First time owner:)

[friend2parrots]

I've had over 23 in all that time and never had an injury never mind a death

i've never had a bird break it's neck in 20 years of full flight. show your all the windows tap on them they're smart enough to figure out they can't fly through solids.as soon as he settles work on recall flight.

I agree with marie83 and pennyandrocky - Ive had many birds over the years, all fully flighted, and all masters of flight. they are indeed very quick to learn what windows are, if you teach them. and they also understand the difference between indoors and outdoors, and understand the window is a barrier separating them from the outside world. my two birds that i have now, my GCC and my Bourke, are very powerful flyers - they have flown since baby-hood, and have never been clipped, and have never had a flight related accident in the five years ive had them. both understand what windows are - they love to look out the windows of my house, and bask in the sunshine. they love to watch the outdoor birds, cars, people, etc through the glass.

for all parrots, not just GCCs, flight is essential and required for mental and physical health, including the health of their hearts and lungs.

clipping is often behind a whole bunch of behavioral problems that owners struggle with, including plucking and self-mutilation, aggression, and screaming. clipped birds are actually MORE likely to get injured or killed.

please read the following blog article by the forum owner michael about why parrots shouldnt be clipped:

http://trainedparrot.com/Clipping/

all the best with your GCC

[Kalinka]

Thank you everyone for your attention! All of your words are very helpful.

[cml]

Be careful about keeping your bird fully flighted, a lot of accidents can happen. I have heard a lot of stories of parrots breaking their necks flying into windows. Definitely train your bird to minimize the chances of accidents

I dont agree, I believe this to a very old myth. I am not sure I want to start this discussion, it seems to pop up too often on the forums, but what are your reasons for saying this?

I suggest you read the article michael has on clipping, there is some good info in it. I realize its seen entirely from a pro-flight perspective, but try to keep an open mind.
I promise you that a bird is much happier, healthier and less likely to develop bad behaviour if its flighted.

The article can be found here: http://trainedparrot.com/Clipping/
Read especially the myths about half way down, but I do encourage you to read the whole thing.

As for the window issue, I have two flighted birds, and it took Stitch one day to learn what a window was, I just walked over to a window with him, and gently put his beak on it. He realized straight away that windows are hard surfaces. Leroy was the same, it took less than a day.
Leroy did crash into the walls a couple of times when we first got him, as he was used to landing on aviary meshes, feet first, but he learned pretty quickly, that flying into walls is bad.

A flighted bird can escape accidents and get out of trouble. If a clipped bird falls down, it falls, and it might become trapped somewhere where a flighted bird would just fly off from, or even avoid it all together.

I just want to finish off with saying welcome to the forums, and I really dont want you to feel even slightly crossed because of us being pro-flight, but the benefits are really too great to ignore, not to say how nice it will be for your birds to be allowed to be birds =) !
(there's an old argument that you wouldnt chop off a dog's legs, and I totally agree it's the same thing when you clip a bird, but that argument seems to have a tendancy to get pro-clipping people to dig their heels in )

[friend2parrots]

Leroy did crash into the walls a couple of times when we first got him, as he was used to landing on aviary meshes, feet first, but he learned pretty quickly, that flying into walls is bad.

cml, its interesting you mention crashing into walls, because its often something that comes up when people are considering flight or clip. in the case of Leroy, it makes perfect sense that he would crash the first few times, because thats what he was used to if he was already flying in the aviary and landing on vertical surfaces like that, and you did the right thing by trusting that he would learn not to do it again. birds are smart and do learn not to do something if its physically unpleasant to them.

the fact that already-flying birds sometimes crash into walls when they are brought home for the first time, before they know what walls are, i think often scares people and sends them down the clipping path, instead of giving their birds a little time to adjust. but as cml says, birds learn quickly not to repeat their mistakes, and do enjoy lots of benefits from flight afterwards.

[WaterRaven]

There is a lot of debate over flighted or not. I would do some research of your own before making a decision.

I was born in Florida. Florida is suffering from tremendous amounts of invasive species as a result of the exotic pet trade. Parrots that were imported as pets, later bred, and were full-flighted have escaped their homes and begun to breed as wild flocks. The same is true of many reptiles species.

I have many family members and friends who have rescued lost domesticated parrots.

This is why in some states owning parrots such as quaker parrots is illegal.

I worked at a conversation area some years back and a couple came to the park with their Amazon fully flighted. The bird did not have a flight suit. I saw the couple and informed them that we have many bird eating hawks.

I have personally seen a red-shouldered hawk kill a mourning dove and it is not pretty. I warned the couple, but they continued into the park anyway. I hope nothing happened to their parrot.

Everyone has a different opinion on care, you need to decide what is best for you. In the cases where birds were flighted and escaped, one can argue that was neglect, just as much as one can argue that clipping wings and being unable to fly is abuse.

Educating yourself, building a strong bond, and being open to different methods of care and training is a must if we are to continue to build a better life for ourselves and our animal companions.