What to do if your bird flies away

[eltrius]

To prevent Loki from getting lost, I'm hopefully going to teach him to fly and navigate. I take him outside with a harness a lot so he will get to know the area. His flight feathers haven't grown back since the breeder clipped them, but when he does fly I'll teach him to fly down to my finger when I call. With a harness (Loki has an Aviator Harness) it's easy to teach them to fly to you since they're attached by an elastic cord. Birds are mentally healthier if allowed to fly anyway. I want him to be able to fly up into trees without worrying that he'll get lost!

Does anyone have experience using a harness to teach a bird to fly and navigate outside?

[kellywess]

This is a great thread with some wonderful information. hoever brought it back to life... thanks!

[pippy]

Before I even brought my babies home (unclipped and they will remain that way) I knew I wanted to come up with a way of teaching them to fly to me on command indoors. It wasn't difficult!

They both love pine nuts which I keep in a small plastic container with a lid. I was able to teach them both very quickly to fly to me when I rattle the box as they know I'll allow them to bury their greedy beaks in the delicious pine nuts for a few seconds when they come to me! At the same time as rattling the box I also say 'Come on then' in an excited voice and click my fingers.

Should the worst ever happen and one or other of my CAGs escapes I'll be out rattling my pine nuts box for all I'm worth calling them.

[puppylove]

when i was 16 years old I had two tiels. They were my babies and I took them outside all the time because they loved it outside. They both had their wings clipped so I thought it was safe. The female, Tweety, got up in the air and she flew like the wind! I handed spike to my sister and I ran my heart out after her. She flew over a fence and into the school football field and kept going beyond the field. I climbed that fence and fell on the ground and I got up and i kept running. I couldn't believe how far she could fly with her wings clipped!!! She just kept going and going and going like the energizer bunny! She NEVER got that high in my house! When she jumped off her cage inside she basically just fell like a rock to the floor. You would be surprised how high up they can get with a little bit of wind. I only caught her because my adrenalin kept me going. I think i was still out of breath a week later..lol I don't recommend taking any bird outside without some kinda leash.

[pippy]

Originally Posted by puppylove

when i was 16 years old I had two tiels. They were my babies and I took them outside all the time because they loved it outside. They both had their wings clipped so I thought it was safe. The female, Tweety, got up in the air and she flew like the wind! I handed spike to my sister and I ran my heart out after her. She flew over a fence and into the school football field and kept going beyond the field. I climbed that fence and fell on the ground and I got up and i kept running. I couldn't believe how far she could fly with her wings clipped!!! She just kept going and going and going like the energizer bunny! She NEVER got that high in my house! When she jumped off her cage inside she basically just fell like a rock to the floor. You would be surprised how high up they can get with a little bit of wind. I only caught her because my adrenalin kept me going. I think i was still out of breath a week later..lol I don't recommend taking any bird outside without some kinda leash.

In the UK 50% of escaped birds have clipped wings (statistic from the UKPS) yet so many people believe their birds are safer this way! Clipping is not common in the UK mind you.

Glad your girl was caught!

[vgannikki]

My Tomato got out when my mother opened the door to wide while I was at work.

I made a flier with a reward a picture of her and instructions on what to do if she was found. I made 200 copies and literally plastered all the neighborhoods in my town. I went to every single salon, post office, grocery store, library etc. and asked them to post my flier.

Little did I know I had people looking high and low for her (even trapping neighborhood cats so she wouldn't be eaten =/)

Four days later, after at least one night in below freezing conditions with no food. I got the call that she was in a tree only 100 or 200 yards away.

She dramatically flew down to me and let me cradle her like a baby while she ate an entire millet branch by the time we got home.

Here we are only minutes after arriving safe and sound.

[cvrchota]

this is old... but it worked...when sonny got out-he soared like an eagle... you could tell he was loving it... of course my husband was very upset... we could hear sonny's call... so my husband sat under the pine trees saying the words he usually says to sonny "hello, papa" "aloooha"...stuff like that... he calmly started cracking peanuts and eating them while talking to sonny... sonny eventually showed up in the trees--did a few acrobats celebrating his moment of freedom and the crack of the peanuts was too much for him to resist... he flew down on his papa's shoulders and was captured once again! to this day, sonny always goes in his "outside" cage while it's still in the house and is transported to the garage that way (he sits in the garage and helps fix cars with my husband)... he was free for only about an hour.. but it sure was a tortourous hour for my husband!

[ahawk11]

I have a one and a half year old harlequin macaw that recently flew away. I had no idea what to do and after three worry filled days I was beginning to lose hope. Reading this forum gave me lots of good ideas and thanks to these posts I FINALLY have Obi home safe. Here is what worked for me:
• We put his perch on the roof so he could see it from the sky.
• I printed fliers and put one in EVERYONES mail box.
• I started calling things I say often, like, “What are you doing?” and, “Where have you been.”
• In the end it was calling the dog’s name that he recognized and finally started squawking. A neighbor heard him and called me. I continued to call the dogs name until I found him in the top of a huge tree.
• When the fire trucks came I made sure I kept eye contact with him and distracted him by talking to him loudly nonstop. I also had a waffle I pretended to eat loudly because I knew he was hungry.
• The fire department let me in the bucket to get him. While I was climbing up, my husband (his second favorite person) kept him distracted. He didn’t come right away because he was scared, but after 20 persistent minutes he finally ventured out onto the thin branch and into my arms.
I am so thankful I have my baby home and safe. During those three agonizing days he did stay close to home; within a mile. He was lost, trying to find his way home, but had never seen home from the outside. In the future I plan to take him outside (on a leash) more often so if he ever gets lost again he can find his way home. In the end it was the fliers, helpful neighbors, this forum, calling the dog and two waffles that got him home.

[LovelySydney]

ahawk11, so glad to hear you got your baby home safe! Thanks for sharing your techniques for how you got him home. Hopefully no one will have to use them but these things do happen and I know your information will be helpful.