Has anyone flown with a bird before?

[MiniMama]

How did it go- and what are the concerns? did you bring them in a carrier and put ;htem under your seat? Thanks!

[alanicky]

I took 3 birds. Hyacinth, African Gray & A Queen of Bavaria. All in separate carriers & all were put in cargo. Everything was fine. Check with your airline. I had to put screening over the openings of the carrier for Delta.

[papayamama]

I haven't but I know birdmommaof2 has. check her posts in the macaw forum.

[Izzy]

I have!

I flew with Sweety, my tiel, from Minneapolis to Denver and back last summer. She flew under my seat via Northwest. Make sure you get a carrier that fits the requirements-mine is one of those where the top half opens (from Petco).

I also flew with a Blue Headed Pionus from Providence, RI to Denver last summer. He flew under my seat on Delta, and I think Delta required a health certificate from a vet.

Both birds did just fine. I made sure they had some nutiberries to munch on.

At the airport they did make me take them out of the carrier so that it could be run through Xray-I requested to be brought to a small room since both were flighted, and toweled them there (I brought a towel with-VERY important!!!!).

As long as my tiel could see me, she was fine and quiet. The people on the plane loved her.

[SallyQZ]

I flew with my African Grey from Orlando to Los Angeles. I purchased one of those small animal carriers that would fit underneath the seat in front of me. It opened from the top, plus the whole top half of the carrier could hinge open. I added a small rope perch (attached it through the slits in the side of the carrier) so that Tonka could choose to sit on the perch or on the flat bottom.

The airline charged me an additional $60 for having a carry-on pet but other than that it was no different than any other carry-on luggage. We did have to go through a different airport security checkpoint, but I didn't have to take Tonka out of the carrier. I pointed out that Tonka would cheerfully rip the flesh from his bones if the guard attempted to remove him, so he was quite happy to leave him inside the carrier.

The funniest part was that Tonka would get quite vocal during take-off and landing (talking, not squawking). The people in front of me kept saying "Did you hear that? It sounds like someone is under our seat!" to each other as Tonka went through his entire repetoire of words & microwave/washer/dryer/security system beeps.

edited to add: I never had to put my carrier (or Tonka) through the xray machine. The guard just took a quick look at it and waved us through.

[Sparky]

I took Kiwi from LA to the Bay Area and back on a plane once many many years ago. I had just purchased a second gcc, but he died right before the flight (I told this story in another thread where someone asked how important is it to take a new bird to a vet within a store's guarantee). The new bird, Kermit, was not yet tamed, and Kiwi hated him. What I had done was I bought one of those under-seat airline-approved carriers, and installed a divider so both birds could be in one carrier and Kiwi couldn't kill Kermit. I did have to have a certificate of health from the vet and there was some sort of fee. I'm afraid I don't remember now what airline it was.

Well, like I said Kermit passed away before the flight, so I only had to worry about Kiwi. Since she wouldn't cooperate that morning with going into the top-loading airline carrier, I put her in her regular small carrier and put that inside the airline carrier. Turns out that was a stroke of luck, because when I got to the x-ray, they insisted on opening the airline carrier, and I did *not* have the option of going into a separate room. Imagine what would have happened if I had had both Kiwi and Kermit in the airline carrier - Kermit wasn't even tamed, and he had a phobia of hands. Both birds were rather skittish and even clipped I couldn't have dealt with two small birds taking off in different directions. As it was, they were satisfied getting a good look at Kiwi in her small carrier and didn't make me take her out of there. It was the airline carrier they wanted opened because it wasn't easy to see inside.

If you are going to get an underseat airline carrier, I suggest getting one of the ones with the mesh tops. Mine has the solid top, if it had had the mesh top they might have been okay with me not opening it, as you can more easily see inside those.

[alwaysontimneh]

This is a great question since I was wondering the same thing myself. Hubby is Navy and there is a possibility of us moving to Spain next year and I am worried about the long flight.