Skittles enjoying a birds eye view

[Chesphoto]

The weather in Phoenix has been perfect for hiking and Skittles loves the outdoors. This is from the top of a mountain in the Phoenix mountain preserve with Camelback mountain in the background.

The other hikers love seeing Skittles on the trail, often asking to photograph her. I love that because it gives me a chance to catch my breath...

 

[gracebowen]

Amazing. When I lived in Phoenix I hiked South Mountain nearly every weekend. My cross country try team trained at Squaw Peak.

 

[AshMGon]

This is beautiful! She looks so majestic !

 

[Roanoke]

LOVELY picture!
I have a question though- I keep seeing macaws being taken outside, but nobody bothers to explain how.
Do most mac owners clip their birds or are they all magically flight trained? I have to assume they're clipped, but that's just a blind guess..
Any other macaw people want to chime in?

 

[Dinosrawr]

From what I recall, Skittles is a bird that is unable to fly. Though I'm sure Chesphoto will explain, or clarify if my memory serves me wrong.

 

[Chesphoto]

LOVELY picture!
I have a question though- I keep seeing macaws being taken outside, but nobody bothers to explain how.
Do most mac owners clip their birds or are they all magically flight trained? I have to assume they're clipped, but that's just a blind guess..
Any other macaw people want to chime in?

Skittles was an abused bird. For over 10 years, she was kept in such a small cage that she could not even spread her wings. She has atrophy in one of her wings and when she came into the rescue shelter 2 years ago, could only extend one wing.

The amazing part is she can now extend both wings and is flapping more and more. This xmas, I bought her an aviator harness because I think she will be flying soon. I will let everyone know how that goes... :11:

 

[BreakinNewz]

wow, amazing shot!

 

[denaz101]

Beautiful bird and background

 

[Birdman666]

I love seeing birds go out and about. My five spent all afternoon in a tree on Saturday. (It was finally nice enough to get them back outside.) And Maggie did laundry and ran errands with me on Sunday...

And the look on her face is priceless. I'm on top of the world!

It really does wonders for their disposition...

 

[Birdman666]

Skittles was an abused bird. For over 10 years, she was kept in such a small cage that she could not even spread her wings. She has atrophy in one of her wings and when she came into the rescue shelter 2 years ago, could only extend one wing.

The amazing part is she can now extend both wings and is flapping more and more. This xmas, I bought her an aviator harness because I think she will be flying soon. I will let everyone know how that goes... :11:

I've never understood how someone could do that to one of these birds... but I've seen it myself. And it's amazing how resilient they can be when they get the proper care they deserve. You've done wonders for her!

 

[Birdman666]

LOVELY picture!
I have a question though- I keep seeing macaws being taken outside, but nobody bothers to explain how.
Do most mac owners clip their birds or are they all magically flight trained? I have to assume they're clipped, but that's just a blind guess..
Any other macaw people want to chime in?

Both of my macaws are recalled and startle trained. I keep my red front long clipped because there are certain things that might still spook her enough to have her fly off on me in a place where she might get lost or hurt.

Maggie is 110% bonded to me, and trustworthy. And she's recalled, startle trained, and stay put trained, and has NEVER wandered off on me. (Sweepea has a couple of times. That's a no-no for an out and about bird.) In fact, if I set her down, she's WAY more likely to fly back to me, than fly off on me...

So, she is fully flighted. Everyone else is long clipped.