hello all!
I live in Australia, and there are lots of rainbow/scaly breasted lorikeet flocks that visit our backyard.
My goal is to eventually free-fly my bird outside, any I was wondering how the wild flocks might affect this. I'm worried that if she is very close to the wild birds, a flock mentality might kick in, which is something I know happens to other flock birds (like jackdaws, crows and ducks). By this I mean that when a bird sees a group of birds fly off, that same instinct kicks in and they fly up with them, before they realize what is happening. I don't want Pony to accidently fly away with a flock of birds and get lost!
When I have previously taken Pony outside, the lorikeets are very curious about her. If she is on a perch, they fly nearby to hang upside down and chirp at her. I don't think they are being aggressive at all (unlike other wild birds, like Mynahs).
Has anyone had any experience flying a bird in a situation where there might be other wild parrots around? I have heard of lost birds joining wild flocks (especially in australia, where they can often join a flock of their own species!), but I don't know if this is a slow development or not.