Free Flight Training Caiques?

I have looked around the internet for years now and I have not seen one person who has free flighted their caiques- either with a harness or without. I realize that caiques are pretty terrible fliers, but my two caiques adore flying.

After their first molt, I wanted them to learn how to fly, so at about 1 year old they both were flighted for the winter months. We did recall training and they were obedient for the most part. They now "come" and "go back" on command.

We got lazy with training and they started to get up on fans and cupboards, so we partially clipped them. They also started to attack certain people they hate. They can still fly a good amount, especially in our living room, and they love to do so every day. We still do recall training and they are now starting their yearly molt and have already grown back some of their flight feathers.

They are very used to wearing an aviator harnesses outside and my boyfriend loves running with them to fly... but she never seems to want to go too far or too high. They are just extremely clumsy and I get so afraid when they fly to the ground in her not-so-graceful way. Is it possible to train caiques for free flight? I think they are too stubborn and bonded to each other for me to trust them with no harness, but I just wanted to know if anyone else has done this with caiques at all.

Have you checked out the Free-Flight Yahoo group?

Freeflight : Freeflight

I'm confused by your post. Free flight is flying outdoors without the use of a harness or jesse, the rest is just flying. If you are wanting to do free flight, I recommend doing a lot of research on it first. If you are clipping to keep your birds off your cupboards, it's probably not for you.

How well do they fly in the wild?

I have not seen that yahoo group. Thank you for linking that.

I apologize that my post was rushed. I should have articulated my questions better. I believe that the training for free flight includes harnesses and that was what I was referring to. I partially clipped my birds because I got lazy and gave up on the idea of flight training- but I am seeing how much my birds love flying and now that they are molting, I want to do more research and try to enrich their lives more. They can still get up on the fans and cupboards in certain instances. After a year, I believe we are bonded much more than before and I just want to explore if flight training with caiques is even probable.

I don't know how well caiques fly in the wild. I have found few articles that are sourced that explain caique behavior in the wild, however. This is my favorite article: http://caiquesite.com/Published articles/caiques_in_the_wild.htm

Here is a quote that suggests their flight behavior in the wild from the above article:
"Caiques are restricted to the low elevation rainforests of the Amazon/Orinoco basin. Naturalists speculate their failure to move out of this range is either due to their lack of capacity or lack of propensity for flying long distances." It goes on to say that Caiques stay in the top of the canopies in the forest.

To be more clear, my questions are:
1) Does anyone know of caiques that have been flight trained on a harness or free flight trained? If not, why do you think this is?
2) Because Caiques do not seem to be built for long-range flying, do you believe they have potential for free flight?
3) Caiques are known to be strong-willed. They are not velcro birds. They are also bonded to each other. Ava likes to ride on my shoulder and be close to me, but Sheik loves to explore and walk around on the floor out of sight. Does personality affect trainability in free flight?