Traveling with adopted macaw to new home

[Hannah16]

I am adopting a macaw from my husband's grandmother that recently passed. Haven't had too much time with the bird yet and soon will be taking the bird to a new state. My drive will be about 7 1/2 hours. What is the best way to go about this travel? I've heard don't talk to the bird at all during the drive so it doesn't associate my voice with something negative and I've also heard talk to it calmly and soothingly to reassure the bird I'm not here to hurt it. I'm not sure how to go about this since it's a long drive. I need any help I can get! Thanks.

[Pajarita]

Whenever I have had to move my birds, I've always done at night and covered their cages completely. I think it's less stressful that way. But, if you don't mind my asking, wouldn't flying be better for such a long trip?

[Hannah16]

I would have to use a smaller airport which ups the price of tickets plus I'm transporting other items she has for the bird. So driving is the best option for me. I've also been told to use a calming agent that I can place in the birds water. I haven't looked into that at all yet.

[Curious Diode]

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[Wolf]

I have only transported two birds this type of distance and because of time constraints part of the travel time was during daylight hours and partly at night. I did stop to give them a break from the motion of my truck on both occasions and not only was the radio on, I also talked to them and reached over to let them touch me but gig not reach into the cage as I was doing the driving. They are flock animals and don't do change very well so not making physical contact available to them or talking to them would in my opinion make the trip more stressful. Since neither bird actually knew me at the time that I brought them home the physical contact was offered to them whenever I stopped and just by reaching over to the cage while driving so that they initiated the contact if they wanted it.

[liz]

I have done both day and night travel. Mine prefer day travel so they can look around. It is just another form of enrichment. They need to know that you are taking them to a different place.

When moving Rambo and Myrtle it has paid off to let them know what is going on around them.
Rambo is equivalent to a 5 year old kid. He needs to know everything and asks his question with a "huh" and I have to figure out what it was for.

I moved them from NC to FL last year in a night drive. Everyone said to drive at night but it was not the right thing to do with my birds. Rambo could not see in the dark and had no idea what was going on. When I got here I put him near a window. He stayed in that window for a year before he could accept that this is home. It was very strange and out of character for Rambo who is social and aware. He did not get to see so he could not accept.