has heard our potty cue word and his food/mealtime cue word more than our offhand "fly fly", but he only used his potty cue word once (cheekily to correct my pronunciation) and can't stop demanding his "fly fly" time.

Absolutely Awesome video charmed byekkie? I loved it, and yes your right, build him up in an extraordinary workout, sharpens his coordination, and all around just makes him a lot healthier. I kept waiting to see if he wrapped around a pole or tree and got hung up, as he flies so well, but with the string it doesn't coordinate nearly as well as he does, do you ever have any problems with him getting hung up, or having to rescue him from one of his flights, and simple question, did he readily accept the harness right off, or did you have to prepare and get him use to the harness and lanyard?

Casper223 said:

Absolutely Awesome video charmed byekkie? I loved it, and yes your right, build him up in an extraordinary workout, sharpens his coordination, and all around just makes him a lot healthier. I kept waiting to see if he wrapped around a pole or tree and got hung up, as he flies so well, but with the string it doesn't coordinate nearly as well as he does, do you ever have any problems with him getting hung up, or having to rescue him from one of his flights, and simple question, did he readily accept the harness right off, or did you have to prepare and get him use to the harness and lanyard?

Click to expand...

We do ask him to stay within the bounds of the perimeter - just a slight touch on the line lets him know and he adjusts himself accordingly or I'll verbally call him and redirect him. He has flown through a tree once; he landed just fine, but the line was tangled. It was easy enough to unhook from his Aviator harness and pull it back through.

Now, the above is purely possible because he was so well-trained by his previous family and we have consistently kept up the training. If a bird isn't 95% accurate with recall, I would hesitate to recommend this. Even when Cairo is angry at me, he will fly to me when I call. This has saved him before when a child started throwing a water bottle at him mid-flight - I called him back and he immediately veered off towards me.

As for harness training, yes, it did take some time. He's a touch-phobic bird by nature, even now I can't touch him outside the context of training and even within the context of training it depends on how he is feeling.

I made a rough video to show how we did it:
[ame="https://youtu.be/arYFRBjdDeQ"]https://youtu.be/arYFRBjdDeQ[/ame]

But basically, we broke it down into tiny, tiny steps and a ton of positive reinforcement. Like, starting from 1 non-aggressive movement towards the harness = 1 treat.

charmedbyekkie said:

Casper223 said:

Absolutely Awesome video charmed byekkie? I loved it, and yes your right, build him up in an extraordinary workout, sharpens his coordination, and all around just makes him a lot healthier. I kept waiting to see if he wrapped around a pole or tree and got hung up, as he flies so well, but with the string it doesn't coordinate nearly as well as he does, do you ever have any problems with him getting hung up, or having to rescue him from one of his flights, and simple question, did he readily accept the harness right off, or did you have to prepare and get him use to the harness and lanyard?

Click to expand...

We do ask him to stay within the bounds of the perimeter - just a slight touch on the line lets him know and he adjusts himself accordingly or I'll verbally call him and redirect him. He has flown through a tree once; he landed just fine, but the line was tangled. It was easy enough to unhook from his Aviator harness and pull it back through.

Now, the above is purely possible because he was so well-trained by his previous family and we have consistently kept up the training. If a bird isn't 95% accurate with recall, I would hesitate to recommend this. Even when Cairo is angry at me, he will fly to me when I call. This has saved him before when a child started throwing a water bottle at him mid-flight - I called him back and he immediately veered off towards me.

As for harness training, yes, it did take some time. He's a touch-phobic bird by nature, even now I can't touch him outside the context of training and even within the context of training it depends on how he is feeling.

I made a rough video to show how we did it:
[ame="https://youtu.be/arYFRBjdDeQ"]https://youtu.be/arYFRBjdDeQ[/ame]

But basically, we broke it down into tiny, tiny steps and a ton of positive reinforcement. Like, starting from 1 non-aggressive movement towards the harness = 1 treat.

Click to expand...

Absolutely Awesome, Thank You for that answer, I recently purchased a book "A Guide to Fully Flighted Pet Birds I haven't had a chance to fully read it yet, with so much more I need to read before getting to it, but I really love your accomplishment!! One of Scotts neighbors from San Diego, CA wrote the book, and it's fairly short, as in 42 pages long, so I don't thinks its a very in depth study, but I am anxious to read it. Written by "Summer Light" Scott.

I wish that Sonny still liked his harness but since he flies free these days he really does not go for it too much...... apart from chewing it !!!!

What a wonderful and comprehensive video! One of the best ones I've seen, in fact.