With the addition of a new bird to my household things have gotten much busier.
Chica, a 15 yr old female Blue and Yellow macaw will be trained for indoor flight demonstrations. She is harness trained, exceptionally quiet for a macaw, and loves people of all sorts (except for one of my goth friends for some reason)
Anyway, I figured I'd post a little video of her flight training progress.
She came to me with all but 3 of her primary flight feathers trimmed, these feathers are essential for lift. After her recent molt she had grown back 3 more feathers on each wing, giving her a significant amount of control over flight. Macaws have 8-10 primary flight feathers, so she is not entirely coordinated yet, but she is able to fly a short distance.
Most large birds who are kept with their wings trimmed for much of their lives have a lot of trouble re-learning how to fly because they lose their muscle strength from lack of use (think of it like sitting in a wheel chair for months without getting up and walking around) The first portion of the video was the training that was done to help her regain her wing strength by making her flap short distances. Over time I moved her target distance a little further apart. By the time she regrows the rest of her primary flight feathers she will be fully conditioned for real flight. She is a fast learner and very eager to please, so I am quite confident in her abilities.
She will NOT however be free-flown outside, we have quite a few predatory birds around who have been known to take out large chickens in the neighborhood. I will be working more on her flight in an enclosed arena or barn.
Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxBPhUTm8ow
As a side note, how do I embed a video into the post?
Chica, a 15 yr old female Blue and Yellow macaw will be trained for indoor flight demonstrations. She is harness trained, exceptionally quiet for a macaw, and loves people of all sorts (except for one of my goth friends for some reason)
Anyway, I figured I'd post a little video of her flight training progress.
She came to me with all but 3 of her primary flight feathers trimmed, these feathers are essential for lift. After her recent molt she had grown back 3 more feathers on each wing, giving her a significant amount of control over flight. Macaws have 8-10 primary flight feathers, so she is not entirely coordinated yet, but she is able to fly a short distance.
Most large birds who are kept with their wings trimmed for much of their lives have a lot of trouble re-learning how to fly because they lose their muscle strength from lack of use (think of it like sitting in a wheel chair for months without getting up and walking around) The first portion of the video was the training that was done to help her regain her wing strength by making her flap short distances. Over time I moved her target distance a little further apart. By the time she regrows the rest of her primary flight feathers she will be fully conditioned for real flight. She is a fast learner and very eager to please, so I am quite confident in her abilities.
She will NOT however be free-flown outside, we have quite a few predatory birds around who have been known to take out large chickens in the neighborhood. I will be working more on her flight in an enclosed arena or barn.
Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxBPhUTm8ow
As a side note, how do I embed a video into the post?
