Gari's Great Adventure...

[NotEnoughTime]

This morning Gari and I are having our morning cuddles... She is very tired and is sleeping in my lap as I type this....

For those of you that have read my posts over the past few months you probably know that I am a proponent of applied behavioural training (clicker training), the rational parrot website ( The Rational Parrot ), and managed flight ( Managed Flight, Not Wing Clipping ).

I have had a few birds in my life starting with "Joe the budgerigar" (budgie we call them for some strange reason) who lived to the ripe-old age of 12 and my current fid Gari the Green Cheek. I've only ever owned one-bird-at-a-time with the exception of a slight overlap of my Cockatiel (Tambo) with Joe... In all cases my birds were pets to the n'th degree - freedom in the house when I was home and they had only the secondary flight feathers clipped.

Gari is different. The only time I've delt with a bird that is part dog, part hamster and part bird. The freedom in the house has given her an opportunity to explore in ways I never thought any bird would. The other birds have sat on the tops of doors and chewed the wood... Not Gari... As and extremely social bird she must be with either my wife or me whenever she is out - which is ALL the time. Her intelligence never ceases to surprise me and her ability to learn is only mitigated by her NEED for total devotion of the people in her life and her total devotion to these people.

Over the winter I have let her primary flight's grow long and we have engaged in a schedule of flight training thoughout the home. She will fly into a bathroom and I will hide in another room and call, "Gari Come." At first she was rewarded with sunflower seeds (only half of one) when she found me... Now she does it as a matter of course. The dogs and the bird all seem to thouroughly enjoy this game of this hide-and-seek.

Sooo....

Yesterday at about 10:30am I received a phone call from my wife. "Gari's Gone," was all she could breathlessly tell me... I said, "I'm on my way home," and I quickly made arrangements for another instructor to cover my class, hopped into the car and drove home - attempting to NOT speed... As hard as it was.

When I arrived home my wife was in the back-yard calling for Gari. She was no-where to be seen or heard. I asked what had happened and my wife said she had been taking the puppy out to pee and, of course, Gari flew down the stairs and sat on her shoulder. Apparently she had been going out of the house with Gari on her shoulder for quite some time. Yikes!!!

It was a nice sunny day, and well above freezing, so Gari decided it would be a good day for a flight. She took off from my wife's shoulder, curved off to the right and disappeared behind the house.

By the time I arrived Gari had been gone for over half an hour...

I walked around the neighbourhood behind our home calling, "Gari Come" as I did in the home. No response. For and additional 30 minutes I called while walking around the block. No response.

At that time I told my wife I really had to return to work so she should go knock on the neighbourhood homes and let them know that a green cheek had disappeared and show them a picture of what Gari looked like. I would print-up some lost posters as well....

Suddenly we heard a familiar voice.

The voice was coming from a long-way away and the FRONT of our home.

I ran to the front and called, "Gari Come!!" from our front driveway. The voice called again... A pine tree - some 300 yards away in the back-yard of a home two houses away. I called again.

A beautiful sight...

Two cobalt-blue wings with a green body and mauve tail came out of that pine tree - high in the sunny sky... Landing in a cedar hedge across the street. Then taking off again to come and perch on my extended forefinger - just as we did at home...

By this time Gari had been out for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Tears all-round.

She went back in the house and immediately started eating. Very hungry.

The lessons have been learned. My wife has learned that more caution is needed and and that she needs to do recall training in addition to me (birds take a bit of effort to generalize the training to other people).

I've clipped about 3cm off the primary flights... And Gari... Gari... She is not-so happy right now... She can still fly - but she cannot attain the heights - she's told me she is not happy... But summer is coming and the risk of neighbourhood cats is too high...

[Jwhear]

What a fantastic story. I am sure glad that Gari is such a brilliant bird and listened to your words. I am so happy for you and your family that it had a happy ending.

[NotEnoughTime]

Me too... I feel for all those who have lost their fids and have not been able to find them again...

[tabooh]

That was quit the story, and thank goodness with a happy ending to!

[NotEnoughTime]

Just a quick addendum to the story. Although I clipped a bit off the primary flights, Gari can still fly from room-to-room in the house. And I clipped them in the evening, after the incident, so she did not associate coming back to me with a wing clipping.

Although slightly clipped on the primaries she is still quite capable of maintaining level flight... Climbing requires a bit more effort.

During the weekend, though, she stuck very close to her perches. It was very different behaviour for her. Although it may be a result of the clip - I also imagine she felt pretty lost when she was alone up in that big pine tree... Seeing the big wide world from that perspective... It must have been lonely...

[Mango27]

WOW! Arent you so glad you worked on training him to come to you on command. I have been working on a flock call (a whipperwill whistle) with my fids hoping I could call them back like that if anything ever happened. I think I will try your way though cause I can scream louder than I can do a whistle.

Im so glad that you got your bird back!!!

[NotEnoughTime]

^^^ Thank-you - I am too!!

I believe that all "pet" birds should be recalled trained... I've had birds fly out of a door and into a tree, onto the deck or across the road in the past and it was very helpful to have done the training!

Even with wings clipped a bird can develop enough muscle, over time, to fly quite a distance and also gain lift. Recall training has helped in these situations - of course Gari flew further than I ever expected - but... She must have heard us calling for her!

[Alyx]

What a great story and I'm sure a very important lesson for your wife not to mention something to think about for the rest of us. Spring is in the air aound here and doors are being left open a bit longer, windows are opening for some fresh air and the cats eyes are like saucers watching out the window. Me thinks today would be a good day for some recall training and a clip, but don't mention it to Pogo, it'll probably take me 3 days to get the scissors in the room with her

[rnocera]

This story terrified me! I'm sitting here with my Trouble right now, and just read through it again. I don't know what I'd do with my Trouble, as he's getting good about coming back to me, but is nowhere near great at it! If he got outside, I'd never see him again.

I'm going to make a couple signs tomorrow to put on the inside & outside of the door both, warning that there is a fully flighted bird in the house, and to be careful with the door.

[NotEnoughTime]

At the time it terrified me!!! Recall training takes work - and a more than a few sunflower seeds - but Trouble will learn to come to you!!!

It is a wonderful feeling to have the bird come when called - you know that she(he) trusts you and loves you just THAT much... And when your bird discovers that it is really fun to play "hide-and-seek" then there is no need for additional motivation!!

I believe the exercise leads to a much better behaved bird and a happier bird!

Spring, however, is in the air and the risk of escape is much higher from this point of time forward. There is nothing wrong with a clip so that your bird cannot gain height. HARI (Hagen Avicultural Research Institute) recommends clipping only a couple of cm of all feathers at this time of year - and then seeing if your bird can maintain level flight and not gain lift.

If your bird can gain lift then clip a bit more (about 1cm at a time) until level flight is maintained but the bird cannot gain lift.

This will NOT stop a bird from gaining lift in a wind!! Nor does it stop a bird from developing additional muscle so that it can gain lift (and you need to clip a bit more).

During the winter HARI recommends letting the feathers grow out so the bird can gain full flight when the risk of escape is very low. And WOW is that fun!! I loved watching Gari discover the full use of her wings!! We get to do it all over again next winter!! We even attempted to set-up 3D obstacle courses - which drove the dogs nuts 'cause they couldn't do them.

Dogs have these wonderful agility courses - wouldn't it be fun to have the same for birds?

***

After re-reading this, I am wondering at the term "escape." This sounds like I have my bird in a "prison."

IMO Gari didn't escape - she just made a choice and "ran away" either because something was interesting, or she got spooked - just as my puppy may do... She is just more vulnerable than the puppy... And no "dog tags"... So we worry about her more...