Trained Parrot BlogParrot Wizard Online Parrot Toy StoreThe Parrot Forum

Can a parrotlet be taught to free fly outdoors?

Talk about bird illnesses and other bird health related issues. Seeds, pellets, fruits, vegetables and more. Discuss what to feed your birds and in what quantity. Share your recipe ideas.

Can a parrotlet be taught to free fly outdoors?

Postby Fportilla77 » Mon Aug 27, 2012 8:38 am

I want to free fly my parrotlet and I want to know if its possible.
Fportilla77
Lovebird
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 28
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Pacific parrotlet
Flight: Yes

Re: Can a parrotlet be taught to free fly outdoors?

Postby Michael » Mon Aug 27, 2012 8:47 am

No
User avatar
Michael
Macaw
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 6286
Location: New York
Number of Birds Owned: 3
Types of Birds Owned: Senegal Parrot, Cape Parrot, Green-Winged Macaw
Flight: Yes

Re: Can a parrotlet be taught to free fly outdoors?

Postby AlbertaAviary » Mon Aug 27, 2012 10:53 am

Sure you can. But you need to train it to come when it's called first. Always have two people when free flying so it can fly from one person to the other when it's called. Start In a gym or large I door area first. However, here are some risks:

Hawks or other predators, dogs/cats, getting stuck in a tree, flying away, drinking unclean water outside, eati g something poison to birds, and more.

Be careful, but I'm sure you could.
AlbertaAviary
Cockatiel
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 86
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: Budgies
Flight: No

Re: Can a parrotlet be taught to free fly outdoors?

Postby AlbertaAviary » Mon Aug 27, 2012 10:54 am

Oops, I meant to say large indoor area ..
AlbertaAviary
Cockatiel
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 86
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: Budgies
Flight: No

Re: Can a parrotlet be taught to free fly outdoors?

Postby cml » Mon Aug 27, 2012 12:35 pm

The risks are great with big parrots, and huge with smaller parrots.
Apart from all that could go wrong with what you mentioned, smaller parrots are often alot more easily startled and if they fly off, they might not come back.

I would not free fly a parrolet, it would in my opinion be very close to just letting it fly off or die at the claws of a hawk etc.
Stitch (WFA) and Leroy (BWP)
User avatar
cml
African Grey
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 1575
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: White fronted amazon, Bronze winged pionus
Flight: Yes

Re: Can a parrotlet be taught to free fly outdoors?

Postby Grey_Moon » Mon Aug 27, 2012 3:22 pm

Its one question of could---its another of should.

I don't free-fly my grey who is much, much bigger than your parrotlet. One of the major reasons I don't is that greys look a lot like pigeons and other native prey birds and are punched harder by raptors/hawks than say a macaw would be because they are more easily recognized by predators as prey animals.
Your parrotlet is a snack, a tiny brightly coloured song bird.

The other thing is all people I know of who free-fly are flying large parrots in open ground and have raised these birds from hatching to be free-flown and they've never be clipped. They are raised to be athletes.
Your average pet bird is NOT any of these things---there's a series of clips on Youtube by Chris Biro (who is a leader in free-flight) discussing the pros and cons of freeflight, as well as the ideal candidates and as well as birds who should NOT be flown. Its entirely one thing to fly from the cage to the hand indoors and finding your way down to the human hand when its windy outside and you're hundreds of feet in the air.

Most domestically bred birds just do NOT have the skills, the physical control/development and most importantly the brain development to fly as their ancestors do. In clipping them and not raising them outdoors we actually stunt their brains and leave them a hollow impression of what they could be, brain-wiring speaking. It is hard if not impossible for the adult bird to acquire this wiring once the critical period is passed.
So should you? NO. Could you? Maybe.

It is possible for you to work on recalled flight within the home though.
:gray: ---Jacko (13 year old TAG rescue and my little turkey-bird girl :) )


"Love me, Love my parrots"
User avatar
Grey_Moon
Poicephalus
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 453
Location: Quebec, Canada
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Hen Timneh Grey
Flight: Yes

Re: Can a parrotlet be taught to free fly outdoors?

Postby Michael » Mon Aug 27, 2012 3:24 pm

Fportilla77 wrote:I want to free fly my parrotlet and I want to know if its possible.


Not if you want to take it back home with you afterward.
User avatar
Michael
Macaw
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 6286
Location: New York
Number of Birds Owned: 3
Types of Birds Owned: Senegal Parrot, Cape Parrot, Green-Winged Macaw
Flight: Yes

Re: Can a parrotlet be taught to free fly outdoors?

Postby marie83 » Mon Aug 27, 2012 4:22 pm

Not worth the risk with a bigger parrot let alone one that size.
User avatar
marie83
Cockatoo
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 3565
Location: Midlands, UK
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: Yellow sided Green Cheek Conure
Pineapple Green Cheek Conure
Flight: Yes

Re: Can a parrotlet be taught to free fly outdoors?

Postby Zenbird » Thu May 12, 2022 12:58 pm

I know this is an old post but I had to say something to these replies.
I love how people who don't know parrotlets at all and are scared to let their bird fly feel the need to come up with stories to scare others away from letting an animal do what it naturally needs and wants to do.

Like that one comment telling you about how a smaller bird will scare more easily. :lol: That person very clearly has never had a parrotlet and knows nothing about them. They are big birds in little bodies and most definitely do not scare easily.
Parrotlets are also extremely intelligent. They can certainly be trained just like any other parrot. They are, after all, "true parrots". Look them up. They can even learn to talk.

There are dangers, but the dangers of a small bird in free flight are offset by this bird's speed and maneuverability. They are among the fastest birds in the world and can fly like humming birds. They're actually being studied for drone flight. When my parrotlet's wings were clipped (when I first got him) he could still fly anywhere he wanted in the house.

I think these people just envision the worst about free flight and don't know anything about it, so it scares them. As long as you go to a big open field where birds of prey don't live, you should be fine. Just make sure he's recall trained!
Zenbird
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 1
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Parrotlet
Flight: Yes

Re: Can a parrotlet be taught to free fly outdoors?

Postby Pajarita » Fri May 13, 2022 8:32 am

Well, we all have different opinions on what is an acceptable risk and what is not. I will be the first to admit that I do NOT take risks with any of my animals. But, in my personal opinion, the entire argument of free-flight goes down to two points. One of them is represented by the very last phrase: "Make sure he is recall-trained" Sadly, there are no parrots that will ALWAYS come back when called. Not even racing pigeons which have been bred and trained for hundreds of years for this purpose come back all the time, racers lose hundreds of birds every year. Parrots are not naturally inclined to follow orders or evolved to come back to a specific place, if there were, professional trainers would not lose their birds all the time. This is especially true of aviary birds that don''t have a mate - reproduction being the strongest drive in nature, an unattached bird will fly out to look for a mate (not my opinion, a fact of nature). But the other point is whether the risk is truly necessary. Is it absolutely necessary for a bird that has no survival skills to be allowed free-flying? Nope. That a bird needs to fly is a given but why does it have to fly outdoors? If you are concerned about the lack of natural behaviors, provide them without risk. A small plet flying by itself outdoors is not as happy as a plet flying with a little flock in a cage-free birdroom. A lone bird feels vulnerable while a bird in a flock does not - a bird flying indoors is much safer than one free-flying outdoors - and a nice, airy, large birdroom can provide the same exercise as outdoor flying. So, why do it?
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes


Return to Health, Nutrition & Diet

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 11 guests

Parrot ForumArticles IndexTraining Step UpParrot Training BlogPoicephalus Parrot InformationParrot Wizard Store