Crash landing all the time

Hi, Luna's getting to the point where she wants to start flying. She flaps in place to exercise her wings but sometimes she launches herself. Then she crash lands almost every time!!! It's worrying the heck out of me. What can I do to help her land? I've tried attempting to recall train her but no amount of coaxing or treats will make her jump to me. I think she just doesn't have the confidence. I worry if I hold off, she'll really injure herself one of these times.

How old is she?

Flying is something that even Parrots have to work at! Until a Baby Parrot has the muscle strength and feather growth on their wings and tail feathers to support flight. Even after that, they have a ton more to learn.

With luck, whether you are working with an Adult that has never learned or a baby, there is much you can do to help. With older Parrots, the process starts at your Avian Professional with a detailed examination to determine if your Parrot is healthy enough to begin training. This includes a detailed blood screen including a close look at your Parrot's heart and flight muscles!

Where to start: In the Amazon Forum, see that first highlighted Thread in light blue: I Love Amazons - ...
- Read: 5. Re-Fledging an Adult Parrot Page 4
You will find that this huge Thread contains tons of information regarding Parrots in general.
- The REAL ESTATE AGENT'S tour of your home. With your Parrot on your finger: Start at the cage and walk specific flight paths to perches, and other safe landing spaces! Also, from those places back to the cage.
-FYI: Also, teach your Parrot that walls, closed doors, windows, mirrors and pictures are Hard Surfaces. This is done by walking into them! You can slow a bit as you approach them, but the end result is a crash. After a couple of times, you Parrot will look at you like you are out of your mind!!! Congratulations are due, when you Parrot connects those items with them being hard surfaces.

@chris-md
She is about 7 months old now.

@SailBoat
Unfortunately I'm unsure of her history. I got her from another guy who no longer could keep his birds. She came to me clipped and he does not clip his birds wings so she could've been clipped at a fledgling or when she left the pet shop.

I'll check out the thread. Thank you very much for the recommendation!

Wow, I did similar boundary ok/not ok when training puppies outside and inside. (Except the part about running into the glass and mirrors, lol) Thank you so much for such valuable information!

I am going to check out that section now before Mr. Sunshine is ready to explore more.

SailBoat said:

- The REAL ESTATE AGENT'S tour of your home. With your Parrot on your finger: Start at the cage and walk specific flight paths to perches, and other safe landing spaces! Also, from those places back to the cage.
-FYI: Also, teach your Parrot that walls, closed doors, windows, mirrors and pictures are Hard Surfaces. This is done by walking into them! You can slow a bit as you approach them, but the end result is a crash. After a couple of times, you Parrot will look at you like you are out of your mind!!! Congratulations are due, when you Parrot connects those items with them being hard surfaces.

Click to expand...

The hardest bit about learning to fly is often learning how to stick the landing! Are her flight feathers fully grown now? You might try standing about a metre from the cage with Luna on or hand/finger and encourage her to take the short jump back to her cage. Make plenty of enthusiastic noises when she gets it right. Once she’s mastered that, and give her however long it takes until she’s confident, try getting her to fly to you over about that same distance then steadily increase it.

I wish you both success, nothing worse than watching your baby crash land!

With my birds....just the other day I had all 3 out and as soon as my husband got home from work and closed the door, they all took off flying around the living room. One landed on the playstand, one landed on a fresh bouquet of flowers, another landed on the upper ridge of the hallway frame.

Sometimes, it's all about what they have to land on! Do you have a play stand, java tree or other type of place she can land safely that isn't on you? Making sure she has a comfortable variety of places to land is important!

@itzjbean

She does have a few places she likes to land but often times it's because she can't land on them. I've noticed when she does land which is rarely, she lands on objects with a thicker platform. So she does have her playgym and her cage, but often times she'll miss and crash into the wall next to it.

@LaManuka

They're not fully grown in but she has about most of them. She can get a little bit of height. I've tried to do that but she just gives up if she can't reach it. She'll reach out to see if she can, even if it's just out of her reach, she'll just give up and sit back on her perch. I've even tried letting her eat straight out of the treat bag for it. She loves food but she still won't go for it.

It sounds like a confidence thing. I’m sure you’ll find when she gets some more experience and strengthens those muscles she will improve.

My budgie Val recently had issues flying after an anti-biotic injection in his pectoral muscle which made him so sore he couldn’t flex the muscle strongly enough to fly, and he was crashing to my wooden floor pretty hard! I kept him cage bound for a week while he recovered and after that he’d just take short hops between the two cages until he regained his strength. He’s back to normal now but I can tell you for a while there my heart would stop when he took off and didn’t start beating again until he landed safely!

Cockatiels are innately very strong flyers due to their evolution in the dry Australian bush where they often have to fly for long distances in search of food and water. Luna may be hesitant now but once those flight feathers are grown there’ll be no stopping her!

@LaManuka

Thanks! I definitely think so too. I'm going to start helping her flap her wings two/three times a day for short periods. She's great at making sharp turns while flying, it's just the landing and descent thing. Our room is narrow so she makes laps when she does fly.

Short flights are the best way to start.

Holding her a short distance from her cage and gradually increasing the distance.
Unless there is something wrong with her feather growth they rarely get hurt trying there wings. It’s our nerves that suffer most.

If there are dangerous places (fans) or areas they might get stuck in, then take them into a safe room to practice.

One of the biggest dangers with Cockatiels is they fly extremely fast(once they have the confidence) and can get seriously injured if they hit a window or other hard surface.

Good luck with your flying lessons.

@texsize

That's exactly what I'm worried about. She's crashing into walls, bumping her head on the ceiling occasionally. Just all sorts of problems. She won't fly though as much as I try to coax her. Food and attention despite her loving them won't make her fly. I've tried even holding a whole bag of her favorite treat but she won't even jump to my arm.

Thankfully no fans in our room and I don't let her fly in the one room that has a fan.

Amy ( 30y.o. Amazon) doesn't fly...never did and no matter how hard I try (flapping lessons) he just doesn't give a hoot..would rather walk or hitch a ride on me. BB is a great flier (except when spooked even he doesn't know where he is going) Your girl is young still sshe'll get the hang of it soon!




Jim

Most issues regarding birds crashing into walls, etc... is a result of them being spooked and the flight is caused by the fight or flight response. When this response occurs, the first 10 to 50' (3 to 16 metre) is just go with no planned landing. The goal of building predetermined flight paths is when they begin recovering they start looking for landing sights or a known flight path.

As stated above, teaching them to stick a landing is important as it also helps to reduce crashes.

I remember when Sunny was learning to fly, He was terrible at it! He’d crash land after just a few flaps. But then one day he just figured it out. I’m fortunate enough that he learnt outside where the sky was his limit. I remember clearly watching him fly up above the cottage for the first time. oh so excitedly, his wings going in all sorts of directions and making a terribly happy racket.

I’m sure she’ll get the hang of it, everyone’s advice has been great. Just be patient and make it as safe as possible for her. Before you know it she’ll be flying happily

Hey Munami, Ms Zoey is also 7 months old, approaching 8 months. I spoke with my breeder, and asked that she not be clipped, However my breeder explained due to shipping needs, and a cockatoo's ability to chew their way out of crates, she would lightly clip her. My breeder understood my intentions, and I found communication is key. Ms Zoey took her first flight with me, as soon as she stepped out of her travel crate lol. She flies level and straight, but can get elevation. However just recently I can see she's starting to get elevation, but not drastically. I do understand flight has a lot to do with coordination. You may want to help your baby by providing toys she can interact with that helps her mind develop coordination. Funny, I walk by Ms Zoey's tree, and she will often fly off of the tree to my shoulder, and when sitting in my lap, I can see her point with her week, and obtain a certain stance, and I can tell she wants back on her tree perch, and sometimes she will fly from my lap to her tree, and other times from my shoulder to her tree. I did want her to be flight trained, she so far hasn't had any crash landings, but a few times a week, I will see her fly from one place to another, and sometimes, she will just fly from her perch to the floor, and walk over to me. Something I do with Ms Zoey, is place her in her Aviater Harness, and take her outside, sometimes she will just sit on my shoulder, and sometimes she will play in the grass, but only for a minute or two, then she's trying to crawl up my pants leg. I have the aviator harness and the extended flight need, so when she gets ready, at least I'll be prepared. I notice in her cage, she will climb onto the side of her cage, and hold on with her been, and both feet and flap several times a day, so I know she's developing, I'm just patiently allowing her to show me when she's ready, as she tests herself several times a week. The Aviater Harness may be exactly what you need, as your baby can fly without obstacles, and the cord in elastic, which doesn't just jerk her down, but it allows her to land gently. Might be something to help you and your baby in her endeavor.

@AmyMyBlueFront
Thank you! I honestly wouldn't mind if Luna never flew but she is, so I gotta figure this out!


@Sailboat
Once in a while she gets spooked but she does this thing where she grips onto something and flaps her wings to exercise. However, she starts flapping so much she can't hold on and goes flying. Then doesn't have a flight path, freaks out, and crashes.


That definitely makes sense though. If I could just get her to fly to me now...lol. Eventually. I've been trying to help her build confidence by holding on her foot and letting her do her flapping exercises.


@HannahandSunny
Sunny is a beautiful flyer and I can't even imagine when he couldn't fly! I think I wasn't part of the forum yet when this happened!



@Casper223
I have definitely considered to get an aviator harness for Luna but I worry a lot. She's very small and we have a lot of birds of prey in our area. Not just hawks and falcons but seagulls and giant crows/ravens as well. I'm waiting to see if our local bird shop (the only one in town lol) restocks the harness in her size too. Shipping in Canada is killer :c

Just an update!


So Luna has figured out one flight path recently. Now if she does she gets spooked, she flies right up to a window and perches on the sill. The only problem is she can't figure out how to get down;; So that's gonna be the next step. Regardless, it's so much better than her flying into the wall. She actually decided she didn't want to be on her play gym and flew up there as well.


I did manage to finally get her to jump to me! It wasn't a long jump but that's incredible improvement. She did it twice and got a huge jackpot of training treats. I'm going to keep try on recall training and developing flight paths. Ideally I would like her to fly from her play stand to her other play stand.


Thank you so much everyone for the advice!