Learning to fly......

Well actually landing is what is the issue. Bundii was clipped and I had always kept her that way. Well over the last couple of moults I have let her flight feather grow out.

Now that, that has happened, Bundii is taking to flying. She does not voluntarily fly but more when she gets a fright. She has the flying part down but it's the landing that is not seeming to happen. I am frightened that she will hurt herself.

For those with flighted birds, did you have to teach your birdie to land, did they take to it immediately or is there something else I can do?

Also what do you have around your home for your bird to land onto? Play stands, perches etc. I am thinking that hubby and I will need to make some more landing spots so that she starts to feel comfortable.

PS: hubby thought I was nuts trying to show Bundii how to land. I am pretty sure he's not going to let me out in public soon.

I don't know the answer, but am interested to see what everyone has to say. Xander is clipped, but today I had walked into my utility room with Talli since he is so amused by that, and Xander took off from his cage and flew into the utility room and landed on my shoulder, shouting PRETTY PRETTY BIRD the whole time. He landed with no trouble, avoiding Reg's head to get to me. Could his landing skills be because he is much older than Bundii and has had more practice? I am looking forward to hearing advice since Phoe also has trouble landing.

And please tell your hubby that I think you are perfectly fine in public

Basically just try to have alot if stuff she can land on, and if she lands on the floor maybe do it in a carpeted room or in a rug. This would be a good time for flight recall...the perfect time actually. She'll figure out landing on her own, it's an inborn skill honed with practice. Kumar was kept clipped before I got him, and landing was defiantly his weak suit at first, but he mastered it in no time and yours will as well. get her to fly to you with a basic command, sound, or clicker that way shell come down when you need her to, and if, god forbid, she ever gets outside by accident it will get her back to you safely. Don't worry, she'll figure it out in no time at all. Look up flight recall videos in YouTube and this forum.

Flight is instinctual.

The dynamics of flying are learned behavior.


This means things like turning, slowing, speeding and even landing is learned!




Lara Joseph has a cockatoo that had problems landing as well! Once he figured out how to land, he always made sure there was *a lot* of landing space! An expert flyer can land even with minimal landing space. (i.e. being able to land on a brick wall or other vertical surface)

When I went and saw Lara in April she mentioned her method she used to teach her 'too to land. This involved holding him over a bed, inches above the bed and teaching him to hop from her hand to her bed. This *must* be a voluntary action - aka *don't* toss the bird on the bed! Once the bird hops onto the bed, reward!

If bird refuses to hop, try starting from a lower position. (might even have to go as far as putting your hand onto the bed and just getting the bird to walk off your hand!) Once the bird grows comfortable, then slowly increase the distance between your hand and the bed. Over time, this can teach the bird to land from higher heights, which can then in turn help them to learn how to land while in flight!

When I do flight training I allow them to fly in open space with all the windows covered. I have curtains and blinds on the windows at all times. Then I go through the steps of allow them to learn how to fly on their own. It just takes time for them to fully learn how to navigate on their own and how to land properly.

Bundiibird said:

Now that, that has happened, Bundii is taking to flying. She does not voluntarily fly but more when she gets a fright. She has the flying part down but it's the landing that is not seeming to happen. I am frightened that she will hurt herself.

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I had this issue when my conure's flight feathers grew back in. He was scared to fly, because all his previous attempts resulted in him sinking like a rock. He would only fly when he was spooked, which was bad, because he had no idea how to fly, and then would crash into walls :/

I started flight training by putting him on a perch, holding my hand within hopping distance, and asking him to step up (the target stick helps.) He got to the point where he'd make a long hop with a couple flaps, but once it got to more than a hop, he didn't want to try it. So I put him on the door of his cage, and asked him to come to me... he sat there thinking about it REALLY hard, lol. I kicked the cage door just enough to set him off balance, and it was enough to encourage him to fly to me. That was the breakthrough moment, haha.

Use target training to get Bundii used to landing on certain perches. Maybe brightly colored, so that when she's flying, she can spot them easily and become confident about landing on them. She needs to learn which landing spots to focus in on. If you have someone else to help, try getting her to fly back and forth between you, each giving her rewards.

Another good flight exercise is descending. It's natural for birds to flap harder to go higher, but descending is hard and requires a lot of control. Put her on a perch high up, and sit down on the floor below her and ask her to fly to you. Also, make sure you take her every day to all the windows and mirrors in your house, tap on them, and hold her up to it so she can tap on it too and feel that it's solid. That technique seems to have taught my conure.

I had/have the same issue with my Pi. He has a weird clip, but can still fly, he's just clumsy and awful at landing.

Practice practice practice. The first couple times we had a sliding/crash landing on a counter top, but soon he was able to turn corners without much issue.

When he flies, he goes to his cage. I use that to my advantage. He's learned when I point him at his cage and hold my hand up he will fly to his cage.
It is a play-top, not a dome top, so he has a perch and a flat surface to land on.
He is still clumsy but he's getting better and better about landing more gracefully , rather than tumbling around.

If he flies and his cage isn't around(like at my parents house) he does circles around me until he gradually lands on the carpet. It isn't the most graceful thing, and he isn't sure how to land on a person yet, but again.. Just more and more practice.

Obviously don't wear the poor fellow out, but I'm sure you know what I mean hehe.
It all takes time and consistency.

Until 2008 I lived in a different place with a different set up, and I had my little clipped Robin, and two larger birds who were flighted. Basically in the downstairs they had a lot of room, and the larger landing spots were on those birds' cages.

One came to me from an expert breeder of the species - well adjusted, long past weaned, and a confident expert in flight.
The other one I got a couple years later, pushed onto me just barely weaned, never fledged, harsh clip.

THIS is what I find really interesting - nature happening before my eyes. When this baby's wings grew out, she did quickly pick up flying, but landing wasn't natural. I noticed that she would watch her 'friend' fly and land, and I believe this (flying) bird may have realized the baby was learning from her. The baby really went from crashing to landing well in no time, and from mastering landing, then hovering and flying gracefully pretty quickly all from watching another bird who knew what she was doing! Hm, I miss that. *reminiscing*

Looks like you have some good advice there Amanda... Good luck with Bundii!

P.s...I think Bundii is really a little cutie and always enjoy her pics

I agree with Monica, Amanda. Take Bundii onto your bed and coax her to fly to and from you. Use food rewards and don't spend too long in a session in case she gets bored. When Dom was first learning to fly, I put an old doona on the kitchen table and a little pile of sunflower seeds in the middle. Eventually, he learned there was a Food Reward on the table and would fly for it.

Dom has never learned to fly/land very effectively, but he flies enough to get where he wants to. He's still quite reluctant to fly downward and is much happier to fly upward and land on a flat surface. I'm sure a lot of that has to do with his age (thirty years in a small cage), but the effect of his tumours can't be discounted either. I'm sure they upset his balance a great deal.

The main thing is to get Bundii flying every day. Put her somewhere which is not a favourite place of hers and coax her to fly to a place which is. Every morning, I plop Dom on the table. He has a bit of a peckity around and then, as soon as I open the fridge door, he flies up to the top of it (his fridge). At random times of day, I'll put him back on the table and leave him to fly back up to his fridge. That's the sort of practice you could start with Bundii. I'm sure she'll be a lot more active than Dom since she's young and healthy and isn't weighed down by rotten tumours.

I'd also be watching Bundii very carefully to find out what sort of thing really, REALLY piques her interest. Whether it's food or a toy or something to chew, you can use all sorts of special things as lures to get her to fly to you. Once she becomes proficient, she'll do it more and more.

With the Beaks, I did the following in order to start recall training:

I would put them up on their suspended playgym and step right away from them to the other side of the room. Holding both arms out parallel with the ground (and with both hands holding a teaspoonful of sunflower seeds) I would call them ('Madge'; 'Barney') Being greedy gutses of the first water, they'd be on my arms in a trice and I'd allow them one (1) sunflower seed each.

Next, I'd say 'Fly'. Lowering my arms (each one loaded with a Beak), I'd say 'Fly' again. On the third 'Fly', I'd raise my arms and lightly toss the Beaks into the air. This was their cue to fly back to the playgym. Unfortunately, this training has been discontinued while the nightmare of our renovations continues.

Thing is, the Beakies loved it! They would sidle along their perches, obviously busting for me to call them to me. When I said 'Fly', they would often take off on the first mention of the word. Of course, the sunflower seed was the main motivator, but I'm quite happy to use shameless bribery if it works for me.

I should add that Barney and Madge came to me as already-skilled flyers. They can fit through an eight-inch gap in a doorway and swoop nearly to the floor before landing accurately on my head. I doubt Dommie will ever do anything like that, poor baby. But Bundii could, I'm sure! The secret is in finding the Very Best Motivator for your bird.

I think flying down is a real milestone for a bird and that's where the bed comes in handy (or a thick doona/towel etc laid over the kitchen table). Once your bird's happy to fly to you, teach him to fly down onto the bed where it's a safe landing. In short order, he'll work out the mechanics of landing for himself and manage landing elsewhere.

Keep us updated with Bundii's progress, won't you? Barney and Madge are very interested in her flight training and want to know all about it!

Thanks to all who replied. I am please to say that Bundii is now successfully landing probably 90% of the time. She has become pretty good at it and only really misses her landing if it has been a long flight time. She becomes puffed. We are working on that as the next step. Then from there we will be doing recall.

Just wanted to let everyone know that helped and really also to say how proud I am of my girl. She is also hovering and changing direction very well.

Bravo Bundi! I'm glad Bundi has mastered the art of landing. I know she's enjoying her flight capabilities.