Written by Chris Biro, all
rights reserved.
This Article was last updated 27 December 1999.
This article is a compilation of my email posts from the Freeflight email list. Excuse me if it appears to be redundant in a few places.
I have developed a few main theories about how to go about free flight training
and the main points go like this:
Why FreeFlight Training is Needed: Few people seem to understand that a
parrot NEEDS to learn to fly. People usually think that flight is a natural
behavior and that it is automatic to birds, thus does not require a learning
process. Well, yes it is natural, but so is walking to humans. But humans also
have to learn how to walk just as the parrot has to learn how to fly. If the
parrot grows up in a cage, when does it have the opportunity to learn how to
fly? The answer comes in two forms. 1) When the bird suddenly finds itself up
in the air and is forced to address the conditions and needed skills as best it
can in the limited time available - the birds muscles are not accustomed to
this amount of exercise and thus time "learning" is limited, or 2)
When someone "teaches" the bird to fly, actually more like lets the
bird learn the needed skills in a controlled and safe environment.
Unfortunately, number 1 is the most common and is also why many people lose
their precious pets.
Flight is a learned behavior and must be treated as such. Free flight can be a
wonderful experience for both the owner and the bird and is a great exercise
for building a healthy strong body (exercise) and high self esteem (self
confidence). Freeflight training should not be taken lightly since mistakes can
lead to the permanent loss of your trusting little friend. However, Freeflight
training can be done and it can be done safely.
Two Limiting Factors: I believe the two most limiting factors are: 1)
The bird’s age and how it was raised, 2) The bird’s physical condition, i.e.
muscle tone. And I see two distinct types of skills needing to be learned and
two distinct stages of flight training,
1) The basic mechanical skills of flight, i.e. turning, landing, glide, etc.
2) The behavioral skills, i.e. recall, return to perch, self confidence
building, etc..
These skills are learned in the wild in what I am calling two phases.
Phase I: Pre-fledgling skills are focused on initial survival skills
including but not limited to: basic mechanical flight skills, navigation
skills, some food selection skills, physical conditioning (building appropriate
muscle tone), etc. This phase in the wild involves a reasonably short time
period. For our free flight training purposes the mechanical flight skills and
navigation are of particular interest. During this phase these mechanical and
homing skills are dynamic (in a state of change) as is the birds wings physical
condition. The behavior exhibited during this phase is of a very different
nature than that of phase two - the bird’s behavior at this point exhibits the
"hardwired" almost automatic extreme attachment to "mom".
During Phase I the behavioral skills are developing but with such limited
change over this brief period of time that I refer to them as being static
(unchanging) during this phase.
Phase II: Post fledgling skills are focused on behavioral and social
skills. The mechanical skills are becoming static (learned and/or very slowly
changing) - like learning to walk, once learned the skills involved do not
change much and the leg muscle-tone is likewise built up appropriate to an
"average" use level. During this Phase II period, the behavioral
skills will begin to be take shape and the bird will begin to lose the previous
extreme attachment to "mom". These behavioral skills will thus be
more dynamic, changing and developing. This state of changing behavioral skills
is especially strong during the first few months of the birds life, though some
change will continue to occur throughout the bird’s life.
Thus we can begin to see why some birds are easier to flight train than others.
Training an adult requires heavy concentration on both phase 1 and phase 2 at
the same time while training the fledgling requires focus on mainly phase 1
since phase 2 skills are temporarily "hard wired" in our favor, and
thus the significant advantage of training fledglings becomes clear.
The following terms could be defined as such:
Phase 1 training - dynamic mechanical flight skills and somewhat static
behavioral skills and physical conditioning (appropriate muscle tone).
Phase 2 training - static mechanical flight skills and dynamic
behavioral skills.
Mechanical Flight Skills: directional control, target landing, lose
altitude / bleed speed, area identification and navigation, etc.
Behavioral Skills: Recall, Point to point flight, control of
"wandering", numerous elements involved to limit or control
"panic flight", etc.
Desperation Flights: Flights made to reach a desperately needed
destination. A form of flight displayed by very young birds as they are first
discovering their flight abilities. Most first flights are desperation
flights to reach "mom"/food or to get back "home" again.
Exploratory Flights: Flights made for the fun of exploring and
practicing. A form of flight usually made after the initial flight skills
are established well enough that the young bird has confidence in his flight
abilities and movement in his expanding environment.
The Training Window Theory: This "window of educational
opportunity" theory comes from my understanding (and confirming
experiences) that the brain of humans learns various things better at certain
critical times or stages. Many of these stages, or "windows", can not
easily be reproduced later in life (for a great book that deals with this
subject, I highly recommend "Evolutions End" by Joseph Chilton
Pearce). I am assuming a parrot’s brain works in a similar fashion. For this
reason, I have come to believe that it is best to teach flight training (and a
host of other behaviors) at the fledging age. My personal experiences with
attempting to flight train my adult macaws and cockatoos firmly solidifies this
belief in my mind.
Age Is A Critical Factor In The Training Process. Our brains prod us to
perform certain instinctive actions, we react by following those thoughts and
develop a short term memory from performing the action, then as we continue to
perform the action, with time, we develop a long term memory of the action,
which eventually becomes a habit, and finally an established behavior (this may
not be precise according to the science books, but it is close enough for our
purposes).
We humans continue to learn throughout our lives and at different rates. Actually
there are things that we not only have more difficulty learning at an older
stage but also things that we have difficulty learning at too early a stage.
When I read "Evolutions End" (by Joseph Chilton Pearce) I did not
take any notes as I thought I was just reading for the pleasure of reading a
very interesting book. It was not until a couple years later that I began to
realize that what I was doing with free flight directly related to what was in
this fascinating book. So I apologize for not being able to go into better
detail about how the brain works (I may need to sit down and reread the book -
taking notes this time), but I would highly recommend this excellent text.
The important part of this is that while we are constantly learning new things,
our brain starts to get "full" (not exactly but close enough) and
periodically it goes through a "house cleaning" process at certain
periods in our lives, by wiping clean the memory paths to seldom used
information. In humans, these "house cleaning" periods may be several
years apart. I am assuming that this would include, or at least effect,
instinctive impulses that are no longer needed. I am also assuming that our
parrots undergo a similar process.
I believe I see this demonstrated with free flight training. The babies I have
trained "instantly" learned most mechanical flight skills. It seems
the birds instinctive impulses were available to help quickly establish the
behaviors. Most of these same skills took me weeks to teach some of my adults -
who also at this time really have not learned to like any of this flight stuff,
at least not like the babies do. I am certain that the timing of WHEN a
behavior is learned is as, or more, important than how it is learned. This is
why I so strongly recommend flight training ONLY babies (fledglings at the age
the birds normally learn flight skills in the wild) and also so strongly
discourage training adults to fly. The difference between training the two is
amazing. I have found that babies are so easy and relatively safe to teach to
fly while adults are REAL easy to lose and a great deal more difficult to
flight train.
It is my general understanding that there is a great deal of evidence to
suggest that children don’t have the ability to learn certain concepts until
reaching certain stages of their lives. People who have raised children
probably understand this. I believe the same is true for parrots, and that this
is an important consideration in not only free flight training but also
reintroduction into the wild. If we can identify these behaviors and the
critical stages when they must be learned, then I think we will greatly improve
our chance of reintroduction of native parrot species into the appropriate wild
habitats.
I do not believe we need a full understanding to be successful with
reintroduction of parrots into the wild, but it would certainly make the
process more efficient. I think that just keeping this general theory in mind
can help us successfully "stumble" through the reintroduction process
much like I have done with free flight training. Simply knowing that we must
focus on "getting out of their way" during the very young ages while
providing as much non interfering support as possible, should be a huge step in
the right direction.
It has been suggested on the an email list that by the age the bird becomes
sexually mature it should have developed all of its survival skills, and also
that birds continue to learn up to and beyond sexual maturity.
As to having learned all they need for survival by the time they become
sexually mature, I would say the same is true for us. At about this same age,
we humans go through two "memory purges" (again from my general
memory as I had not considered this worth taking notes on at the time). I think
the ages were 11-12 and 19-21 (I may be a little off here but the point is
still valid) as well as some additional "memory purges" much later in
life. I don’t think I would suggest that they have learned ALL they need, but
the important things for survival and reestablishing a wild population I think
are probably learned by sexual maturity - at least enough so for reintroduction
purposes.
Choosing a bird to train: At present, I Free flight train ONLY
very young fledglings - at about the same time they would learn flight in the
wild. There are a number of reasons I stand by this rule, but the main one is
that it makes free flight SO much easier to teach because of the babies’
natural increased tendency to stay near "mom" and also the mechanical
skills of free flight (maneuvering, loose-altitude-bleed-speed, landing,
physical condition, etc.) are nearly instantly learned as young chicks as
compared to weeks of risky training for each new skill with an adult bird.
Also, a young chick’s body is ready for learning flight whereas most adults are
not accustomed to the amount of physical work involved with flight and thus
many will be slow to learn to enjoy flight - at least until the muscle tone is
built back up. I strongly discourage the average person from free flight
training adult birds for full outdoor flight due to the increased risks
involved in the training process. By "adult" I am referring to all
birds "six months" and older - this is said in a general sense
because the "window of educational opportunity", varies from species
to species (my Mitred Conures were first flown at about two months old, while
my Greenwing and Blue & Gold did not even have the feathers to fly yet at
two months) and in truth I have not yet been able to firmly establish the
actual parameters of this window.
As to what qualifies a bird as an "adult", there is still much room
for evidence and speculation. But I suspect the ideal time for Phase I
training, as I see this issue, is beginning at the time the first Desperation
flight is observed. This window of "ideal opportunity"
continuing through to the first Exploratory flights are being observed -
starting this training beyond the beginning of Exploratory flights introduces
more unpredictable flight behavior since the young bird is more willing to go off
on his own missions of exploration, even if he has not yet mastered the basics
of flight. This is how I currently attempt to "schedule" my own
flight training programs.
The defining element seems to be the age the first "memory purge"
happens, thus eliminating/reducing much of the memory connections to some of
the instinctive impulses that I find particularly useful for free flight
training and/or general survival training (for reintroduction training). At
what age this first "memory purge" happens I have not enough data to
tell, so I just stick to the VERY young and don’t try training the birds of
questionable age. I am also certain that there are other behaviors that are age
critical as well. I am very interested in any ideas of what some of these behaviors
might be. I classify most general skills needed for reintroduction and/or
survival into the wild as part of this group of "age critical"
behaviors. And I believe a large part of the difficulties that have been
encountered in most reintroduction programs are related to "age
critical" skills being taught/conditioned at too late a period in the
bird’s lives. It would be good to identify as many of these "age critical
behaviors/skills" as possible and begin comparing notes (and/or at least
start taking them) to see how true this hypothesis really is.
How I FreeFlight Trained Obee: I train a young chick that is just
starting to demonstrate an interest in it’s wings and flight. I began with my
Patagonian Conure after getting it at 8 weeks old, by continuing to hand feed
it (at this age it/I had no choice about the hand feeding part) to establish a
growing bond. At this age the chick is very dependant on "mom" (the
one with the food) and quickly developed a strong attachment to me. This
attachment is what I heavily depend on to train free flight at this age.
Phase I Training: We are training mainly basic mechanical flight skills.
While in the house, I began encouraging the bird to make short hops/flight from
a "T" perch to me. We would then cuddle for a few moments and then I
would then "encourage" (close to toss) the bird to hop/fly back to
the perch. We would do three flights
and then quit for a while, doing this several times a day. I attempted to turn this into a game, and
within the first week the bird was flying back and forth across the room and
into the kitchen, and beginning to make dodging and darting movements in
flight, as if testing and pushing its skills - could also be developing
maneuvers for predator evasion and avoidance.
In the case of Obee (the Patagonian Conure), I was on the road doing fairs at
about this time and so he made his first outdoor short flights to me from the
"T" perch at a county fair about 40 miles from our home - after I had
owned him about two weeks total. Though I admit this was a bit risky (and I
would not recommend this to anyone - the first flights outdoors should be near
home) I was confident that Obee would fly to me due to his strong desire to be
with me and his never letting me out of his sight. When back at home for a few days, we continued to develop the
same back and forth game in the front yard. We started all over again from a
very short distance and we continued with the three flights routine and rebuilt
the same pattern out doors that we had developed indoors. Very quickly we had him flying 100 ft across
the yard. Soon he began making side ventures and dodging and darting movements
en route to me, apparently testing and pushing his skills - probably also
building rapid maneuvering/agility skills for predator avoidance and evasion.
As his skill and confidence increased so did the side ventures and soon he was
flying around the house and yard and in and out of the trees, always returning
to land on my arm or shouder. This was all with in three to four weeks of
getting him. By the fourth week, I was tossing Obee like a football and the
audience was watching him fly in circles and all around the Ferry County
Fairgrounds.
Phase II Training: Here we are working on behavior skills. Probably most
important is to develop reliable recall using conventional trick training
methods, such as clicker training. Actually, this can begin any time during the
previous training but is much easier when the bird is no longer being hand fed
and is weaned. Treats are more desirable then. Also very important is building
the birds self-confidence through exposure to a wide variety of environments
and circumstances. For this I take the bird on frequent trips to town with me.
I also begin flying the bird in calm unfamiliar environments like an EMPTY
local schoolyard. For these first
flights in new environments I first give the bird some time in a cage to
observe the area, learning familiar landmarks and calming with the newness of
the area. After maybe a half our or more of letting the bird calm into the
area, I then repeat the same small step flight training process started at home
- start short and expand the distance with the building of each others
confidence.
The degree of difficulty in training adults from fledglings is so different
that I will not likely venture to attempt to fly an adult bird again and I
STRONGLY discourage others from trying to do so as well, due to the increase in
risk. I have taken some flack over this point because it appears everyone seems
to want to work with their adult birds rather than “risk a baby”, and also
probably due to the fact that adults actually can be flight trained in many
cases - but man can also learn to jump from a cliff 150 feet tall and safely
land in the water (cliff diving) but I don't recommend you try to teach your
dad this trick.
I also highly recommend clipping the wings from ANY bird not in flight training
or "fully" trained for free flight, period. Either "flight train
or clip", but don't fail to do at least one of the two. It has been my
experience with free flight training birds and flying them at public events
that many people do not understand the issues involved with training and/or
having free flighted birds. Even in the bird community, there are considerable
differences of opinion about the issue of flight for pet parrots. Many do not
recognize the differences between indoor flight inside their living rooms and
full-unrestricted flight outdoors. Most people incorrectly believe that if
their bird can comfortably fly inside their house that it is sufficiently
trained for unrestricted outdoor flights. However, it has been my experience
that the outdoor flight requires many skills that the indoor flyer has never
encountered, such as lose-altitude/bleed-speed so that the bird can come from a
high altitude (heights are also something new which is often very scary to the
indoor flyer) down to a landing site without speeding past said target site - a
common occurrence for loose birds that are not fully free flight trained - also
a contributing reason many people have lost their birds. Also at issue
for indoor flighted birds is loss of orientation and landmark recognition -
completely new concepts to most indoor flighted birds.
I strongly support a "clip or flight train" approach and generally
discourage indoor only flying, mainly because the untrained and unclipped
bird so often ends up being locked up all the time and never gets to venture
outdoors, to town with you, to the park with you - all are things I
highly encourage. For larger birds, indoor flight is entirely different than
outdoor flight and many people wrongly believe that if their bird is trained to
fly indoors it has mastered all the skills it needs to fly outdoors. And this
is simply not true in most cases.
The main problem with training an adult bird to fly is the risk of it getting
spooked and/or lost before it masters the necessary Phase I skills (mechanical
skills and proper physical condition). The issue of physical condition can be
addressed with indoor flights and/or regular wing exercises, but will require
an extended period of effort. I hope few people would not be foolish enough to
attempt to outdoor flight train an adult bird that does not have good
behavioral skills (Phase II skills) already established.
I have come to believe that adult parrots introduced to a flock environment
will eventually learn these basic flight skills, but I am uncertain as to how
long it will take and/or how adept they will become. I would like to know more
about the experiences of others who have tried the flock approach or have
otherwise succeeded in free flying birds trained as adults. I know another
critical factor here is the muscle tone involved. Some of the apparent slow
learning that I have witnessed may simply be due to the effects of the
increased physical demands of sustained flight of which most adults pet parrots
are not accustomed to. I believe am seeing this with my Obee (Patagonian
Conure) who is now being retrained for flight after his wings feathers have
grown in from a wing clip. Though he seems to enjoy dodging and darting
(interesting subject of its own) and other flight his joy with flying is at
present apparently limited to short duration - his flights seem to be getting
longer and longer as his body adjusts to the work load. At present I am having
difficulty determining if his initial troubles with flight (with respect to his
re flight training) were from lack of muscle tone or loss of skills. I am sure
that combinations of both are involved here but still there are some of these
behaviors that I would very much like to better understand the cause of.
General Flight Training Tips: Please be very careful and do take a few
precautions with respect to the possibility that she COULD take to the sky
prematurely. I would highly recommend having a simple coaches whistle and
blowing it from time to time so that she becomes familiar with an association
between you and the whistle. Then when you do your outdoor flight exercises
have it with you and ready. This way if the bird should get up and get spooked
you can better stay in vocal contact with each other - this will help prevent
her from getting lost. The birds that I have had "get up and spooked"
had little trouble making turns in flight, even if in first time flights and
most want to return to or at least remain in the area where security is. If you
can stay in contact with them through their calls and your answering with the
whistle, then it is very likely that they will remain in the area covered by
the whistle. This can be a big help in recovering a scared bird.
Also, at first I only do outdoor flight exercises in the morning and before the
bird has eaten. This way should something happen I have the rest of the day to
work on getting her down. It is a real bummer trying to recover a loose bird,
especially as it is getting dark. The food issue will also help motivate the
bird to make extra efforts to come down rather than stay at the top of the
trees playing with branches and enjoying the view. Make sure to clearly establish yourself as a source of easy food.
Many birds see their food bowls as the source of food and not the owner who
places the food into the bowl. With
time, the bird will be more than happy to come down as it approaches dusk. Some will even refuse to come down until it
approaches dusk so be alert to the fact that your bird might willing and able
to come down but not until dusk – in the mean time it is just be hanging out
enjoying the view.
An Approach For Training The Adult Bird To Fly: For those people that
desire to train a specific adult bird to fly, it may be best to purchase a
young pre-fledging bird of similar size and temperament to train first as the
mentor for the target adult bird. As to species compatibility for this I have
insufficient data to make much beyond a guess.
Flock flying I think is likely to be the safest approach to teaching adults to
fly. For this a person might be able to get away with a single flighted bird as
a "mentor" to the new flyers. I would introduce only one bird at a
time to flight and to the flock.
I would keep the young bird separated for the first few months for the new
birds sake, except if you specifically intend on having a more wild new bird
for such purposes as reintroduction into the wild. Once the new bird is sufficiently
trained then introduce them and let them become buddies. I would presume that
the closer the bond of these two birds the better - but would avoid a breeder
situation (the mentor as here described should be to young anyway) while
maintaining a strong bond with both birds to myself. I would also have begun
indoor flight training with the target adult bird. This indoor training should
probably take several months due to the need to slowly build up the required
physical fitness (wing muscle tone) and may even need to begin long before the
new bird is acquired. If adequate facilities are available I would try some
indoor "flock" flying with both birds. I would work mainly on
reliable point to point and recall with both birds.
The next step would be some out door flights. I would start by letting the
target adult bird observe the mentor bird flying in the area. I would do both
point-to-point flying and area flying with the mentor bird. This would be to
let the target adult bird become comfortable in the new outdoor environment as
well as observe the desired behavior of the mentor bird. After the target bird
seems to be comfortable with the environment then I would release the two birds
together for some point to point flying - similar to what was already learned
and practiced indoors.
I have used the "mentor flight training method" for training young
Mitred Conures and have had wonderful success with this approach. Frisbee made his first flights outdoors by
me tossing him and Red Claw (his older brother by a year) out the front door
one morning. Red Claw was a seasoned
flyer, safely making it through an entire fair season on the road, and easily
stuck to Frisbee (who also made every effort to stick to Red Claw). Within a few hours Frisbee seemed to have
all the Phase I skills under control.
Getting him down though (recall is a behavior skill) was a matter of
calling Red Claw, whom Frisbee followed to my arm. We then established some behavioral skills while indoors using
clicker training methods and now Frisbee comes fairly reliably on cue.
Good Types Of Birds For Getting Started With Free Flying: Some people
find Conures to be a great choice for flyers.
Mainly, because they are a good first bird that do not have high
monetary cost (not to imply that they are any less valuable or precious - just
less expensive - it is bad enough to lose a bird without adding a great
financial loss to the situation too) and because they are very hardy (just in
case they do get lost, at least they have a chance to survive). They also seem to have a high degree of
agility and thus seem well equipped for predator evasion, possibly better than
some other birds. They are also great
fun to watch too! I currently am flying
Mitred, Sun, and Patagonian Conures and they are all really exiting to watch,
especially in tight and twisting formation flying!
That about sums up my compilation of thoughts gathered at this point. I hope it
stirs up some interest and some good dialog; mostly I hope it stirs up some
more people who free fly so that I can learn about their experiences. We have a
long way to go before free flight will be a common thing for parrots and we
need all the info we can get.
Parrots: more than pets, friends for life.
Chris Biro