Flight practice?

[secuono]

So Clippy sometimes plummets off his cage. He then stands up with his wings half extended out, jumps on my hand for me to give him a lift back up. If I take too long, he will very quickly twitch his wings. He did this from the first time he fell, long before he knew I'd give him a lift. I thought of it like muscle spasms of suddenly over worked wings or maybe he was pissy at them for not working, idk.
Then, he also 'practices' flying, sit perched and flap his wings real hard, but not letting go.

Is this what he's doing? My GCC never does anything like this, he plummets and holds up his tail and looks kinda peeved off that he didn't get very far. He never shakes or flaps his wings hard, unless he's preening, but then it's a light shake. Even after a good bath, it's nothing like the budgie.

So is that what clipped budgies do or is mine just weird?

 

[MacawGuy]

My macaw would sit on his perch in just flap away in hold on. His wings where clip. So then I let them grow out in let him fly. If you go out side a lot I would for sure clip the wings unless you harness.

 

[songlake]

It's fairly common for birds to flap while perched. It's just normal exercise of their wings.

My clipped budgies would fly/glide/drop to the floor and haul butt across the room on their feet. Sometimes they would get to the floor on purpose, they love to forage on the floor for "things" to eat.

 

[secuono]

Conure never does it.

 

[MonicaMc]

Clipped wings feel unnatural to many birds, and it may result in some birds to hold out their wings so it feels less "unnatural" to them. I've seen many budgies do this, or they hold their wings differently because they don't like the clip.

Frantically flapping their wings while holding onto a perch can be a way to get rid of pent up energy. Just because your budgie does it doesn't mean all other birds will do it. Some birds do, others don't. That's ok.

 

[GW.Joe]

So is that what clipped budgies do or is mine just weird?

My clipped Budgie AND my clipped Parrotlet does it

If you notice, their wings don't really "flap" like a large bird, they really use their muscles to "buzz" their wings

You can feel it sometimes by holding them cupped closely in your hand, if they want to move and you are holding them close they will "buzz" their wings right in your hand (you will feel it buzz)

The jumping, to me it boils down to scientifically these birds have very little mass
What that means to me is even with clipped wings THEY KNOW they can get away with jumping and not getting injured as easily as a heavier bird

They also move much faster all the time, and are just more jumpy and "flighty" than a larger bird

Joe