People in Asia Free Flight Smaller Birds (Lovebirds, Parakeets, Cockatiels & Ringnecks, mainly)....why is it more discouraged in North America?

[Rozalka]

I see....I was wondering why some of the FF trainers who were stating they have been able to successfully FF Cockatiels, Lovebirds and GC conures were advising against Budgies, especially.

Do you think it will be the same thing for similary sized Grass-keets like bourkes and Turqs? And bigger ones like Rock Pebbler, Princess of Wales and King Parrot...they are all Aussie too...and considered parakeets..

Yep, I meant all these kinds in general. I watched a video made by an experience ff person (who created own free flight bird park) and she was trying to ff some of these kinds - right now only a single rock pebbler is free flighted in her park. She was trying with a king parrot too but she had to stop it because of the bird's untypical visits

 

[ravvlet]

My friend keeps parrotlets and while they’re charming and intelligent as all get out, they seem to have a naughty streak a mile wide. I can’t imagine free flighting one; they’re the size of a house sparrow but whip-smart.

I think like others have said it’s really more that big birds are easy to hear, spot, and recover. However, they’re your bird, and it is up to you to decide what risks you feel are worth taking.

 

[Sera]

Careful! You’re almost broaching a cultural question that could generate some…friction on this multicultural forum. Different countries tend to have different standards of care, and will defend them as “different ways of doing things”. North Americans are no different.

The argument goes like this:
Small birds are…smaller. If they fly off, they’re near impossible to see and hear, making recovering significantly harder compared to a macaw you can see and hear from a distance.

That alone creates a level of risk that many in North America deem unacceptable to take.

Seems reasonable minds can debate maneuverability of smaller parrots absent actual evidence. I’m of the belief that they’re more prone to predation, which lends to my strong belief they aren’t suitable candidates for free flight.

They can also be a bit more flighty than larger parrots, prone to scares. Think about it: often medium and large parrots in a home often prefer walking to flight. Smaller birds will take flight quickly. Bigger risk for fly offs.

I dint think their post would offend anyone, it’s a genuine question. I also see a lot of free flighted birds in my home country but here no one really does it as much. The ones I see out and about are always clipped and personally I hate clipping their wings, I never understood getting an animal and taking away what’s most dear to them. But I don’t know how and there’s not much out there to help me free fly my bird which I’ve always wanted to do. I wish it was more normalized here. But not saying that it doesn’t happen, it does but those people either sell their help or don’t post about it, but it’s too expensive for me to hire a professional.

 

[Sera]

I had to look elsewhere for free flight communities for small bird coz it's hard to find one in North America for smaller birds. Eventually, I may just start one...starting with Indoor in large places (with a pro guiding us of course).

Please start one and add me, i dont have a bird as small as a budgie and don’t plan on getting one because I’m too scared but I do have conures and I’d love to free fly them someday. Also when I took my nanday conure out while he was still young and barely knew how to fly, the wind took him away while he was flying back and forth to me and my sister. The only way I figured where he was was yelling his name and he’d scream back to, but I wouldn’t have that luxury with a budgie since their voices aren’t as loud. But I’ve wanted to free fly ever since I’ve heard the concept of it