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First Recall Flight

Discuss topics associated with teaching birds to fly. Training parrots recall flight, target flying, and other flying exercises.

First Recall Flight

Postby MandyG » Mon Nov 02, 2009 4:43 pm

This past weekend I finally had a chance to start officially working on perch/recall flight with Mojo. He has had all of his flight feathers for a little while now but I haven't had a chance to really work with him yet. Up until now I have simply encouraged him to fly to his perch to start getting his strength and confidence in flying up.

This is by far my favorite thing to train so far! It took quite a lot of patience and repetitions before he finally realized what he was supposed to do but the work was definitely worth it! I used Mona's youtube video as an example to start http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOeUXMqk9K0 and Michael's http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSwWNGJ_0Jk. Thanks for the videos Mona and Michael! :D

This video makes it look extremely simple, but Mojo just couldn't figure out that he was supposed to hop/fly to the next chair. As soon as the chairs were too far apart that he couldn't reach the next one with his beak he would refuse to try and I'd eventually move the chairs back together so he wouldn't get completely frustrated. The first time he flapped his wings going between chairs looked like an accident but I gave him a lot of praise for it. Once that first time was out of the way he was happily hopping between chairs after he realized what I was looking for. Then I moved the chairs about a foot apart and he eagerly flew to the next chair. Of course he isn't used to flying so he got winded fairly quickly so it was a short session. Later that day we tried again and he was doing so well that I called him to my hand instead of the chair. He hesitated a bit but then he finally flew to me! By the end of the weekend he was flying to me from his perch and flying to his perch when cued.

I feel a bit like a parent gushing about their toddler taking their first step, but I'm just so proud of my little boy! :D

What was your first experience with flight training like? What method did you use to encourage the first few flights?

Mojo was severely clipped when he came from the breeder (if he fell off of his perch he would fall like a stone) so I think this caused a severe lack of confidence and held him back a bit. Has anybody had experience flight training previously clipped birds and fully fledged birds? Does it make much of a difference when flight training?
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MandyG
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Re: First Recall Flight

Postby Michael » Mon Nov 02, 2009 5:01 pm

That is fantastic. I basically had the same experience teaching Kili how to fly. She was really over clipped as well so she required a lot of work to get her to move. I liked Mona's video too and that helped me get started. The one thing is I don't recommend luring but rather suggest using a target stick instead. And a clicker :lol:

I suggest you quickly start working on teaching your parrot suitable places to land and not suitable as well as practicing a lot of recalls. You want to make sure you have a good flying relationship with your bird before it can fly wherever it wants! I think you've seen my post about teaching Kili tricks and refledging her but in case you haven't:

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=228

The latter part of that article deals with teaching Kili how to fly. Nice job :thumbsup:
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Re: First Recall Flight

Postby MandyG » Mon Nov 02, 2009 5:19 pm

Michael wrote:The one thing is I don't recommend luring but rather suggest using a target stick instead. And a clicker


I used the target stick and the clicker, thought it would be the easiest way since he's great at target training already ;) .

I've watched all of your videos of Kili (my breaks at work are usually spent on youtube!). You've done a lot of great work with her, and you've given me a lot of ideas of what to do next!

I can see how this flight training can be a bit of a problem without a lot of training, for the first time last night Mojo flew to me for no reason from his perch when I was watching tv. I think he's finally figuring out what those wings are really for!

I think I might have some issues now with him staying off of me. I was trying to get him to fly back to his perch last night and he is apparently getting very good at doing U-turns and landing right back on me. At least he's working on his turning :lol: .

Mona had a lot of good advice in this post viewtopic.php?f=16&t=23, I think I'm definitely going to have to use some of it!
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Re: First Recall Flight

Postby MandyG » Tue Nov 03, 2009 9:26 am

Had another great recall/perching training session last night! He seems to enjoy it so much that I feel just awful he was clipped for the first year of his life :cry: .

Hopefully he'll never have to be clipped again, it's great seeing him fly. :D
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MandyG
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Re: First Recall Flight

Postby Michael » Tue Nov 03, 2009 9:36 am

Yesterday I brought Kili with my for dinner at my parent's house. I'm so proud of her. I just put her carrier on the kitchen counter and leave the top open so she sits on top of the carrier and watches. Didn't fly off once. Just sat and watched. Oh I take that back, she did fly off once but that was to land on my shoulder and get a better view! :mrgreen:

Then I took her to the basement and was able to recall fly her back and forth with my brother in an unknown environment and she did great!
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Michael
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Re: First Recall Flight

Postby MandyG » Tue Nov 03, 2009 4:22 pm

Wow, that's great! I can't believe she actually stayed on her carrier most of the time!

That's really impressive that she would recall with your brother. Mojo wouldn't even fly to me from his perch with my husband in the room the first couple of days, and he'll usually step up for my husband better than he will for me! We tried having Mojo fly to him last night, and he actually did! And my husband was rewarded with a big bite to the thumb. Guess Mojo's not quite ready to be flying to him :lol: .
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MandyG
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Re: First Recall Flight

Postby Michael » Tue Nov 03, 2009 5:02 pm

That's why he has to hold the treats out for Mojo so he can bite those instead. :amazon:
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Michael
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Flight: Yes

Re: First Recall Flight

Postby Mona » Tue Nov 03, 2009 5:26 pm

Mandy:

Thanks for the post. That is great news. It is really exciting to read about somebody new starting on this adventure. :D
Mona in Seattle
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Babylon Sengal
Doug (spousal unit)
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