Re: [Freeflight] Clipped Birds Practicing Flight

["Douglas Delgado" <Dougandmona@m...>]

Hi Chris:

I'm not advocating clipping .... but I do have to say....from my 
experience...(which is limited but it's all I've got)....a bird can be 
safely taught to fly working with a long clip. I did it with Phinney but 
it was a very slow process. I would say, a year or so. We started over 
the bed with boomerang flights, eventually moved to tossing her to her cage 
and also, tossing her back and forth between my husband and myself with 
recalls. All of these flights were done to condition her because when we 
started, any short flight made her breathe very heavily. She was very, very 
out of shape.

If you saw her at the fly building, you can see that she has become a 
proficient flyer....and as you know...I've probably documented every step of 
the way on this list. Working this slowly, I have seen many of the steps 
that it takes to learn to become a proficient flyer because she has seemed 
to develop in observable steps. What she is....and the difference between 
her and your birds...is a good directed flyer. She flies with direction 
very, very well. But she also takes flyabouts around my house and she 
hovers like a helicopter.....takes off with speed.....basically has mastered 
the skills she needs in the house. She is at the point now where she 
initiates flight but that took a long time to get there.

Having said that, she's not a free flyer....so I know there is a 
difference....but she has become a proficient flyer. Right now, the skills 
we are focusing on (with fully developed wings) are landing with speed and 
altitude....which we cannot practice at home and I'm not sure how it will 
work at the fly building....but I have gone from a clipped, nonflighted bird 
to a proficient flyer.....but like I said, I did it very, very 
slowly...paying lots of attention to her comfort level...and spending an 
awful lot of time working on it and encouraging her......

Babylon also came to me with a clip and she is a very proficient 
flyer....but again, not a free flyer. I did not have to go slow with her. 
Time seemed to collapse in her case. She learned quickly but her wings 
also grew out quickly at the age of about 8 months....and I do believe that 
age makes a big difference, that and probably size, and probably where I was 
in the idea of flight training (My intent was to have flight so I paid 
closer attention).

So....I know what you are saying because my birds aren't flying 
outside.....but I also think you can begin training with a long clip...if 
you go slow, pay attention to the bird's comfort level, and work in lots and 
lots of small steps.

But you are right that a clipped bird is a much more dangerous flyer than a 
flighted bird that knows how to fly.....no arguments there at all....I see 
that very well. These are two totally different birds.

Mona in Seattle
Phinneus Fowl (aka Phinney) TAG
Pretty Rita Cockatiel
Babylon (Senegal Poicephalus)
Doug (spousal unit)