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Thread: Do your birds fly to you...

 
  1. #11
    Junior Member
    Wayne361's Avatar


    Parrots

    Senegal
    During flight recall training Oscar will fly to me on cue nearly 100 percent of the time. When not training he will fly to me to chill out and/or for scratches. Have taught him to station on those occasions that I dont want him to fly to me. His flight ability is night and day from when I got him as a rehome....

    Wayne

  2. The following user likes this post:

    Mare (12-05-2013)

  3. #12
    Nobility Member
    Mare's Avatar


    Parrots

    Sassy Goffin's girl, she IS Sassy Amigo, male umbrella cockatoo Chip! The cockatiel! The sweet, sweet Jellybean!
    I find flight 'training' fascinating. It's a wonderful tool to teach your birds, for sure. Sounds like you and Oscar have one heck of a bond! My U2 will come when I call, even when I don't, he seems to show up! Do you fly Oscar outside?
    Last edited by Mare; 12-05-2013 at 12:26 AM.

  4. #13
    Member
    Pat 621's Avatar


    Where can I find info on flight training?


    Julius 07/09

  5. The following user likes this post:

    Mare (12-05-2013)

  6. #14
    Nobility Member
    Mare's Avatar


    Parrots

    Sassy Goffin's girl, she IS Sassy Amigo, male umbrella cockatoo Chip! The cockatiel! The sweet, sweet Jellybean!
    Pat, this is a question for Wayne. My method is very unconventional and mostly, luck is involved

  7. #15
    Junior Member
    Wayne361's Avatar


    Parrots

    Senegal
    Quote Originally Posted by Mare View Post
    I find flight 'training' fascinating. It's a wonderful tool to teach your birds, for sure. Sounds like you and Oscar have one heck of a bond! My U2 will come when I call, even when I don't, he seems to show up! Do you fly Oscar outside?
    I have thought about freeflight for about 30 seconds LOL Honestly I dont have the nerve to try. Harness training is in the works and i will fly him on a leash but honestly I couldnt live with myself if he got away/lost/killed etc. Have been through too much in rehabilitation/training to risk it. I know others do it and Im cool with it but it is not a level of training that I aspire to personally.

    Wayne

  8. #16
    Junior Member
    Wayne361's Avatar


    Parrots

    Senegal
    Quote Originally Posted by Pat 621 View Post
    Where can I find info on flight training?


    Julius 07/09
    This is what I did and got info from other forums.....I didnt invent the wheel hahaha. First got Oscar target trained. Then I made up some flight stands. He was deathly afraid of flight stands so had to desensitize to the stands, using targetting, which took a while. Once all was comfortable with stands it was simply targetting from stand to stand while stands where in walking distance apart for oscar. Then moving stands out slightly so he had to jump and/or use some wing action to navigate the distance. I used verbal cue "perch" to get him used to command...touch/reward. Please remember oscar had basically zero flight experience as he was clipped in previous home and only flew if terrified. Gradually increased the distance between perches as Oscars confidence grew....didnt push his confidence level too fast in the beginning to ensure his confidence level would continue to increase. I then took target stick (visual cue) away and just used verbal once oscar realized going from perch to perch would get him rewards. Early on he would get excited and fly uncued to next perch in an effort to extract treats. He quickly learned that flying on cue was the only way to solicit treats as I NEVER rewarded without me first cuing behaviour. This lead to stationing training but save this for later. Eventually perches were 35-40 feet appart and his flight was steadily getting better and better. I also put some obstacles in his flight path to force him to navigate laterally thus improving flight from just a linear path. His confidence increased and fear greatly reduced overall as a result. I could see a startling difference in behaviour. Once his confidence in flying was good I simply would target bird to my hand from perch saying "come" (my verbal cue for flight recall) once he got the hang of it and where he was supposed to land I simply took away the target stick and by holding up hand served as visual cue with "come" being the verbal. Treat on every recall and he got the hang of it in no time. Increased distances etc. I am now into variable ratio enforcement where i dont reward on every flight/recall but he knows treat is coming and works for it.
    Thats the coles notes version of what I did. If you have any other questions please let me know.

    Hope this helps,

    Wayne

  9. The following user likes this post:

    Mare (12-07-2013)

  10. #17
    Junior Member
    Wayne361's Avatar


    Parrots

    Senegal
    Once you have bird flight trained on cue you can then go into flighted retrieve (which oscar absolutely loves) with various objects, basketball, etc. I mix it up so he has to go with cue and not just conditioned behaviour.

    Wayne

  11. #18
    Senior Member
    tonkatiel's Avatar


    Parrots

    Punky (Galah), Skittles (Rainbow Lorikeet), Mia (Sun Conure), Max (Green Cheek Conure), Tonks (Cockatiel), Tessa (Cockatiel), Lola (Budgie), Sid (Lovebird), Aussie (Lovebird), Johnny (Lovebird)
    Punky is my velcro bird - if shes not in her cage or on her playstand eating then shes on me guaranteed!
    Skittles will fly to me when I call him most of the time, every now and then he'll decide that he'd prefer to keep on doing what hes doing (generally standing on the lovebirds cage harrassing them!) But normally he's pretty good at coming to me when called...
    The smaller birds, umm yeah no chance lol, they don't like me very much lol... They are pretty good at going back into their cages when told to though

  12. The following user likes this post:

    Mare (12-07-2013)

  13. #19
    Senior Member
    JadeC's Avatar


    Parrots

    White bellied caique named Meiko :)
    Meiko is pretty clingy, but he definitely come on cue. If I hold my hand out and wiggle my fingers, he knows that I want him to come to me. He wants to be on me 80% of the time though haha He flys to me not on cue if I walk away from him. Silly bird :P

  14. The following user likes this post:

    Mare (12-07-2013)

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