Flight

ok last couple of months Max's flying has really come around
but there is something im worried about he seems to fly at the windows
curtains open or not. kind of wondering if he is trying to get away from me ,or is this a natural thing. he dont bite or lunge at me pretty easy to handle, he spends 4/5 hours a day out of his cage with me or just checking everything out. dont want to have to clip him again but i also don't want him getting hurt
as it is always a crash landing.
i was worried as he is 2 and his wings came back from last clipping and he was not flying any good at all no control over any of it. now control is coming.
any idea's of what i could be doing wrong that he wants to fly away?

Same problem with my galah, flies straight into something solid..doesn't know how to land, I'm worried and suprised he isn't seriously hurt and keep telling myself that I will clip him if he crashes one more time but never do hoping he will learn. He has gotten slightly better in a couple weeks.. like now you can tell he tries not to crash
Not sure how to train him either as he only flies when spooked

This is be exact reason you need to recall train your parrots. This is why I did it for Parker. They don’t know the fundamentals and as a result the maneuvering and landings are very uncontrolled. They are like 10 year olds with a car. I was scared for Parkers life with all his crash landings.

For parrots in our situation, flighted recall training provides the answer. Yes your parrot learns to come to you on command. But for us that’s not the point or end goal. Built inherently into the training are the micro steps where a bird teaches itself the basics of landing and control from the very beginning stages.

In both cases I would suggest training in a smaller room where momentum and such could be more controlled. Use two adjustable height training perches and have them practice going from one to the other, first at a small distance, and then gradually extending further and further out. Once they are doing this with ease, start adjusting the heights. Descending and ascending are a completely different set of flight skills.

Going further, you can then offset them to get your birds used to turning and maneuvering in the air. Given enough treats as motivation, this really does work.

And Dave, his tendency to go for the window is not necessarily a sign of his wanting to fly away from you. Rather, it is probably a sign of his curiosity over the unknown. There seems to be a world beyond the glass, and he'd like to see.

Or it could just be his lack of control. Birds who lack a certain level of skill will panic and go for someplace familiar. Which is why some seem to hit the same place in their crash landings over and over. Another thing you can do to help with that is to place perches at convenient points all around your house/apartment and familiarize him with them. Then those perches would become his new go to points of contact rather than the curtains in front of the windows.

I trained Bella and within a few days she was landing and turning well probably only crashed a handful of times.. but the difference was she enjoys flying and is very treat motivated.
The problem is how do you recall train a bird that only seems to fly when spooked and doesn't seem treat motivated?

recall training,something i dont have to teach the Amazon
seems pretty natural she will fly to me and im always having her land in the same 3 spots or on my shoulder and all i have to do is tap the landing areas,which are the back of my high back desk chair,another chair,and the back of the couch so i think she is trained.
now Max watches this and i think he is trying to catch on but his main target is the back of the tall desk chair as sometimes he flys into me if im sitting there if not, seems like he over shoots the landing and ends up behind the chair in the corner. bing bing bing, hits the floor seems always on his feet shakes his head and looks at me with that hell i did it again and need rescued from the floor look,lol man the guy is so cool keeps me entertained all day everyday. i think the recall training is working on him also i guess.
he does always fly to the spots lily does and he loves hanging on the back of the couch watching tv with the wife, and he has hopped off my finger a few times as i have passed it. he also hops off when i get him close to his cage, so by what im reading sounds like he is progressing, he just cant control the landings yet. kinda cool was doing some training and didn't even know it.

something else i thought i post about flight, he is now 2 and had wings clipped at 6months the first time. so up to a couple of months ago i dont even think he had properly worked out his wings to fly. so he is a spray bottle bather runs from running water. so when giving him the spray i got to opening his cage while he was still wet and he gets up on the high spot clamps down his feet and flaps away. without this i dont think his wings would have developed right for flight.

adz1984 said:

I trained Bella and within a few days she was landing and turning well probably only crashed a handful of times.. but the difference was she enjoys flying and is very treat motivated.
The problem is how do you recall train a bird that only seems to fly when spooked and doesn't seem treat motivated?

Click to expand...

By using targeting! My ekkie only flew when spooked, this is one way to encourage an interest in flight. Watch this video I made on exactly how this works. The concept is so simple and it’s easy to execute.

[ame="https://youtu.be/DomDr-dXZtU"]Evolution of parrot flight recall training, a tutorial on how to recall train your parrot - YouTube[/ame]

thanks for the vid Chris.
when Max does do the hops there is a couple of flaps that go along
bout the distance you have Parker doing in the vid.
when i first got him i did watch your target training vids, but have always used my finger instead of a tool of any kind. great vids you do put up and much thanks. i use come on instead of step up so Max's words are come on. he learned that from me calling the dog to go out, and boy does he like to say it along with calling the dogs name,lol seems to have confused the little dog though,lol

kinda cool watching them get their wings, this morning he flew towards the window seen the drapes made a tight turn and landed on the printer instead of crashing, and watching him as he gets better is so cool after every flight he just looks so proud of himself.