[parrotntn]

… Reasons Given for Allowing Flight

The reasons most often stated for allowing flight in companion parrots are as follows:
• Flighted parrots enjoy better psychological and physical health.
• Young parrots are allowed to have a full fledging experience.
• Owners are usually more involved with their parrots.
• Flighted parrots with good flight skills are more easily recovered if lost outdoors.
• Flighted parrots are more fun to have around.

Flighted parrots may enjoy better physical health because of the increased exercise they get. Parrots are naturally busy creatures who move around often, and a companion parrot with good flight skills will move around the home at will often. Accordingly, increased quality of life results also because of the number of choices that bird is able to make throughout the day.
Young parrots who are able to fledge at the naturally appointed time develop into more confident and coordinated adult birds. For the young bird who is allowed to fledge and fly, even if clipped prior to going to his new home, there will be the joyful and enthusiastic expansion of personality that occurs during fledging, provided that the period of flight allowed is at least a few weeks in duration. They use their ability to fly when young as a vehicle for exploring the environment, as well as the social relationships available to them. Thus, they usually develop into more interesting parrot companions. The young parrot allowed flight will remain forever a more athletic creature, and a more enjoyable one to have around, at that. They are also spared the fear and anxiety that some individuals demonstrate after a bad wing trim.
People who live with flighted parrots are usually more involved with their birds, because of the need to train. An untrained but flighted bird will sooner or later become a problem. Owners of flighted birds must become skilled at using positive reinforcement to train their birds to come when called, leave an area when asked, step up when asked, and to go back into the cage when needed. I regard clipping and training as two sides to the same coin. We must either clip wings or train, in order to get acceptable behavior from our birds. This training of flight cues is not difficult to do with a bird, and is a lot of fun for both owner and parrot.
If ever lost outdoors, the flighted parrot is more likely to have both the stamina and the flight skills to fly back down to the owner when found. Owners of flighted parrots must plan for the day when the parrot does get lost by acclimating the parrot to the outdoors through the frequent use of an outdoor aviary, by teaching the parrot to come when called, and by making sure the bird gets enough flight experience to be able to easily fly upward, fly downward, hover in the air and fly distances. IF these measures are taken, there is a good chance that, if lost outdoors, the bird will stay in the vicinity of the home and fly down to the owner when called.
Lastly, many of use believe that flighted birds are more fun to have as companions. They are so much better able to reveal their personalities through movement of choice. I am tremendously gratified when my parrots choose to fly to me when I ask them to. Through this experience, I am insured that they experience me as a kind and worthy caregiver. They do not step up for me because I bully them into it, but because they want to. They have the choice to fly away instead. If our goal as humans is to take a kinder, gentler approach to all of life, this is a good way to begin.
There comes with keeping a flighted parrot a true appreciation for the keen intelligence and magical whimsy so frequently displayed by the flighted spirit. By always keeping the birds in our midst clipped, I believe that we blind ourselves to the view and appreciation of the parrot as a flighted entity.

Consequences of Allowing Flight

A significant disadvantage is the to-some-degree unavoidable harm which comes to household items when flighted parrots are allowed exploration of the premises. Parrots are playful and they enjoy figuring out how things work. When I was living in California, my African Grey Marko had two favorite activities. She would fly to my pot rack in the kitchen while I was working out there, then throw the lighter pots and pans down onto the stove. When I would leave the room and she grew bored, she found it fun to push down the spigot on the large bottle of purified water that we kept on the counter for drinking, watching as the water flowed down and splashed onto the floor. While I was willing to tolerate these minor annoyances, another person might find this type of parrot “fun” intolerable.
The primary cause of harm to household items comes, of course, from chewing. I recently moved to another home here in Oregon and spent several thousand dollars restoring woodwork and flooring before moving. To some of us, this will be unacceptable.
Flighted parrots are able to move about at will, and thus distribute the mess they create over a much larger area. This requires, if we are committed to keeping them flighted, that we creatively set up areas for perching that are more attractive to the parrot than our own possessions and furniture might be. Then, we must provide instruction about where she can perch, and where she should not perch. This requires time, effort, patience and a certain amount of expense. Flightedness is of no advantage to the parrot who is always kept locked in a cage in order to prevent his getting into trouble. He is better off able to climb around his cage and alternate perching sites.
Next, those of us who live with flighted parrots must dedicate ourselves to teaching them to cooperate with us, both in terms of allowing handling and in leaving our own possessions alone. This training requires a commitment of time and energy. It requires also that we see ourselves in a different perspective, in relation to our parrots. Although this may be an inconvenient truth to face, many of us have parrots in order to meet our own emotional needs. We want them to make us feel loved. When we step into the role of teacher and trainer, the dynamic of the relationship shifts as we recognize our primary responsibility to teach them and keep them safe.
When keeping a flighted parrot, we must go about our days in a very conscious manner, in order to prevent an accidental escape. Owners of flighted parrots need to be alert and aware of potential losses. Our parrots do not want to escape or fly away from home, but losses occur when they try to join us as we leave the house. Or, the parrot sees the owner outdoors and attempts to fly to the owner through an open door. Therefore, we must arrange our entrances and exits from the house so that this can not happen. This involves setting up a double entrance in many cases. And, of course, doors can not be left open.
Likewise, constant vigilance is necessary to prevent accidents and injures to the flighted parrot. Much has been written about the dangers that exist in the home to flighted parrots. Often, these are not in reality true dangers. A parrot with good flight skills who has been allowed to explore the home is not going to fly into a window. Parrots are “learning machines,” quite capable of learning about windows and other household hazards.
There are, however, some real dangers. As mentioned earlier, serious injury or death can occur when a flighted parrot chooses to perch atop an open door…and someone closes the door quickly. In some cases, death comes when a transparent partition is closed, never having been closed previously. In one instance, the home had a sliding glass door that separated two rooms. This door was always open. The African Grey had long been flighted and enjoyed a routine pattern of flight in the house for exercise. One day, someone closed the door. While baby parrots, that are just fledging, do not as a rule have the muscle development that allows them to injure or kills themselves when running into windows, a fully flighted parrot in good shape can certainly kill himself flying into such a partition, just as wild birds do when flying into windows.
Anyone who elects to keep flighted parrots can not be absent-minded. They must maintain an awareness of the parrot’s location in the home at all times, travel through doorways carefully, and think through any actions likely to impact the flighted bird. For instance, the operation of a ceiling fan can mean the death of the flighted parrot, if the owner absentmindedly turns it on without thinking of the ramifications.
Next, depending upon the personality and history of the parrot in question, flightedness can lead to increased aggression that is directly related to territoriality. Some parrots will, at some times of the year when hormone production is at its highest, fly and attack family members or other parrots in the household. In these cases, the best solution may be to do a partial wing clip and then increase training efforts.
Conversely, parrots of a dependent nature may use the ability to fly to remain perennially on their owners’ shoulder. This becomes inconvenient, and sooner or later necessitates that the parrot also be taught to play independently.
Last, a disadvantage of major proportions is the difficulty of finding alternative care for the flighted birds when you must leave town. There are few care-givers who are knowledgeable enough to be able to handle a flighted parrot, and the option of leaving the bird in its cage throughout the owner’s entire absence is not usually an acceptable one.

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