she flew and flew

[sofie2meg]

hi i thought i would tell you how my little caique flew away.
kiki always goes where we go if i go upstairs to do the ironing she comes along and runs around upstairs if i go outside and work on the garden she comes as well, i put her cage outside and she sits on the top as long as she can see me she is ok, once or twice she has flown to the greenhouse to see me as i have worked my way round so she can't see me, but always comes back when i put my finger out to her.
well this time the builders came round to do some work and i was outside with kiki on my shoulder and the bloke put his finger out to pick her up, i was about to say she only goes to people when she is ready when she flew up and away the wind got her and she flew over the house the garage and up onto next doors roof, she sat up on the ridge singing and bobbing her dance, i called and she put her foot down on the slates and she slid climbed back to the ridge and stayed put, i was worried that a big bird would come and hurt her, my husband arrived back at this time with the dogs (they had been out for the walk), got the ladder and down she came as good as gold, i will be very careful in the future when i go outside, so that was kiki's adventure.
thank goodness everything turned out ok it could of been a very different story.

[expressmailtome]

I am so glad that every thing worked out!

Matt

[safarichick101]

you let your birds fly outside???? how, couldn't they just fly away or get eaten by a hawk?
I mean, how do you do it, it sounds like fun, but how do you balance the risks?

[Monica]

I don't know if Sofie's caique was free-flight trained or not, (I'm guessing not since they had to retrieve Kiki) but the majority of people who allow their birds to fly outside have had their birds recalled trained. It's the same idea as teaching a dog to come to you, and to stick aorund you when your outside so that you could have the dog off-leash instead of leashed. However, birds take more training than dogs because birds are flighted, and can easily take off in long distances, being lost from the owner, if started.

There is quite a bit of information about recall/free-flight training in the training forum - however, please understand, this is *NOT* for everyone
Training Techniques - BirdBoard.Com - Parrot Message Board & Pet Bird Owner Forums

[Scooter]

I am go glad that you were able to get her. I take mine out for little walks but their wings are trimmed so that can't fly very high. And we have way too many hawks out looking for lunch. I have a friend whose eclectus flew out the door last summer. They found him, but he would not come down to them for anything. He was loving his freedom and sort of teased by flying overhead just out of reach. Unfortunately, when they went back the next day to try again, they found his feathers on the ground, and some predator had gotten him. Obviously, they were just devastated.

I am so glad that your experience had a happy ending.

[hollyhawkz]

You are very lucky. I'm glad you got her back safe.

[LovelySydney]

OH man Im so happy to hear you got her back. You ARE very lucky!!! I am only going to be taking Neko out when he has a flight suit and I know he cant get away from me - I just dont want to take any chances.

[jenseits]

As others have said, it's a bad idea to take a bird outside without restraint without a LOT of prior training.

There's also a huge difference between a bird being indoor-recall trained and being ready for free flight (free flight = outdoor flight, unrestrained). In addition to needing to be 100% consistently recall trained, an outdoor flighted bird also needs to understand how to avoid distractions, how to evade predators, how to fly down from heights, how to maneuver in wind, etc. They also need a lot of stamina. Those are things *most* people can't provide for their birds and therefore they shouldn't take their birds outside without restraint.

It doesn't matter if your bird is clipped - don't do it. Lots of clipped birds escape and they have even less chance of survival from predators if they escape and fly away and you can't retrieve them.

I'm glad Sofie was lucky and was able to retrieve her bird, but not everyone gets that lucky. Please don't take unnecessary risks with your bird's safety.

[jobo2mi]

Free flighting birds would be AWESOME indeed!!! But not for me and mine!! I've lost a few fids that way, and just got lucky when my caique recently flew out the door and I got him back after 4 days (I was DEVESTATED to say the least!)

If you want to see free flighintg birds check this out ... YouTube - Wings To The WInd

Chris Biro free flights his birds and has a lot of vids on them, and how he does it! I can just watch his videos for HOURS. I want to go to Utah to meet him and his fids!! don't know if that will ever happen tho.

Check out his other videos on YouTube.