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Flighted Retrieve

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Flighted Retrieve

Postby Michael » Tue Oct 06, 2009 12:10 am

Kili knows the ground based retrieve quite well and now I started working on flighted retrieve. She caught on pretty quickly that when I hand her the ball and hold the cup that she has to fly to me with the ball and put it in the cup.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQOcOR3QC6A

This part we have down. I want to work up to a full retrieve flight. Where I can toss the ball, she goes to get it and brings it back to me. How do I teach the part that involves going to get the ball rather than handing it to her? For ground based retrieve she walks to get it but when she's on a perch its hard to put it down so she could get it or fly to another perch to get it. Right now I can't count on her going down to the floor though but the ball won't balance on a perch. Any ideas how to get her to go for the ball?
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Michael
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Re: Flighted Retrieve

Postby greatgriffin » Wed Oct 07, 2009 1:52 am

Hi Michael,
Yes it is real fun stuff to teach your bird flighted retrieve!
The way I did it was simple, I rewarded Crackie for running after the ball and fetching it from ever longer distances. She has understood this game very quickly and she would even jump off my shoulder to run after it.
The next step of flying off her perch for the ball sort of came naturally.
I think it very much depends on the nature of the bird, too. AKP's seem to be very agile and active and they have no problem running, climbing or jumping. Kili seems to be a bit more sat back but still she should be able to master this one.

You'll see in my vids how we progressed with this trick.
stage 1: introduce new object http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiAhXXRcSGA
stage 2: run after it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaW_lwhwVKk
Stage 3: fly off perch and fetch on floor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raL8S3BGXbg
stage 4: complete trick. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si_9KshidlQ

One funny thing about it is, as you have probably noticed too, the bird only performs the trick under the very same circumstances. In my case, the ball must always be on the carpet where we always play. If the ball rolls off the carpet she abandons it. Maybe she hates running on the wooden floor or something - still, only on the carpet and only in this room.
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Re: Flighted Retrieve

Postby Michael » Wed Oct 07, 2009 9:12 am

Kili has certainly mastered ground based retrieves and she is also getting good at flying to me with the object. I just have to connect it to get her to fly to get the object to begin with.
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Michael
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Gender: This parrot forum member is male
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Flight: Yes

Re: Flighted Retrieve

Postby Mona » Wed Oct 07, 2009 2:12 pm

Hi Michael and Mr. King Parrot:

I LOVE the flighted retreve. I need to watch the King Parrot videos above when I have a bit more time.

By the way, I don't know if you now Eb Cravens but he freeflies a King Parrot in Hawaii. A smart and beautiful bird, but his bird is red.

Any way, here's some old video of Babylon fetching a ball for a flighted retreve:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBDKffnd1aU

How do you teach the bird to go get the ball? I think it's taught the same way that you would teach a grounded retrieve - use small approximations. In Babylon's case, I didn't teach the behavior. At the time, I knew enough that this is a behavior that I would like to repeat so when she did it the first time, I reinforced (rewarded) and that is really all it took. Basically, I captured the behavior.

Thanks

Mona
Mona in Seattle
Phinneous Fowl (aka Phinney) TAG
Babylon Sengal
Doug (spousal unit)
Jack and Bailey (Gremlins)
Kiri (CAG)
http://www.flyingparrotsinside.com

youtube: Avian Flyers
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Re: Flighted Retrieve

Postby Mona » Wed Oct 07, 2009 2:19 pm

I just had time to watch the first King Parrot video (with the stick) and I LOVED it.

What a cool parrot!

Thanks

Mona
Mona in Seattle
Phinneous Fowl (aka Phinney) TAG
Babylon Sengal
Doug (spousal unit)
Jack and Bailey (Gremlins)
Kiri (CAG)
http://www.flyingparrotsinside.com

youtube: Avian Flyers
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Re: Flighted Retrieve

Postby greatgriffin » Thu Oct 08, 2009 3:08 am

Hi Mona
thanks for watching my video and I am glad you liked it.

I guess the red king parrot you have seen might be a male AKP (they are read at the head).

I really like your video especially because of the spot. I find it really great that there are places like this where you live, where you can take your bird to a large building and sort of free-fly risk-free.
I have tried outdoor free flight with Crackie before (you may see my other video on this topic) but we haven't been quite successful and I didn't want to push the bird.

I would be interested to know if you have ever attempted outdoor flight and if yes, what was the result. (This topic might be worth a separate thread I guess?)

Cheers
Tom
Last edited by greatgriffin on Thu Oct 08, 2009 1:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Flighted Retrieve

Postby Mona » Thu Oct 08, 2009 10:52 am

Hi Tom:

We have a group that meets once or twice a month and flies our birds in buildings. We call ourselves the Northwest Avian Flyers and here is our website:

http://www.geocities.com/nwavianflyers/index.htm

We also have a yahoogroups that we use to communicate information within the group about fly days, etc.

Bailey flew outside but that was before I got him. I have outdoor aviaries and I have studied outdoor free flight quite a bit, but I don't have the stomach for it. I do believe that you should train "as if" your bird will some day fly outside because there is always a chance that it could accidentally happen, but there is risk to flying outside that I just don't want to take. I'd be devastated if something happened to one of my flock (especially Babylon - she's the one in the video)

Thanks!
Mona in Seattle
Phinneous Fowl (aka Phinney) TAG
Babylon Sengal
Doug (spousal unit)
Jack and Bailey (Gremlins)
Kiri (CAG)
http://www.flyingparrotsinside.com

youtube: Avian Flyers
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Mona
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Gender: This parrot forum member is female
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Types of Birds Owned: Senegal Parrots, Congo African Grey, Timneh African Grey
Flight: Yes

Re: Flighted Retrieve

Postby Michael » Thu Oct 08, 2009 11:02 am

I'm trying to follow the program for outdoor flight training just because it's the highest level to aspire to with a flighted parrot but I doubt I'll ever fly Kili outside. I would like her to be trained to that level though and be able to fly her in other buildings and whatnot.

When I got Kili I had not even heard of outdoor freeflight so it was not something I considered at all. I don't think I could risk or handle loosing her. If I do ever persue outdoor freeflight, I think I would have to get a bird with the specific intention of freeflying it outside and focus all training efforts toward that.

Mona, do you think Babylon is adequately trained for safe outdoor freeflight though? Do you think the fact that she was initially clipped, rather than a flighted baby raised for outdoor freeflight, would handicap her from being a good outdoor flier?
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Michael
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Gender: This parrot forum member is male
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Flight: Yes

Re: Flighted Retrieve

Postby greatgriffin » Thu Oct 08, 2009 2:49 pm

Mona - I have tried to look for a similar group in the area where I live but Europe seems to be much more constrained in such initiatives. So far I had no luck but I'll keep looking. I think your free flight group is really precious, you are very lucky to have one to be part of.

There is a very nice vid about a free flying patagonian conure - check it out I think you both will like it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBPpgCItSP0

O and a real fun one I just found
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvIibTamlBE
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Re: Flighted Retrieve

Postby Mona » Thu Oct 08, 2009 3:58 pm

Michael asked:

"Mona, do you think Babylon is adequately trained for safe outdoor freeflight though? Do you think the fact that she was initially clipped, rather than a flighted baby raised for outdoor freeflight, would handicap her from being a good outdoor flier?"

Years ago, somebody (with outdoor flyers) told me that Babylon could free fly. I think she could free fly outside. She has been flying in buildings for most of her life and she has a tendency to take off, fly big laps and then find me and land on me. I remember once when I was flying her, I went to the lady's room. Babylon took off flying around and around and around the building for about five minutes and did not come down until I returned back into the auditorium. She saw me and flew right to me. That's her flying style. She tends to fly laps, if there are other birds she flies with them, and then she flies to me. She seldom flies any where else. Not every bird flies like that.

Here's a short video that was taken in 2004. Babylon is flying with macaws. It's degraded on Youtube but you can see how she typically flies:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKMONnL5gk4

Having said that, training is never an end but a process and I'm not particularly disciplined at home with my training. I think I would really need to step up my training if I wanted to free fly her outside.

Also, I have a real concern about something called "instinctual drift". Babylon is seven years old now and she spends a lot of time snuffling around looking for nesting areas. In the house, it is no big deal because I keep an eye on her and distract her if she's some place I do not want her to be.....outside, it would be a big deal. If she found an attractive nesting area and decided to play house it could be difficult to either find her or maybe even get her to come back.

I am sure she would not do it initially in an unfamiliar environment. She does not do this at the fly building. I have never seen her do this any where But at home, but it is something I would be worried about. It is something I worry about for all free flyers.

Thanks for asking.
Mona in Seattle
Phinneous Fowl (aka Phinney) TAG
Babylon Sengal
Doug (spousal unit)
Jack and Bailey (Gremlins)
Kiri (CAG)
http://www.flyingparrotsinside.com

youtube: Avian Flyers
User avatar
Mona
Poicephalus
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 271
Number of Birds Owned: 5
Types of Birds Owned: Senegal Parrots, Congo African Grey, Timneh African Grey
Flight: Yes

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