Clipping or not clipping of wings

[shanlung]

This thread came about from a recent topic 'The Importance of Flight-Feather Clipping; plus Clipping Techniques ' here. In that thread, we are told that arguments as to reasons why that is done will not be appropriate. Other threads are then named but when I went into there, the thread was 'locked' .

I am very neutral on this issue. People should do what they think best in their situation. But I want to point out that it is a dangerous fallacy to think that clipping will therefore lead to birds from having unplanned flyaways.

Of course, nothing but nothing is foolproof. My recent misadventures with
Tinkerbell underline the dangers of complacency and even a split second misdirection of attention can cause nightmares and premature ageing.

Below are a series of old emails and stuff from my blog.

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From shanlung: On clipping wings
11 Mar 07

On clipping wings
I was recently taking part in various forums on the above.

I extract below what I wrote

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9 Mar 07

Folks,
Clipping of wings probably lead to loss of even more birds than knowing how to live with flighted birds.

People clip wings thinking that their bird will not fly away.

I honestly have nothing against the way people chose to keep their flock. No one should allow others to pressure them one way or other into any prescribed way.
They and only they alone must decide.

But they should know as much as they can , not relying on the word of anyone alone, less of all, not from me.

But to think that clipping of wings will meant bird will be safe is so unsafe that that is frightening to me.

Trimming wings is about the worse measure to try to stop birds from flying away.

In fright and with wind gust, clipped birds will , and can fly away.

By trimming feathers, you lull yourself into a false state of mind that all is safe. Then when the clipped bird fly away in fright up a tree, the very lack of those clipped feathers meant that bird cannot fly down to you again.

Those who live with flighted birds will know that flying down is one of the hardest act EVEN WITH ALL FEATHERS INTACT. Successful flying down from high points require much more skills than flying up in fright.

If you think clipping prevent unwanted escapes then read extracts below

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lost cockatiel 'Tory'
Lost cockatiel. Grey/yellowish pearl. Banded 03. ay come to 'Tory Bird'. Poor flier due to wing clipping. Email: dbruexxx@aol.com. White Lake, MI.

Our bird was lost on 11-23-03 in the area of St. Petersburg, Fl. In the region of OLD NORTHEAST. We are heart broken over it, any info that is given will be greatly helpful, wings are clipped and can't fly There is a reward out for the return of the bird , under one year old. Email: ywwalxxx@mypetshop.com. St Petersburg, FL.

Blue & Gold Macaw, Lost in Pembroke Pines, Fl Distinctive Forth black Line Under Eyes. Still Being Handfed. Wings Were Clipped First two Wing feathers Still On. Lost On Sept. 21. Reward If Found. Email: mattshxxx@aol.com. Pembroke Pines, FL.


My daughter and I are so sad because my husband went outside on
Saturday Feb. 24th at 3 o'clock and he had our little Mustached Parakeet. It's a female, and she was scared about the noise that my husband did with the trashcan, so she flew away.

We try to find her, we gave to the people some flyers and we put some
of them on the mail boxes, we look around our home where we thought that she can stay but anything happened. Our Parakeet Vet told us that she can't fly long distances because she has just 3 feathers on each side, she is missing 4 on each side.

She was living inside the house in a warm weather and now outside is
cold, the Vet thinks that she can survive outside but I don't know what we
can do. We are missing her a lot. Her head is light gray, she has
salmon-colored half breast, some of her tail feathers are turquoise, and some yellow on her wing feathers. We are living in Gilbert, Arizona.

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You should make your decision when you know clearly your intentions and the consequences .

Take a look into what Pamela Clark wrote. Read that and then you decide.

Feathers, Flight and Parrot Keeping
Project Bird Watch Library: Feathers, Flight & Parrot Keeping


11 Mar 07


In this bundled series of letters, I was talking about what I termed as the gyrodrop. That was in the
context of the mechanics of bird flights as to how they fly downwards. You can gauge how much I
know about the difficulties of birds flying downwards.
Feel free to dispute with me on what I wrote, if you have some such experiences.

About the end of that article, I suggest the best flight angle for you to
induce your clipped or unclipped bird to fly back to you if they are up a tree.

You never know one day you might need to use this.

An article from Part 1 Tinkerbell Early Period
Tinkerbell - The Gyro drop

Shanlung
index

And if above works for you and you are grateful,
send a nice cheque to Gerald Durrells Wildlife Trust

Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust - Protecting Endangered Animals Worldwide


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And then another blog entry on 30 Mar 07 shanlung: More thoughts on wing clipping

More thoughts on wing clipping
A letter from a Grey forum - Wing clipping??

Dave is an old friend from another forum that I met again in greyforums recently as MrSpock. Dave allowed his grey to be flighted after he read of me and Tinkerbell and we corresponded on other board.

MrSpock wrote:

Proper wing clipping will allow a bird horozontal movement and the ability to glide downward to a floor. The ideal wing clip is one that allows a bird to fly about 8 ft before gliding down.


Hi Dave,

In an ideal world, what you say above may be right.

The other extreme will be extremely severe clipping of wings. When I was in Riyadh and in a parrot shop, this grey jumped off the top of cage about 5 feet from ground. The sound of him hitting down, the spray of blood around him, and the screaming of that poor guy hurt me crazy. I do not wish ever to have another keel bone broken even if not in front of me.

People clipped for a few key reasons.

1. They had been conditioned to that because of what they read or were told. This seemed to be peculiarly American. Tinkerbell wings were so nearly clipped by me at the beginning as the books I read all recommended that (all American books) as well as forums in 2002 when I first had Tinkerbell. I was lucky enough to bought a British parrot mag to give me second thoughts.

2. The sight of initial flights, the crashing into walls was extremely frightening and I thought my precious Tink was crazy in trying to fly through walls while I stumbled about chasing her with a pillow to cushion her falls after hitting the wall. Once again, I so nearly reached for that scissors and Tink the flyig grey of Taiwan so nearly did not exist. But that british mag persuaded me to let that continue for a few more days.

She then found her flying skills to turn, slow, hover and stopped banging into walls.

Folks, this episode is inevitable. Your birds may be natural fliers, but even so, they MUST develope their muscles , flying skills and sense of balance. But at this early stage, their speed will be very slow(even if it appeared fast to you) and chances of harm to them will be there, but not much.

You can minimise this by letting them fledge in a small room, with curtains or rope nets around the walls for them to fly to and cling too. Or you can run around like me with a cushion.

If you see a human toddler trying to walk and falling down, will you have fear for his/her safety and not ever let him discover balance and walk? Will you have him/her crawl for the rest of their life because you are afraid to see them fall?

This is same as your choice for your bird.

3 By clipping wings and thinking thus the clipped bird will never fly away. I need not repeat my earlier postings of clipped birds that flown away.

In what Dave said , that is true in an ideal world. Unfortunately, we live in the real world.
But most people then went on to extrapolate that then, their bird will never be able to fly away. That is where I draw that line.

So after you got that 'perfect clip' and your parrot then fly about 8 feet and not gaining height. But again, have that clip been tested under worse case condition? Such as a sudden blast of air horn , or a strange hat thrust in front to see if that parrot cannot gain height in a spook situation?

Can you bear to do a sudden spook, or allow others to do that to your parrot? To see if that clipped wings hold good in spook conditions? And with Murphy at your elbows, how about throwing in that gust of wind at the same time?

Can you ever guarantee such conditions will never ever occur to you?

People had thought so. Their parrot paid heavier price than they did.
Your choice again to see if you can beat those odds.



Shanlung

index

[svolk]

I am in complete agreement with you Shanlung. I, too, am aware that clipping is a personal matter that one must decide for themselves. But I also believe that clipping for "safety reasons" or clipping so as to prevent them from flying away is a very false sense of security.

I have also witnessed how hard it is to acquire proficient flight skills from a clipped cockatiel who appeared to not be fledged and from an adult budgie who was flighted but had never flown before. Both birds needed MONTHS to learn how to control their flights, meaning getting the basics down regarding turning, flying down (this was VERY hard for the budgie to manage at first), and controlling their flight when spooked.

They are both now master fliers. I never gave up on them and they never let their desire to fly fall by the wayside. After seeing their trials and tribulations that it took to achieve GRACEFUL flight, I now look at the flighted bird in a much different light. They also have a greater confidence - I can see that in their eyes and through their body language as opposed to their confidence before learning to fly.

[Kevin]

Being that this is such a hot topic we have created a sticky that sheds light on both sides of the debate.... Pro's and cons for each side and lets you make an educated answer as to what works for your situation.

Click Here to Read - To Clip or Not To Clip

I am closing this thread to make sure it doesn't go off coarse as this topic usually ends up.