My struggles with a flighted bird

Sol, the Sun Conure, is less than a year old. He was clipped when we got him, but we've been letting him "spread his wings" since then. In the last month or so his flight feathers have grown in in earnest, and he truly has the ability to fly from room to room.

The first couple flights, I'll admit, were less than ideal. He smacked into the sliding glass door and came very near a hot pan the first two time after being spooked, but since then he's been able to navigate the room skillfully and either land back on his cage or on one of our arms/shoulders.

His flying skills are impressive. His desire to launch are less so. If he is spooked, he'll go from from point to point with no problem now. If, however, he simply wants to go from point A to B, he refuses. He'll yell and spin and dance and yell some more, but he won't take flight. I know he can do it. He HAS done it. But he refuses to take off, close as he may come.

How do I teach him to attempt flight? Everything I've tried just seems to cause him stress. I certainly don't want to spook him into flight every time until he figures out "I can do this". Any suggestions?

wildside50 said:

Sol, the Sun Conure, is less than a year old. He was clipped when we got him, but we've been letting him "spread his wings" since then. In the last month or so his flight feathers have grown in in earnest, and he truly has the ability to fly from room to room.

The first couple flights, I'll admit, were less than ideal. He smacked into the sliding glass door and came very near a hot pan the first two time after being spooked, but since then he's been able to navigate the room skillfully and either land back on his cage or on one of our arms/shoulders.

His flying skills are impressive. His desire to launch are less so. If he is spooked, he'll go from from point to point with no problem now. If, however, he simply wants to go from point A to B, he refuses. He'll yell and spin and dance and yell some more, but he won't take flight. I know he can do it. He HAS done it. But he refuses to take off, close as he may come.

How do I teach him to attempt flight? Everything I've tried just seems to cause him stress. I certainly don't want to spook him into flight every time until he figures out "I can do this". Any suggestions?

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First, start with taking your flier on the Real Estate Agent's tour of your home. Starting from his Cage and then from other common locations that he perches. Have him Step-Up and than take the straightest direct 'fear based' flight line. As you travel these lines you will want to show your Parrot those items to avoid by presenting flight lines around to a change in direct. Think about this in advance and target specific safe places he can land. The goal is show and teach your Parrot safe escape routes and safe landing zones. This may include flying though doorways and avoiding Windows and Mirrors. When such items are along or blocks a flight line, present them with the item by softly flying him into them. You can tap on the glass and then tap his beak on the glass surface. Repeat this many times until you begin to see it repeated in his flight paths.

Teaching your Parrot to fly 'on-command' starts with a short, simple hop from one perch to another. This is trick training and involves a favorite treat when completed. The trick involves 'over time' moving the two perches farther apart, so it moves from a hop, and with time, to a very short flight, etc.... Move only at the speed your Parrot is comfortable. Always start a new session by backing-up a couple of positions from where the last session ended. The goal is to get your Parrot to fly to and then fly back! The point, you are setting into place fly to me, fly back to (cage or perch).

Target doing this at the comfortable rate of your Parrot. Do not push your Parrot beyond their rate.

I'm in the middle of flight training my ekkie. I can do a short demo video tonight of how it all works starting with target training. It'll be an 2 minute evolution of how flight on command works.

Honestly I don't think Sol should have free reign of the house as he seems to have....first of all, he is just a baby. Learning to fly is a feat of its own, and should only be done in a room where he can't hurt himself. Having him smack into a glass sliding door should've stopped you right there -- he could've easily died from that. So on top of learning how to navigate the air, he also has to dodge things like hot frying pans in the kitchen? That is NOT safe at all for this bird.

Do you have a spare room you could cage him in, and essentially turn into his room? I feel as though this bird is being put in a lot of danger just flying loose around the house. If there isn't a possibility of him having his own room, I would 'make' him his own room, by blocking doorways with light curtains. I saw a member on here use a light curtain with Velcro to hold the sides of the curtain in place....it keeps the bird in the room while giving you the ability to see and hear what its doing.

Have you worked on recall at all? It is a great tool to get birds to come to you when called, and also helps birds learn how to fly confidently, incorporating treats for positive reinforcement when the bird lands on your arm.

Taking your bird for a tour of the home as SailBoat suggested is definitely the way to go. I've done this with every bird I have ever had. This is especially true for windows and mirrors. I have them tap the glass surface with their beaks to help them understand that it has substance. This should be done repeatedly until you're sure he gets it.

Also, itzjbean has a point about the frying pan. No matter how skilled a flier he is/may become, it is never safe to allow your bird to be out while anyone is cooking. That can go wrong VERY quickly.

And yes, practicing in a smaller room to develop his flight skills is a very effective tactic. Especially if you use 2 height-adjustable training perches. That's exactly how I worked with Bixby.

Is Sol target trained? Target training is the foundation upon which flight recall is based. So if he is not, you might want to start working on that as well. If you get him excited enough about target training, flight can become a natural extension of that.

It is a long long story, but I obtained 1 GCC and 2 Suns all at the same time. All of the birds were babies but their wings were clipped. My hubby and I made the decision to allow them to be flighted. At first, I was super concerned, as nobody showed an interest. I have several perching stations throughout my house, and after showing everybody around, they eventually figured it out. My female GCC and Sun are very conservative flyers. They use it to get from point A to point B. My male Sun, Winston, is a dare devil. He is the most agile flyer I have ever known. He will fly between two people with less than a foot or less between them sideways going balls out. All 3 have completely different style of flying and landing.

Great advice above! My humble addition...
Recommended to me in the early days... "exploration/comfort training" and "window awareness training"... taking the bird around to walls and windows, and encouraging him to tap or at least experience the situation, so they can see that walls are WALLS and windows are HARD AIR. Has worked for us.
Demonstration... it's also a cute "trick".
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF1lyE72pOs"]Scene 4 - Hotel Rickeybird - YouTube[/ame]

Alrighty here we go! Disclaimer: this is for teaching indoor flight. I do not and will never participate in free flight, so wouldn't dare advise on teaching this! This is how I've taught Parker to fly to and away from me on command, from target training to full on flight. I end with Parker coming to me over a short distance, we have not quite gotten to him flying more than 8 feet without him refusing to come. You just have to work up to greater and greater distances.

The process:

[ame="https://youtu.be/DomDr-dXZtU"]Evolution of parrot flight recall training - YouTube[/ame]

A quick addendum

[ame="https://youtu.be/p00iDTaMmM4"]Addendum to evolution of parrot flight recall training - YouTube[/ame]

Skittles was already clipped when I got him and I never had him clipped again. He is free flighted.

A few notes of caution, if you have any glass doors or windows find some way to shelter your bird from them. In my experience, Skittles never flew into the windows unless he panicked and when he panicked that's exactly where he smacked into. You can teach them about window awareness, it is important, but I still think sheltering them from the windows in case of panic is very important.

Also, when cooking, if you have to step away even for a second (ie go grab an ingredient in the same room) cover any pots/pans.

The best thing I did as far as Skittles is concerned is set up different perch areas around the apartment. In whatever room I happen to be in, there is at least one "perchable area" where he knows he can go.

For example, in the living room he has his cage (which has a playtop), he has a full size playstand and he also has a mini playstand attached to my desk. So he has 3 in the living room. In the bathroom, he is allowed to sit on the shower rod, but he also has a perch area beside the sink where he goes to sit as well. I keep the toilet seat down at all times as well. In the bedroom, is where his sleep cage is.

He doesn't have a perch area in the hall cause the only time he goes there is either to follow me or to fly back and forth (its a long hall and he likes to use it as a runway)

As far as trying to get him to go from point a to point b, the most successful way I've heard is target training. It's what I did with Skittles. I point my finger to where I want him to go and and say "go" and make a 'snapping' noise and he abides a majority of the time.

It's very important though that you don't over-indulge their freedoms. Set limits and boundaries. Otherwise you'll find yourself in a situation where you come home one day and the locks are changed and all your belongings are outside the door (except the ones your sun says are his).

It sounds funny but it's true. They WILL try and be the master of the house.

My 16 year old Nanday Conure taught my 4 month old Patagonian Conure how to navigate the house. Now the Paddie is 11 years old and outflies the Nanday! I guess with anything it's easier when the senior bird teaches the newbie. Now 'the baby' comes on command, will go looking throughout the house for my husband, lands on the various perches we have situated around the house (several suction cupped to windows and mirrors). Everyone else is giving terrific advice though! I'm new to the site and loving it! Best of luck!

Excellent videos by Chris! That's how it's done! The only difference for me is that I don't switch up commands. "Target" is always the command I use to get them to walk from one place to another, "go to perch" is always the command for them to fly from me to one of their assorted perching areas, and "come" is always the command to call them to me. Further variations of targeting and recall also get their own commands. "Fetch", for instance, when sending them to grab something and bring it back to me, or "put it in the cup, please" when having them put something in a cup. But I keep the gestures similar so they make the association and transition from one step to the next.

But again, great video! I've described the process tons of times, but nothing beats a video for instruction, right? Thanks for taking the time.

High compliments from the master himself, thanks my friend I've posted this as a separate thread in the training forum so searches might pick it up easier.

Great tutorials. I don't even take Skittles outside on a harness- I worry he'd chew it loose so he is in a 'travel cage' that has a screw lock on it.

As for being free-flighted indoors- reason he is- is because of my lifestyle. I don't live a busy life and am home alone most of the time so there really isn't any good reason for him to stay caged. He does really well in hanging around 'allowed' areas and avoiding the no-no places, though he does 'test' me from time to time.

I do notice that that also is not really enough to satisfy him. While he loves just being near me- he won't allow a whole day to go without a significant period of 'direct interaction' in which all I am doing is playing with him. So I do it in spurts throughout the day- its easier to spread the timing around. It lets me meet his needs and my own as well.

I appreciate all of the advice. For the record I didn't just let Sol loose on the house to fend for himself. We had been letting him grow his flight feathers and in less than 12 hours he went from unflighted to flying and we were probably ill prepared. It reminds me of when my daughter learned to crawl. One moment she's immobile, the next she's crawling toward the kitchen. It can happen in the blink of an eye. We weren't being irresponsible, we were just surprised at the speed of the progression.

About a week since my original post, things have progressed immensely. Sol is much more comfortable in flight and takes off with ease. We are still working at teaching him to recall, but he is capable of navigating from his cage to another room in the house with relative ease. He has no trouble with mirrors or windows, and is able to perch comfortably after being spooked.

[ame="https://youtu.be/MxjapJzEu0A"]YouTube[/ame]

Here is a video of my daughter and Sol making a game out of teaching him to take off. He did this about 20 times with her. Note his laugh at the end (he laughed every time).

Glad to hear everything is progressing well!

Your video is set to private. You'll need to make it public for us to see it.

Yes. You can either make it public or unlisted. Unlisted would only make it available to anyone with a link. That's how I do my videos.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

chris-md said:

Glad to hear everything is progressing well!

Your video is set to private. You'll need to make it public for us to see it.

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Don't know how I did that. Should be fixed now.