Lita's Big, Scary Adventure...And Why Small/Medium Parrots Should NEVER Be Free-Flown

[EllenD]

So I had the most awful, scary, and at times horrifying 24-hours from Friday evening around 5:30 through until Saturday afternoon around 2:30 that I have ever had with regards to my Fids...Lita, my 3 year-old Blue Quaker Parrot, flew out my sliding-glass door around 5:30 p.m. on Friday evening when I let the dogs out...33 years of being a Parront and Breeder/Hand-Raiser (since I was 6) and I still didn't realize that she was on my shoulder when I stepped outside the door literally one, single step to move a potted-plant over out of the rain on my patio...Then the neighbor's dog barked at my dogs through the fence, and this freaked Lita out, and suddenly I remembered she was on my shoulder as she took-off in the rain-storm...Which turned into literally the strongest, most heavy down-pour we've had in years here in central PA about 30-seconds after she flew outside and doubled-back over the roof of my house into the front-yard. I ran through the house and out the front-door yelling all our "Contact-Calls", but the rain was so loud and heavy that it's all you could hear for about 5 minutes...After the rain slowed-down to a light drizzle I was faced with another major problem, the fact that the Sun had just started to go-down, and that's of course when all the wild-birds start their own Contact-Calling to their Flockmates to make sure everyone is alive, safe, and all in the same tree for the night...So I could hardly hear anything...Luckily Quakers have the most unique voices, sounds, whistles, etc., and Lita started Contact-Calling me right back from a tree in the back of my side-yard, between my property and my neighbor's property....This started our nightmare...

I want people to learn from this awful, heartwrenching, and at times terrifying story, and it's eventual happy and lucky ending...From both the things I've done right, and the things I've done wrong as a Parront. I don't have a clue why I've been so lucky for most of my life when it comes ot my Fids...I did lose one Fid, my little baby Green Cheek Izzy who fell as a young baby and died from a head-trauma...But I had only had Izzy for a very short time, it crushed me and was very difficult, but my bond with her was not even close to the bonds I have with all of my Fids now, or of my past Fids...My first bird was a Budgie bred and hand-raised by my mom and given to me when I was 6, and he lived to be almost 19 years-old, and went through all 4-years of college with me! And we've had some really horrible injuries in the last 3 years, all of which they not only survived, but that they've all 100% recovered from....And not any of my Fids, not one in 33 years, has ever been sick with an illness.

]But I was CERTAIN that I had lost my little Blue baby yesterday, I had no doubt, and I was sick and crying and didn't know what to do, almost paralyzed with my grief and guilt, and anger towards myself...How stupid could I be...And still, somehow, by some miracle, I got her back, and she's fine....My great luck and fortune is not at all wasted on me, as I know of all the people on this forum who have lost their own Fids outside and who have not ever seen them again, not from the moment they first flew away...And we're talking Parrots who were professionally Recall-Trained and Free-Fly trained...I Recall-Trained all of my birds as young babies, but I'm not a professional bird-trainer, and I certainly have NEVER even thought about Free-Flying any of my Fids...So I have to give all of you who have lost your Fids to never see them again credit, because that feeling of "Not Knowing" where they are, if they're okay, if they're even alive, well I can't imagine feeling that for any longer than I did, which was only a few hours at a time, a couple of times over the span of about 24-hours...

And after what I saw happen to my little baby girl yesterday I can't even imagine why ANYONE would ever purposely put their own birds at that kind of risk, purposely put them in that type of great danger and FEAR...And if you have a small or medium size parrot and you're either thinking about Free-Flying them or you already are Free-Flying them, please, just stop. Don't. There was just a post a couple of days ago by a new member asking about the differences between a Green Cheek Conure and a Quaker Parrot because he's planning on bringing-home one or the other as his first parrot, and he ended his post by stating that he's planning on Free-Flying whichever bird he finally brings home of the two...And to that new member I would ask you to read the remainder of this post and my Quaker Parrot's story, because there is NO WAY IN HELL YOU SHOULD FREE-FLY ANY SPECIES OF PARROT THAT ISN'T THE SIZE OF A FULL-SIZE MACAW, A LARGE COCKATOO SPECIES LIKE AN UMBRELLA, MOLUCCAN, OR ONE OF THE LARGER CORELLA'S, A GREAT-BILLED PARROT, ETC.

So basically Friday night was lost to us. I brought out Lita's T-Stand to the yard, then went back, disassembled her cage, and brought it out as well, with a large stainless-bowl that she would recognize as her's full of pellets and seed-mix, and then another full of Almonds, Pine-Nuts, and Sunflower Seeds. I kept talking to Lita while she was up in this really high tree, though I couldn't see her (bright blue bird and I couldn't find her, lol)...But I could hear her and I recognized her voice immediately...But as the Sun went down and all of the wild birds went silent, so did Lita. Around 9:30 I knew she was going to be outside all night, in the cold and the rain (it was in the high 50's-low 60's Friday night, so that's not too bad, but it rained all night long)...I didn't know what to do, the thought of me going inside to sleep all night while my baby was outside in the cold rain and up in that really high tree just killed me, it didn't seem right...I sat outside until almost midnight with an LED lantern hanging from her T-Stand and then my LED work-light that I use when working on my car into the night pointed at her cage, so she could see them both all night long...At about midnight I was freezing, my clothes and my hair were soaked-through, so I had to go inside...I set my alarm for 5:00 a.m. but I didn't sleep 1 minute. I left the TV on all night and waited for the sun to start to come-up Saturday morning...

As soon as I started to hear the wild-birds outside start to chip (around 4:20 a.m.) I got dressed and headed outside...This time I had help, as I put the Aviator-Harness on Bowie and took him outside with me, as he is the closest to Lita in our Flock, and they often call back and forth to each other all day long, every day...Before yesterday I used to get so annoyed by the two of them yelling back and forth all day long, but now they can do it as much as they want to!!! I didn't know where Lita was, if she was in the same tree, if she was miles away...I knew my freaking neighbor across the street was probably going to call the Cops on me as she always does about everything, but I didn't care and I started calling to Lita at around 5:00 a.m. on Saturday morning (she's the one who watched the cat from down the street kill my duck in the front-yard, watched me giving him CPR and trying to save him, and not only did nothing to even try to help, just stood and stared, but she is also the one who went right down the street to inform the owner of the cat that I had kicked her cat while it was killing my duck...Lovely person)...And she called right back to me, but from an even taller tree in my neighbor's yard next-door, right over her deck and her above-ground pool deck...They are extremely nice people and have been there for years now, and I they have lots of animals and I knew they would understand...So I brought Lita's T-Stand, Cage, and the bowls of food over onto not only their pool-deck, but also the deck of their house (which is elevated at the second-story of their house, so closer to the tree-top)...And they didn't care one bit, even when I spelled the seeds/pellets all over their pool-deck...

So I stood there for about 2 hours calling to Lita from their deck, from the ground, and then from the back-yard of their neighbor on the other side of their house, because the end of the brand Lita was on was actually over their yard...This tree is one of those really old, towering Oaks that is hundreds of feet tall, and Lita was at the top...And here is mistake #1 that I have made with all of my birds...I DID NOT TRAIN ANY OF MY BIRDS HOW TO DESCEND FROM A HIGH PLACE...And this is a very common issue with pet birds who get up in the top of trees...They can always fly upwards and always fly straight-across with no issue at all, but they ALWAYS have problems not only climbing/jumping down the tree from branch to branch (which is easiest and what you should train them to do), but it's even more difficult for them to fly downwards from a high tree-branch, INCLUDING JUST FLYING FROM A HIGH TREE-BRANCH TO THE GROUND, WHETHER WE'RE TALKING THE GROUND DIRECTLY UNDER THE TREE (STRAIGHT-DOWN/DIRECTLY UNDERNEATH THEM) OR DOWN ON THE GROUND WAY OUT IN FRONT OF THE TREE...So if I could give any advice regarding things that you need to train ALL of your Fids to do when they are young babies or when you first bring them home is you need to teach them/train them how to "Descend" from a high place downwards. And after what I just went through I would advise that you work on teaching them to simply "hop" or jump downwards from branch-to-branch, as that's what they seem to do naturally, and is also absolutely less-scary for them than flying downwards is. And i wouldn't have thought that before yesterday.

 

[EllenD]

The rest of Lita's "Big-Adventure" below...I'm sorry it's long, but I think it's important for all Parronts to learn from what we went through to prevent it from happening to them and their Fids, or if it does happen to them that they can learn what to do and what not to do from the good and bad things that I did...If you don't want to read the story then that's okay too, but I want it all here for those who do want to hear it and learn from it.

So after about 2-hours of calling back and forth to Lita while she was up in my neighbor's tree yesterday morning, starting before the Sunrise while it was still pitch-black outside and right at the time when all of the wild-birds started Contact-Calling to their Flockmates, I just could not get Lita to come down. She was scared to death, she was soaking wet, and even though I know she was hungry, thirsty, and exhausted, she was just so freaked-out after spending an entire night outside in a tree in a rain-storm that she just couldn't figure out how to get back down. She kept pacing back and forth and back and forth on the branch she was on, over and over again, chewing on her feet, all things that she does when she's nervous or anxious....And then finally I stood right next to the trunk of the tree instead of out underneath the end of the branch she was on...And this almost immediately started her to come down the branch, and she made her way down about 3 or 4 branches below her, hopping her way down each branch carefully to me, all the while calling back and forth to each other...So I finally started to exhale, that she was coming home, when it happened...a huge Crow flew right at her and off she flew, out of the tree and behind all of the fences to the block behind my street...And 4-5 more big Crows followed behind their buddy, flying as fast as darts after my baby...

I ran out of my neighbor's backyard and then across the front-yards of the next 3 houses because they all have solid wooden privacy fences that block you from getting behind them...So I finally got to a space in-between 2 houses that allowed me to get to the cul-de-sac at the end of the street behind my house...The entire time I was running like hell and climbing over fences I kept continually calling to Lita, and her back to me...If I'm being honest, I didn't do this on purpose or even consciously, i just did it. But it ended up being the most important thing I kept doing, because our little Contact-Calls that I do with all 4 of my "larger" parrots, as well as my 8 English/American Budgies, is the only thing that let me know where Lita was, and that kept her letting me know where she was.[/B] I have unique little names, words, phrases, sounds, whistles, etc. that I do with each of my 4 larger birds, and then also with all 8 of my Budgies, that are individual and unique to each of them (all 8 Budgies have the same little names, words, phrases, etc.)...I didn't start doing this purposely in-case I lost one of my birds outside, I just did it because I'm a huge dork that talks to my birds like their are people, exactly like they are people, or rather like they are my kids, and I have a special, unique relationship and bond with each of them...But as it turns-out, "Contact-Calling" with all of your birds back and forth everyday inside of your house, every time you walk past their cage, every time you hear them you respond, etc., is the #1 thing you can start doing right from the day you bring them home, regardless of their age, to help get them back if you ever lose them outside. Because without our "Contact Calling" back and forth, I would never have located where Lita was after she flew outside in the first place! So please, if you don't do it already, please start Contact-Calling with your bird(s) today. Most of you already do this naturally I'm sure, having special little "pet names" or nicknames you call your birds, special little phrases, sounds, whistles, etc. that you have with each of your birds that are unique to each bird...Those are the Contact-Calls that will get your bird back home safe...

So to speed this story up, I found Lita in another towering, 100-foot tree on the street behind my house (by contact-calling to her and her back to me)...But as soon as she answered my Contact-Calls so I could find her, the Crows went right after her again, and that's when I saw the most horrifying thing ever, and what assured me that she was dead...3 huge Crows, double her size, chased her way down low, flying right above the ground and very fast, and they were right on her tail, literally...And as hard as I tried to keep up with them or at least stay within ear-shot of Lita, I just couldn't. I'm in pretty good shape (except that I smoke half a pack a day, uhg), and I tried, but she was gone...i spent the next 3 hours solid walking around my entire neighborhood, through the parks and the surrounding farms, up and down every street, every cul-de-sac, and every single back yard, all the while Calling to Lita, for 3 hours straight, and I never heard her again after that...I finally had to go home to get something to eat, and to post that she was missing everywhere I could...i was giving up, I was sure she was either dead and eaten by the Crows, or they had chased her miles away...So I walked home and got a drink, ate something, and posted that she was missing on my local Craigslist and then on Parrot911, ParrotAlert, and then on the local "Pet Recovery" Facebook page of Centre County, PA...As it turns out, Facebook was the best tool by-far...

It was 12:30 p.m and she was gone. I went back outside, informed my neighbor as to why she had bird cages, stands, and seed/pellets all over her deck and around her pool, and then I decided to go into the farm fields across the street from my house...They sold these farms last year and have paved-over most of them and are building "McMansions" all over them...The streets are all in, so I just kept walking and constantly calling to Lita...Nothing. Not a peep. Then I decided that I would go to the very top of the development I live in, where these new streets connect, because there is one single, dead-end road (used to be a dead-end before the farm was paved-over) that I hadn't walked up to earlier...So I started walking from the dead-end down this top road, calling to Lita...And suddenly I heard her calling back to me, for the first time in over 2 hours I heard her...She was in a large Pine Tree in the front-yard of luckily a very nice couple who actually came outside, got me a ladder, then got me orange juice, then nuts to try to coax Lita out of this Pine Tree...Then their neighbor from across the street came over and said "Is it a parrot in the tree? Is it blue? Do you know who the owner is? Because I just saw the post on my Timeline 2 minutes ago that someone at the bottom of the neighborhood lost their blue Parrot this morning!"...I've never met these people before in my life and my Facebook post got to them that quickly...And then this guy went and got his extension ladder so that i could get right up to where Lita was...But the sound of the ladder freaked her out, and she flew across the street into the tallest tree in the world. And she landed right at the top.

So I spend the next 2+ hours trying to get her to come down...Crows kept flying by, but Lita had figured out in that short time that if she kept quiet, the Crows couldn't see her inside of the tree...How she got away from them and shook them off of her I have no idea, I was actually looking for blue-feathers as I walked because I was sure they had killed her. I had images of my baby girl half-eaten and ripped apart...So when I heard her voice answering my Contact-Calls to her, my heart jumped up in my throat and I immediately started to cry...But I learned something too, just like Lita had...And that was to stand right at the trunk of the 500 foot-tall tree she was at the very top of, even though she was way out on the end of a branch over top of the road...And it worked. She immediately started walking down the branch she was on inward, toward the tree's trunk. And slowly but surely, with me calling to her constantly, no joke, I didn't stop calling to her for the 2 hours it took me to get her the entire way down, she was absolutely terrified, but she slowly "hopped" down the tree, from branch to branch...(A woman jogging came up the road and heard me calling to her, then on her way back down the road she yelled "Oh my God, that's a parrot! I thought you were yelling to a cat up in the tree!", and she was yelling it, and she started to walk right over to me under the tree...I very rudely (I feel awful but i had to) and frantically said "Please go away, get away, please, she's scared!" and made a "shooing" motion with my hand at her...It was rude, I have to find her again and apologize, but she was on the lowest branch of the tree about 5 feet above my head when she started to yell and walk over, and Lita started pacing again like she was going to take off again...And then she kept trying to fly down to me but she just couldn't make herself do it...The Facebook post the guy with the extension-ladder posted was "The owner has been trying to get the bird down out of the tree for over 2-hours now but no luck"...Finally, out of exhaustion, I laid down in the yard the tree was in...And about 30 seconds later, Lita flew down and landed in the grass a couple of feet away from me, and then walked right over and jumped on my chest, and our nightmare was over...She had a nasty puncture-wound on the corner of her eyelid, so I'm thinking that is how close she came to being eaten by a Crow... So I'll say it again: THERE IS NO WAY YOU SHOULD FREE-FLY A PARROT/BIRD THAT IS SMALL OR MEDIUM IN SIZE, BECAUSE THEY DON'T STAND A CHANCE AGAINST THE PREDATORY WILD-BIRDS OUT THERE WHO ARE ALL READY TO KILL THEM.

 

[EllenD]

****Those Crows were double the size of Lita, and Crows are the smallest Predatory-Birds out in the wild!!! The Hawks, Eagles, Owls, and all the other "Raptors" are massive, fast, strong, and unless the bird you are Free-Flying is the size of a Macaw or similar parrot, then chances are that they will easily capture/grab onto your small/medium size parrot and that's the end...And those Crows literally ganged-up on Lita! The first one spotted her, alerted the other 4-5 in it's Flock, and then gave her chase out of the tree, with the rest of it's Flock right behind him...So they were trying to get a hold of her and eat her alive. Somehow Lita got away from them, hid from the, and also quickly learned to keep quiet the second she heard or saw another Crow...But we got so lucky guys. I don't know why but I am the luckiest Parront in the entire world right now, and I just hope that people can learn from the good and the bad I did here...

And anyone who has ever watched someone Free-Flying their parrot or even just watched any random Free-Flying videos on YouTube has probably seen the many, many Predatory-Bird chases that take place very commonly during all Free-Flights. And I'm talking people who are Free-Flying their Macaws, large Cockatoo species, etc. Almost every video I watch posted by the most well-known "Parrot Vloggers" on YouTube who Free-Fly their large parrots have some type of Predatory -Bird giving-chase to their parrots. And they always say something like "Oh he knows how to handle Hawks and Eagles now, they can't catch him"...Yeah right, if you actually believe that then you're extremely naive, because if you're going to Free-Fly your bird, then you need to always have a healthy-respect for ALL of the dangers that might possibly face your bird, and always be prepared to have to deal with them, not just assume that "Your bird is experienced and can handle it"...

 

[noodles123]

Oh my gosh...What a nightmare.....
I am so glad she is okay but what a terrible 24 hours that must have been....

 

[Jen5200]

Oh wow - terrifying. My gut was churning all the way through reading that, even though you said there was a happy ending in the first blurb. I’m so glad Lita is home and relatively unscathed... I hope you are okay and get some rest after what must have been a gut-wrenching and likely sleepless event - hugs to you. Thanks for sharing - lots of good “what to do” and “what not to do” bits for everyone.

 

[OutlawedSpirit]

So glad you were able to get Lita back home safe where she belongs! On the topic of predatory birds a free-flight, I had been talking to someone who has several birds with thousands of hours of experience each free-flight time and he said that anyone who free-flies HAS to accept that losing their bird is a very real possibility. Whether because they take off, due to an accident, or predators. He told me that before deciding to free-fly ANY bird, and he agreed with you that it should definitely be a large parrot, you have to decide that the benefits you think they get from free-flying are worth their lives.

 

[GaleriaGila]

WHEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you for sharing this.

Lita will be even more precious to you after this, if that is possible.

 

[Scott]

A horrific event Ellen, so glad you rescued Lita. Thanks for highlighting the perils of free-flying, even as this was not a deliberate event.

One of the first notions I accepted in keeping companion birds is they will never know the freedom of outdoor flight. I could never balance their joy with voracious raptors overhead capable of inflicting lifelong dread and regret. Perhaps a bit selfish, but a responsibility we assume as parronts IMO.

I've never observed difficulty with my flock descending from altitude. Perhaps species-specific, but appears instinctual and perfected while fledgling inside my home. Perhaps the greater issue is a sudden escape and flight to altitude compounded with fear and desire to remain above perceived hazards? A fid thrusted into an infinite environment will naturally remain skittish and perhaps reluctant to fly to familiar faces and voices.

 

[Aspie_Aviphile]

I've never observed difficulty with my flock descending from altitude.

Nor mine, but I think it's a common problem when parrots are not allowed to fledge properly, get clipped, and are stolen from their parents' care to be "handraised". None of those things are commonly committed by breeders or pet shops in the UK, and I suspect that's why I have never heard of a parrot needing to be
"taught to fly" or having trouble with aspects of flight like sharp descent or graceful landing in this country, only online from other countries. Difficulty flying indoors just isn't a thing here, it seems.

 

[OutlawedSpirit]

I've never observed difficulty with my flock descending from altitude.

Difficulty flying indoors just isn't a thing here, it seems.

The issue isn't just descending, per se, it's descending from such a massive height when outdoors. When training for free flight, captive parrots have to be trained to descend from greater and greater heights when they are moved from an indoor to an outdoor environment. Starting with say a shoulder height branch, then maybe something roof height, etc.

Most flighted parrots indoors can descend what is necessary to navigate through the house. Just like most people can jump off the bottom step of a staircase. It takes building up to it to be able to jump off of a roof safely, both physically and mentally.

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