Kili got stuck in a tree

[Michael]

Yesterday I took Kili flying at the park. She was overweight and not in a particularly strong recall mood but she was mellow and let different kids hold her. However, on a recall attempt she flew past me and up and flew through a tree. In the past she'd land right on a tree and if she refused to recall down (which was usually the case), I'd tug the string and she'd fly right to me. However, this time she flew through the tree so the string got caught across several branches and she was hanging by her harness out of the tree. I tried manipulating the string to get her out but to no effect and she just clung onto the leaves of the tree upside down. I hoped she'd get tired and let go and then fly to me. I also tried shaking the tree to scare her out of it. Mind you this was a pretty small tree so there was no climbing it but yet it was high enough to be out of reach. Scaring her only made her grip tighter or the few times she flew out of the tree, the string caught her and she'd fly back into it which made it worse. I recruited some kids to try to find me a stick to get her with while I stayed by her but unfortunately the one they found wasn't long or sturdy enough to get her to grab it.

I waited a good while with her in the tree and didn't do too much about it. Really I was trying to buy time to see if she'd come down herself. Don't worry though, for the worst case scenario I was covered. If she was really tangled in the tree, I could call my dad and have him bring a ladder to get her out. But for practice sake, I was trying to be self reliant in getting her out. My first preference was to get her to fly down herself. Second choice would be to get her out myself. Yet there was no way she was letting go and if she did, she just flew back into the tree. I saw that she wasn't holding on too well so I shook the tree really hard and she was slipping down. After a few more good shakes she fell out but the harness was still caught so she didn't come down low enough. She was hanging solely by the harness so I worried that she'd fly off again. She stayed put just long enough that I could jump and get a hold of the harness to pull her lower to me. I grabbed her and put her on my shoulder where she gladly clung onto with a killer grip. The string was still stuck though and not coming out. At this point it wasn't a problem. I clipped her leash to my belt and released the string and then just pulled it until the other end came over the tree and fell back down to me.

I think this is the 3rd or 4th time she's ended up in a tree but the first where I couldn't pull her back down. This is one of the big problems with outdoor flight. While the harness provides some security, it also can get the parrot stuck. However, I'm glad she was on a harness and not freeflying because without it, there was no way she was coming down out of that tree by herself. I practice for these kind of moments by launching her onto a basketball hoop at the park and recalling her down. Even with that she isn't too responsive, so it will still be a long way before she voluntarily comes down from a tree herself. Motivation is still a greater difficulty to achieve than flight technique or understanding. Gonna work on it. But this is just another reminder of how risky outdoor flight is. While I will recommend indoor freeflight to anyone that is willing to make their home environment bird-safe, I don't recommend anyone do outdoor flight at all unless you're just crazy. Outdoor flight is difficult and it is dangerous. Just don't do it. If you do it, you're ignoring my advice so I cannot be responsible.

[HyperD]

I'm glad it all ended fine with no issues


And we were all thinking Kili is such a good girl!

[budgiebuddy]

Does kili like just act for the camera cause it seems like she gets it about right in every one of your videos, but when you don't have your camera she kinda does it sloppy. I do not mean any offense really you did a great job training her it just kinda struck me as funny.

[Michael]

The stuff on camera is usually the best moments. She has worst moments too. Getting stuck in the tree was a mistake rather than a stubborn or bad moment on her part. The leash was tangled so recalling down was hardly an option and she was scared. Her bad/stubborn moments are when she refuses to do the trick or does them wrong on purpose. Obviously I'm not showing those. But once in a while she have a blast of motivation and do a super job on the tricks and they are as good as the videos. There's not much point in showing her not doing the tricks cause that is boring. Her motivation ranges from not interested at all to super interested. I try to show the motivated moments cause that's when she demonstrates her full capability.

[lzver]

That's a good point to make about ensuring your bird does a good recall before taking outside on a harness. I'll have to make sure I work on that with my two before even introducing a harness over the fall/winter.

Sounds like you remained calm during the whole thing. I'm not sure I'd be able to stay so calm.

[Erithacus]

Glad that everything is OK. My Grey got caught in a tree once. The worse thing was it attracted the nearby entire flock of crows and they came circling above us. Luckily, I managed to get her down in a few minutes.