Free flying parrots.

[Erithacus]

These are my friend's free flying parrots. The grey can be let out unsupervised. She knows how to come home after her outdoor adventures.

[Wolf]

I would love to let my birds out to come and go as they please, but it is not going to happen. My Grey, Kookooloo, once took of flying as I had her outside without a cage or a harness, she had never shown any inclination to fly either inside or outside of the house until this one time. Oh, my heart sank as she disappeared over the top of the mountain, I just don't have the words to convey this feeling. Then I heard her in a pine tree next to the house and I climbed the tree and retrieved my precious friend. But she was not yet done with me and as soon as my first foot hit the ground she took to the air again and I had an instant replay of what had just occurred with her flying away. Once again she circled around and this time she answered from another tree nearby and I was able to retrieve her safely and get her home.
Now, I think that I could do this with her, but especially due to the number of predators such as feral cats, fox, hawks, eagles and on top of these, the trigger happy idiots who will shoot at anything that moves without even knowing what it is it will never happen.

[liz]

Myrtle is so bonded to me that I am sure she would never fly away. She remembers her time out and how scared she was so she makes no attempt at going out the door. When I open the door to look out she gets behind my neck and peeks around to the outside. I am grateful for that because nothing would survive with 5 red tail hawks in the neighborhood. They took my kitten when it went to the front yard without the dogs protection. Chick Chick did not come in when all the dogs did. She did not come in that night. The next day I found her with her back ripped off.

[Erithacus]

@ Wolf. The birds were outdoor trained before fledging. They were all trained to recall walk to the owner during hand feeding period. They were exposed to outdoor surrounding before they could fly. My friend has never lost a bird before. Most of the people here are using this method to free fly train their parrots.

[Pajarita]

I am very happy that he hasn't lost a bird but, unfortunately, whenever you use a sentence like that you need to qualify it with a 'yet' at the end. Why? Because, eventually, it will happen that one of the birds will take off and not come back on its own - and, if he is really lucky, he will find it but, if he's not, the bird is dead (I love my birds too much to risk their lives).

It doesn't matter when they started going outside, when the recall training started or anything, the fact is that in 99.99% of the cases, there will be a time when the bird is hormonal and will go looking for a mate or it will get spooked, take flight and not recognize the area, etc. There was this gray somewhere in England that took the same walk along the shore with his human every single morning for something like 20 years until, one day, he took off - he was found dead of dehydration laying on the beach a few days later. Not even homing pigeons come back all the time and that's why pigeon racing enthusiasts keep the slower mate in house while releasing the faster one for the race. It's pretty much the closest they can get to any type of guarantee that the bird will return (and it doesn't happen all the time, either).

I also noticed that both the gray and the lovie are pluckers which tells me that the birds are under stress...

[Erithacus]

None of the birds is a plucker. They all just had their shower.

[Erithacus]

I just love watching people free fly their parrots and I envy what they are doing. I am nobody to give any unfavorable comments about what they are doing because I don't dare to free fly and I know nothing about free fly. I admire their courage.

[Pajarita]

I don't find it courageous, I find it reckless.

[Wolf]

I find free flying to be a bit both. I would love to be able to do it but that is not going to happen as there are just too many predators where I live. There are very few times that I can go outside without seeing one or more raptors flying overhead or a fox or other predator in the woods near the house.

[Erithacus]

I find free flying to be a bit both. I would love to be able to do it but that is not going to happen as there are just too many predators where I live. There are very few times that I can go outside without seeing one or more raptors flying overhead or a fox or other predator in the woods near the house.

I am not going to risk free flying my birds in a place full of predators too.
There is an amazing guy in Thailand who can free fly parrots of any size from conures to a hyacinth.
I have seen his vids flying a hyacinth! It was awesome. I wish I could stay there for a month to learn from him.

I am very tempting to free fly Kilaya. He has improved a lot over the months and he always flies within the field area. I find the flight line is restricting his motion. But I don't have the courage to go offline.