Article by Dave Poole, All Rights reserved.
Free flight and clipping a highly vexed subject that has given me more headaches than
any other aspect of parrot keeping. My Great Grandmother had a 'free' Blue-Fronted
Amazon - Joe, that was given the same liberty as any dog and would wait in an apple tree
in the front garden, ready to assault any stranger who dared venture up the path to the
front door. Winter and summer, every day for well over 40 years that bird stood
sentinel. Faithfully guarding his territory against all invaders, regardless of sun,
rain, wind or snow. He showed his respect for the clergy by not physically abusing
the local vicar, but he could not resist cursing loudly as the exceedingly embarrassed
cleric scuttled past. It was the 1920's and in those days, 'bad language' was never
heard by seemly folk.
Joe had been passed on from Great Grand'ma's father who had brought him back from South
America as a chick some 20 or so years before. He was well over 60 years old when he
died, peacefully one afternoon, just a few days before I was born. He had become
such a local celebrity that cursing notwithstanding, it was reported in the parish
magazine and prayers were said in the local village church the following Sunday
"... for that bright little soul that has passed from our lives."
My very first experience of large parrots was when as barely a teenager, I befriended a
magnificent Greater Sulphur Crested Cockatoo at a local botanical gardens. He was a
free flyer and only ever caged at night. I would spend hour upon hour there, walking
around the vast glass-houses or outside with him on my shoulder. Often he would
soar high up into the sky and then float gently down to land on a nearby tree. He
always flew back immediately when called and made a great deal of fuss about it too -
frantically preening my eyelashes and hair. He was to all intents and purposes a
free bird that chose to live with humans - even though he had virtually no human company
at night.
In those days, it was not that unusual for large parrots such as these to be allowed to
fly. I suspect it was because they were relatively inexpensive (in the '60s a Grey
would cost around 15.00 UK or less -IIRC that the exchange rate was about 3.00 US to the
pound which would make them about 45.00 US) and so if a bird was lost, it wasn't quite the
financial disaster it is today. Of course there's far more at stake to losing a
parrot than just money, but it must have had some influence on people's willingness to
give them more freedom. I suspect our gullibly with regard to films also comes into
it as well. You would often see parrots in movies as 'free' birds, rarely cooped up in a
cage. Therefore the natural assumption was that these birds could be allowed a great
deal of freedom.
It seems almost sacrilege to say it now, but in many cases, pet parrots weren't cherished
like they are today. They had to fit in, their owners often begrudgingly accepting
their intrusions and it was the parrot that had to earn his owner's affections and not the
other way around. The bird would enter the household as a temporary 'amusement'
quickly become "that damned pest of a bird" and from then on if he was
lucky, would very slowly climb into his owner's affections. Even as late as the 60's
folk were highly skeptical about parrots possessing 'true' intelligence and tended to look
upon them as noisy, mimics with a reputation for being mean. Of course there were
those who looked deeper and saw what we see today, but there weren't that many.
At the time, there were several bird gardens - especially in my part of the UK and
Blue & Golds, Scarlets, or flocks of Budgies flying around in the near neighborhood
were a reasonably common sight. The Budgies at one bird gardens I used to visit near
Stratford on Avon, were descendants of the late Duke of Bedford's original 'homing' strain
from his collection which had been disbanded some years before.
However in those days parrot keeping was still a comparatively rare pastime and often only
taken up by those with a profound interest in aviculture. As pets, they were relatively
few and far between - either being cooped up in painfully small prisons and fed the most
appalling diet of peanuts, musty sunflower and buttered toast, or given some freedom and
allowed to share meals eating plenty of greens and fruit. Greys and Amazons that were
imported and refused to tame down (because of the ignorance of their owners) remained
'growlers' and savage termagants, destined for a pitiful life. Those that did
respond could look forward to a fair amount of freedom within the home at least and
many lived on stands, not in cages. If they were lucky and did not get up to too
much mischief, they were spared being chained.
Cockatoos, because of their generally greater willingness to become friendly fared rather
better, but their naturally destructive natures caused many to be chained. Parrot
keeping has progressed beyond all recognition from those times only 30 years ago and it
amazes me that despite such primitive care, so many survived for so long. Even to
this day, the records for longevity are still held by birds kept in
such archaic conditions without the benefits of modern diets.
Today, more parrots are kept as companion birds than at any stage in history. They
are 'fashion accessories', status-symbols and even 'decorator-pets' to some, as well
as being companion birds to the rest of us. This is where the problem lies.
Too many people are keeping too many parrots for entirely the wrong reasons. They
are signally failing to educate themselves as to the needs of their unfortunate
captives. As experienced keepers and true enthusiasts, we can help and educate these
people in the hope of persuading them to provide a rewarding and healthy lifestyle for
their birds. However, we have to assume from the very start, they do not have an
innate and true understanding of the creatures in their charge.
Whilst I have always preferred my birds to fly free and would only ever clip for extremely
good reasons, I am very wary of advising the same to complete novices - especially those
who have bought on impulse and have not researched fully beforehand. The problem is
not so much that the birds need training - rather their owners, who without any guidance,
are likely to leave doors open, toilet seats up, sinks full of water and have all manner
of dangerous things scattered about their homes. In such cases, *until*
they have learnt to take all necessary precautions, I feel it is on balance, safer for the
bird to be clipped and restricted to play stands etc. When the owners have learnt
more about the bird, become fully aware of the pitfalls and have gained a deeper
understanding the bird's personality, it may be possible to allow the flight
feathers to grow in and the bird given more freedom.
However, this depends upon the bird as well and in most cases, it is extremely unwise to
allow total, unsupervised freedom. The larger Cockatoos - Moluccans and
Umbrellas especially, but also the smaller Eleonoras, Major Mitchell's and Corellas, need
to be watched like a hawk and cannot be allowed a single minute of unsupervised time
without risking damage to the home or more importantly, themselves. Of course there will
always be the exception. In the other hand, it must also be said that many of the
larger Indonesian Cockatoos make very promising subjects for free flying and are not
greatly prone to disappearing off over the horizon unless extremely wild or unsure and
given a severe fright.
Conversely, Greys and some Amazons are sometimes moderately safe left unattended for short
periods and often less inclined to wreak havoc and destruction the moment your back is
turned. But Greys in particular, are amongst the least suited for free flying and
their tendency to 'spook' easily puts them at great risk if a window or door is left open.
The same applies to Senegals - in fact all Poicephalus, come to think of it
as well as Cockatiels. Give them a chance and off they go, way over the blue yonder,
never to be seen again. I can't count the amount of times, I've spoken to tearful,
owners who have absent mindedly or otherwise, wandered outside with their treasured
Timneh, Senegal or Cockatiel on their shoulder and within a few minutes watch it disappear
from view. I always hear the same thing said as well:
"I just can't believe he did that, he's so attached to me....."
The fact is that the degree of attachment - no matter how great, is never strong enough to
prevent an untrained bird from taking off. Even a well trained, steady, large parrot can
have his 'moments' and all it takes is a flock of geese, gulls or starlings to suddenly
fly over head, or a helicopter, or a car crash outside or.... None of these events
are within the control of the owner, but he has to be prepared for them nevertheless.
I've kept and bred smaller parrot-like birds from the age of 15 up until nearly 20 years
ago when I finally moved on to just keeping larger parrots. I've had my wild caught
U2 for nearly 18 of those years and feel that I know him better than I know myself.
If anything ever happened to that bird, I'd never stop blaming myself and would be totally
inconsolable. I'm acutely aware that I have to remain in tune with his moods 100% of
the time and if he is allowed out of doors for even a split second, I must be sure he is
in one of his 'safe' moods. His attachment for me makes velcro look decidedly slippery and
on a good day he's content to sit, sunning himself on a roof or tree waiting until he's
called. But get it wrong and he'd be off in no time at all. No doubt he would
not go far and although he'd probably survive the experience well, I certainly
wouldn't!
This degree of acute alertness has to become second nature in order to prevent disaster
and I don't believe that many newcomers to this fascinating lifestyle (because that's what
it is) can acquire this overnight. There's nothing more majestic than seeing Macaws
or large Toos in full flight. There's nothing more exciting and impressive than
seeing trained birds swooping down to their keeper. Who can blame novices or anyone
wanting that? To succeed, education, patience and constant observation must be
acquired - none of it comes quickly. I feel that if we are to espouse the obvious virtues
of free-flight and unclipped, unrestrained birds, we must always first emphasise the
pitfalls and immensely increased responsibility that this entails.
I can understand and appreciate the attitudes taken by Sally Blanchard, Bobbi Brinker,
Matty Sue Allen and many others because they learn of so many tragedies on a day on day
basis. These all relate to birds that have escaped unclipped and either been lost
forever, or have suffered a terrible accident in the home because of their ability to fly.
I can fully appreciate the arguments given here that a flighted bird, once free, is
less likely to suffer from immediate predation, is likely to lead a fuller, more active
life and be less prone to neuroses. Both sides have extremely valid points of view.
I believe there is a middle way. One in which new owners are encouraged to
learn and observe, take one very small step at a time and most importantly, realize
when
it's time to pull back.
We have quite a worrying situation over here, where someone who has bred a few Timnehs and
Amazons for about 10 years is not only making very loud noises about leaving all birds
unclipped regardless, but is by his writings and inferences, encouraging folk to allow
their birds to fly free - with precious little in terms of training. Whilst I have
few doubts as to his abilities with his own birds, I'm greatly concerned that his zeal for
unclipped and free flight parrots is failing to take account of the dearth of experience
amongst his target audience. Also, he singularly fails to acknowledge the immense
disparity between parrot species and their suitability or otherwise for free flight.
He also lives in a rural area and does not address the potential dangers posed in
urban situations. He also seems to be dismissive of potentially hazardous pathogens
being present in the environment, even though it is widely known that the majority of the
feral pigeon population carries Salmonellosis and is a known transmitter of Chlamydia
psittaci.
As a very cautious keeper of flighted parrots who fully acknowledges the great benefits to
the birds given the right circumstances, I was astonished by his sweeping advocacy of near
total freedom in all situations during a lengthy telephone conversation a while ago.
He even suggested that should a pet parrot meet an untimely end through greater
freedom, surely it's greater quality of life, albeit short more than justified it's death.
If only a small percentage of novice keepers take his advice 'for gospel', we will see
very large numbers of Greys, Timnehs and Senegals escaped into the wild with poor chances
of survival through lack of food if nothing else. Now whether clipping is 'cultist'
or not, people like this will fuel great flames of criticism from it's proponents and I
don't think we should be too surprised when it does. Whatever we as keepers feel about the
subject, we must always be responsible and measured in our approach in all of our claims
and especially our advise. We owe it to the birds.
Dave Poole
TORQUAY UK