Human's teaching birds to fly, one baby step at a time.

Humans teaching birds to fly, one baby step at a time.

After watching the video of a woman hacking the wing of an 8 week old baby in a misguided attempt at keeping the baby safe I decided to share my step by step instructions to how I have always successfully trained a baby to fly safely and at their own pace. Once they learn to fly and land clipping then becomes a personal choice but learning to fly should always happen before they are clipped imho.

If you are getting your baby from a breeder weaned you can still go through these steps although the rate the baby will learn will be quicker. Please ask your breeder to not clip. Better yet find a breeder that actually starts this flying process for you. If they are too lazy to give the best start to your baby maybe you should look elsewhere for a breeder. Let me be clear, studies have shown over and over again that a baby bird allowed to properly wean and FLY is a much happier well adjusted baby. This critical time greatly effects the well being of the bird for the rest of their lives. Confidence is critical. Think for a moment how this applies to humans, a person who is confident and has self esteem will go much further in life because they believe in themselves. While I know we are talking about apples and oranges here I believe that the same principals apply.

Okay the first thing is to watch for that time when the baby really starts flapping their wings. Take them in your hand supporting them by putting your thumb over top of one foot so you are keeping them on your hand stable and allow then to flap until they get tired. I encourage this by saying Ohh are you flying? My excitement and voice inflection I believe encourages them.

Next is floor work, in a room where there is nothing to scare or distract them (no other pets, children) put them on the floor and walk a little ways away, what you are doing here is using their desire to be with you. Start calling them, in the beginning they will either walk or run to you. Give cuddles and loving when they make it to you. Do this for short sessions multiple times per day. Next while they are running to you they will start flapping, its natural for them. While they are doing this and walking or running they will get small lift offs this is wonderful and should be greatly celebrated. Nothing is cuter than the look of total amazement on a babies face when their feet leave the floor the first couple of times.

After they have gotten a few lift offs from the floor and have started to understand what their wings can do you add the next step. I take them into my bedroom, shut the door. I have a large queen bed. It is closer to the floor because it is on a platform bed instead of a box spring. I have them on my hand starting about 12 or 13 inches from the surface of the bed I lightly toss them off my hand toward the bed. As they get less fearful and more accepting of this as well as continuing the floor lift offs during play time. I slowly increase the distance that I let them be from the surface of the bed until they are landing and really flying toward the bed. This is a nice safe surface for them to land on as well as having the room bird proofed as much as possible, nothing on the dressers, no distractions, curtains closed and other common sense precautions. This stage goes on for a while until you are seeing real confidence in the babies flying abilities.

Then I set up a stand in the room. I put them on the stand and I sit on the bed. Same concept as the floor exercises in that I am using their desire to be with me. I call them to me, at first they will make a b-line to the bed landing on it because that is what they know. Later they will start doing a loop around the room. Sometimes crash landing on other surfaces hence the reason for keeping the room as safe and clean of clutter as you can. Then they will be getting more control and either landing on the bed or safely on another surface. This is where you start encouraging them to land on your arm as you call them, giving them a chance to learn even better precise control.

After all of this is done with some skill and finesse you can move onto bigger rooms in the house always keeping safety and the abilities of the bird in mind.

It really is that simple, the rewards that you will get by allowing your baby this critical step in it's development cannot be understated.

I will try to upload some video to better illustrate some of this over the next few days but I do hope I was clear in the explanation of each step that it makes sense and helps someone properly fledge their baby.

I should add that if you are hand feeding and doing this you want to wait until it's almost time for their next feeding so they are empty especially with the flights to bed surface exercises, the last thing you want is a baby with a full crop landing wrong and aspirating. Common sense but deserves mentioning just in case.

I re-read this and I want to be clear that I am not saying a person is wrong for clipping their bird. I have always maintained that it is a personal decision that a person must make based on their lifestyle and home. I still feel that way. I have said there are certain species that I don't feel handle clipping as well, these are cockatoos, greys and eclectus and I do believe this is correct but even then it is up to the owner to make that choice.

I do not feel it is a good choice to do it before the baby has fully learned to fly and land, once those muscles are developed, their confidence built, then a light clip maybe best for your home. I do think that the less severe a clip can be while achieving the goal a person wants is best. If a person chooses to clip than the correct clip at the appropriate time should be considered of utmost importance. I have clipped birds for aggressive behavior and training purposes so it is not like I have never advocated clipping but I do believe it is important enough to weigh all facts when considering it.

Great post, thanks for the information. I do not clip my birds wings, but none of them have ever learned to fly, or show any desire to. I would love to teach my babies who too. Thanks again!

Zeithria said:

Great post, thanks for the information. I do not clip my birds wings, but none of them have ever learned to fly, or show any desire to. I would love to teach my babies who too. Thanks again!

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As long as an older bird is healthy and not over weight and has a bond with you I believe these steps could be used with an adult bird as well.

My big boy cockatoo has been my partner in crime for going on a decade. We will see how receptive he is to this, lol.

Thank you so much for this great post! Is there anyway to "save" a post for future references? Or would I have to search for it again from scratch? I have a baby sun conure who had his wings clipped before I got him and I'm not sure if he actually knows how to fly but would love to try this with him when his feathers grow back. By the way, as an aside, how long should it take for his feathers to regrow? I got him when he was 4 months old and he's now 7 months old and I feel like there has barely been any change in the look of his wings/feathers. Do the cut ones fall out and new ones replace them?

Laura thank you so much for first, sharing Willow's flight training, and second, for the easy to follow instructions.

I am not opposed to clipping, every parrot guardian has the right to choose what's best for their bird and their situation. That said, I think a lot of people automatically clip because they feel it's the safest option and in some cases it very well may be, but this thread demonstrates there are other options.

I want to mention here, I agree that it's harder for some species to adjust to a clip than for others. IMHO, I don't think any bird should be clipped before fledging, I think it's an all important step in a parrot's development. My cockatoo can't fly at the age of ten even though she hasn't been clipped in the two years she's been with me. Those who do choose to clip should consider the long term effects for the bird.

I have seen healthy clips and I have also seen the results of horrible or botched clips. My cockatiel was clipped in a pet store before she came to me, they clipped her so close that she ripped out the clipped feathers and also ripped the new feathers out as soon as they started to come in. She learned to fly in spite of the damage, but it took three molts before she allowed the new feathers to grow and mature. The same man who clipped my cockatiel's wings clipped a baby macaw's wings so badly that she was practically crippled and this was done before she fledged. Her appearance was ruined, her balance was effected, and I can only imagine what it did to her self confidence.

I hope this thread will encourage parronts to carefully consider all options before clipping. If you make the decision to clip, please research the different methods and if you have doubts about doing the clip yourself, allow a vet or someone with experience to do the clip for you.

Kalel said:

Thank you so much for this great post! Is there anyway to "save" a post for future references? Or would I have to search for it again from scratch? I have a baby sun conure who had his wings clipped before I got him and I'm not sure if he actually knows how to fly but would love to try this with him when his feathers grow back. By the way, as an aside, how long should it take for his feathers to regrow? I got him when he was 4 months old and he's now 7 months old and I feel like there has barely been any change in the look of his wings/feathers. Do the cut ones fall out and new ones replace them?

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Wing and tail feathers are replaced faster than any others because of the birds need for them to fly but when a hard clip is given it can take quite some time for them to come in.

Brady my YNA had one of the worst hard clips I had ever seen in fact I was worried that they had done permanent damage. She has now been with me about 9 months and she still has a few on each side that have not been replaced. She fell often when I got her. I think she is around 10 yrs old. When she would fall she would always say "Are you okay" so that let me know she had been falling for quite a while and she went down like a rock. Very frightening as I was constantly afraid that she would break her keel bone or leg when hitting the floor. She didn't play like a normal amazon because she had no confidence or balance. She has made great progress, now flies short distances, rough plays and I believe in time will recover completely.

The cut ones will fall out and she will replace them just give it time. In the mean time you can work on getting her to flap which will strengthen those wing muscles.

When we got little chodi the clip was so bad that after a year his wings still didn't fully come in. At the suggestion of our vet he was put out and the vet went in and pulled the damaged shafts. It took about six weeks and all but one of his flight feathers came in and he is finally flying. He was clumsy at first but he's getting better every day. The confidence he's exhibiting -words cannot express and we are so happy to see him fly and feel confident. He turned ten last month, we don't know a lot about his history so we don't know if he ever flew before or how long it's been since he was able to fly.

Thank you so much for the very useful information. I guess three months is not that long then. I don't know if Lemon has a hard clip or not but it definitely looks like his wings were clipped quite short.

Great post, Laura! And as someone who saw that horrible video to which you referred, I just want to say thank you. Your take made for a refreshing counter-point to the awful methodology put forth in that video.

Kalel said:

...Is there anyway to "save" a post for future references? Or would I have to search for it again from scratch?

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Hey, Kalel! (Love the name, btw. Nice reference.) There is no official way to save a post on the forum, but you can always bookmark it to your browser. That's what I do. I've made a folder called "Parrot Forum" and any threads of particular interest go in there. I'll likely eventually break it up into more specific sub-folders, but you get the idea. Hope that helps.

Thanks Anansi! The bookmark method sounds like a good idea for saving threads. I will use that method myself. Thanks for the compliment on my name by the way. I am glad you picked up on the reference for the name

Re: Humans teaching birds to fly, one baby step at a time.

You're most welcome! I'd had the same question almost a year ago and MonicaMc had given me that idea, so I figured I'd pass the favor along.

And as for the reference, hahaha! I picked that up right away! I love that kind of stuff!