Ascent and Descent Training

[Michael]

This video is day 2 of training Kili ascending and descending flight. These are two highly useful skills and great exercise. Coming down is an essential skill to teach a flighted parrot in case it ever has to be retrieved from a tree or high place. Many previously clipped parrots just don't know how to get down even if they wanted to. The upstairs flights are less mentally challenging but they are fantastic exercise for those flight muscles.

The way I trained Kili to fly up to me on the staircase was by standing on the top step and putting Kili on her training stand a few steps down and doing a nearly horizontal recall. Then I progressively lowered the stand by 3 steps at a time and had Kili flying longer and higher recalls every time. She mastered this very quickly. With every flight up, she was also learning to fly down as part of her "return to perch" routine that comes after every recall.

Next, I put the training stand at the top step and left it there but recalled Kili down with me standing on steps progressively lower. This part was tougher and took more time to teach. But by the end of the first day of training up/down flight, Kili was doing very very well.

Let me mention that my staircase is ideal for this kind of training because it is walled in and there are doors at both ends of it so the parrot has no other choice but to land on me or perch.

At one point in the video you can see Kili fly down and miss the landing and then panic. She crashed knocking over her food bowl and ended up on the floor. I ignored her because I can't reinforce that behavior so she flew back to her perch. That was detrimental to the remainder of the training session. It was really hard to get her to recall anymore and I had to start close and work my way out again. By the end she was just tired and didn't feel like flying anymore so I'm going to just have to see how she does next time.

[windharper]

I can tell I have a lot to learn as yet on what to train my birds! Now that I think about it, I realize that both Teyla and Tamber don't seem to be able to get down once they've flown up high somewhere. I never considered the fact that maybe they just weren't sure how!

There was a time recently where I left Teyla's small lower access door open on her cage. As she was the rescued cockatiel that had virtually no human interaction before me, she has really come far to now step up on command, ride my hand around, allow me to touch her with a finger, and take food from me. None of this prepared her to be flying around the house for 3 hours while my husband and I weren't home. I came in to find Tamber, greeting me with screats instead of "Hi" and "Helooo". I go to Teyla's cage to find no bird! (I never want to experience that again!)

For an hour we searched our non-birdfriendly house. Finally, I hear just one soft squeak. She was on the top of a picture in a bedroom, grabbing onto the frame for dear life, and squeezing against the wall. She was sooooo scared, it took me some coaxing to get her to step on my hand. I wondered at that time why she just didn't fly back to her cage.

Now that I have a better understanding, I think that would be the best thing I should work on next.

Thanks, Michael!

Deb
a.k.a. windharper

[Michael]

I have to say, I am so proud of Kili. I had her with me visiting someone else's house and she was given the opportunity to fly around several times. There were a few times she got scared but she usually just flew off did a 180 and came back to land on my shoulder. She never just darted straight away or into a window. Unlike in my house, there are big windows without any kinds of shades. She never once even flew toward the windows. Doesn't seem interested at all.

A few times she flew up (there is a tall ceiling with sky light in one room) but then came back down. Also at one point she flew off and landed on a picture frame. She was scared but I called her and she flew back down to me! This is where all the recall training starts paying off.

Finally, one of the nights we were staying there Kathleen and I were running really late and the bird had to be fed and put to bed. So for the first time since she was flighted a stranger fed her. Now what is so amazing here is that the carrier Kili was in had to be opened to be able to place the food in and sure as I predicted she flew right out. I was told that she circled the room looking for me and ended up landing on the ceiling fan. Knowing Kili was hungry, the surrogate bird sitter poured pellets into the carrier food bowl and sat still so the bird wouldn't be scared. I was only able to give brief directions on the phone about what to do with the flighted bird (like close door to room, pour pellets, etc). I later realized that I should have told not to chase the bird but forgot to. Luckily the person had enough sense not to do that. Kili surveyed the situation from the ceiling fan and eventually flew down to her carrier to eat her pellets.

My point is that without the ascent/descent training I've been giving Kili at home, she may have flown up onto that fan with a panic but there would have been no way she would have come down even if she wanted to. Flying up is almost instinct where in a panic they flap harder and harder. Coming back down, they have to realize they need to flap less and glide.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to allow/teach parrots all forms of flight at home so that when you go some place, they will be equipped to handle the situation.

[Mona]

Hi Michael:

I am glad to see that you and Kili are doing well. It is great that you are getting a chance to see how she flies in unfamiliar environments and with new people. I do want to caution you to be careful with ceiling fans. I know several birds that accidentally met an untimely demise due to a ceiling fan. One time, the fan wasn't even on but the person slipped, accidentally turned it on and the bird flew into it.

Another trick a person might consider teaching their parrot is just having them walk down from a higher spot. If the bird is not advanced enough to "fly down" they should at least understand that they can come down via targeting. This might become critical if the bird would accidentally fly outside and up into a tree. I know a few people who targetted their birds down from a high tree.

In terms of difficulty to train this skill:

1) If the bird has never been clipped....easy skill to train
2) If the bird has been clipped, it is going to depend on their age
3) If the bird has been clipped, I do think that some species will catch on better than others. I had a cockatiel that had a drastic clip as a baby and never learned how to control his flight. For some reason, poicephalus seem to recover from clips well...at least in my experience.

Holidays have been busy so not much time on the forums....I am going to the Parrot Festival in Houston mid January so I'll be hobnobbing with the feathers.

Thanks

Mona