Free Flight: A Perspective

If interested in free flight training, please e-mail me!
I can offer mentorship or direct you to the mentor right for you.

Would you watch a horse-jumping competition and then message one of the riders on social media asking “Can you teach me how to do that?”  Even if the rider could make some kind of reasonable response, would you really go buy a horse, hop on its back, and attempt to jump five-foot-high obstacles without hiring an instructor and starting from the beginning?  For most people, I assume the answer is “no”, unless you are incredibly foolish.  Likewise, you would not attempt free flight training without a reputable mentor unless you were incredibly foolish.  I hesitate to draw a parallel between the difficulty levels associated with these two activities, but the concept–that of being at an immense risk for failure without the proper knowledge and training–is comparable.  It is very easy to see beautiful pictures and videos of birds enjoying themselves without stopping to consider the work (and perhaps even heartache, in some cases) upon which those cherished experiences were built.

While it is true that birds do fly outdoors naturally and are born with the potential for developing excellent outdoor flight skills, the conditions we choose to fly our captive birds in are very rarely the same as those they would encounter in the wild.  Thus, we must learn, from someone knowledgeable and experienced, what will set them up for the highest chance of success and the lowest chance of loss, injury, or death.  Wait—did I just say death?  If such a thing is possible, why free-fly at all?  Why not simply keep all captive parrots indoors or in aviaries?  We’ll return to that in a moment.

Most bird-lovers appreciate and admire the freedom that birds have in the wild.  However, we cannot overlook the struggle for survival that wild birds face: finding food, finding water, finding shelter, being subjected to extreme weather, avoiding predators, falling ill, contending with man-made dangers, dying before one even leaves the nest…I could go on.  Even though we know that life in the wild comes with risks, we understand that those risks are part of being a bird.  Yet many bird owners believe that when these animals are kept as pets, they must at all costs be insulated against any risk.  Indeed, there seems to be a tendency for many bird owners to “love too much”: birds must never be without a bowl of the tastiest foods for even a moment, they must be clipped so they may never come to harm by flying, they must never go outdoors lest they contract a disease, they must be physically stroked and cuddled like teddy bears in order to feel loved, they must be kept as single birds so they “have a better bond” with us, etc.  These well-intentioned but ultimately harmful ideas arise fairly often within the bird community.

But birds enjoy “working” for food through foraging and training.  Flight is of enormous importance to their physical and mental well-being.  Going outdoors (whilst safely restrained or professionally flight-trained) provides enrichment and natural sunlight.  Physical affection of the wrong kind can lead to sexual frustration.  Parrots are social creatures who would seldom be without other parrots in the wild.  Whether we like it or not, there is a tendency to view birds as human children or puppy-dogs rather than as essentially wild animals.  Bearing all this in mind, does it become a little more understandable that people would want to give captive birds the opportunity to fly outdoors provided that they have been adequately prepared and trained, ideally starting at the same age they would do so in the wild?

It can perhaps be said that free flight training seeks to balance the comforts of captivity with some of the most enriching experiences available to wild birds.  There is absolutely no way to experience some of these things, such as soaring the open skies unrestricted, without some level of risk.  For whatever reason, some animals we keep are afforded more freedom.  We do everything we can to care for and protect them, but only up to a point.  We are at peace with the fact that some risk is preferable to an oppressive degree of “safety”.  To offer a bird example: pigeons.  I have never seen anyone stricken by horror and disgust upon hearing that a free-flying pigeon did not return or was taken by a hawk.  Pigeons free-fly.  That’s what they do.  There is some risk, but just about everyone accepts it.  The same can be said of falconry, where many of the birds do indeed encounter risks despite being predators.

With parrots, however, even if one is flying them with the help of someone experienced and under conditions known to efficiently minimise risk, there is often outcry at the very mention of the idea.  I have seen people angrily declare that free-flyers are people who endanger their “babies”.  Certainly, some people who pursue free flight training do so in irresponsible ways.  However, a responsible free-flyer sees their birds as neither expendable nor helpless.  They see their birds as beings deserving of autonomy and freedom, even if they will not be perfectly safe at all times.  While free flight does require far more time, resources, and dedication than the average bird owner is willing to invest (and I would not deride them for abstaining), that does not mean that no one can or should pursue it.  Of course, there is a line to be drawn.  It would be absurd, unfair, and even cruel to take a pet bird with limited flight skills, no outdoor desensitisation, and no knowledgeable human trainer, and throw it out the door because “birds deserve to be free”.

Consequently, it is my belief that free flight training is worth the risk provided we minimise that risk to the fullest extent we can.  This means being mentored and coached by someone with knowledge and experience, researching the ethology of the species you intend to fly as thoroughly as possible, speaking with people who have successfully (or unsuccessfully) flown that species to learn what works and what does not, and pouring your heart, mind, and soul into tediously analysing potential risks, training your bird, and arranging the best flight conditions you can to keep your bird safe while they develop their skills.  Free flight is a quest for knowledge and an obsession with perfection; one small mistake can lead to a titanic disaster.  Though I do not consider free flight an activity reserved only for the “bird elite” and career animal trainers (of which I am neither), the average person is simply not cautious, critical, or committed enough for it, as I have sadly come to realise.  The bird is often more qualified for free flight than the human, even in cases where the bird is not particularly well qualified.

One aspect of free flight training which I feel is heavily understated on some of the more popular informative free flight posts is the question of species.  I understand that many experienced free-flyers hesitate to give casual readers the impression that some species are “easy” to fly.  However, it is true that some species are more easily flown and have a better track record in the free flight community than others.  Large macaws and cockatoos, for example, are flown successfully by many people and objectively experience a greater benefit flying outdoors than small birds.  (This is, by the way, coming from someone who flies small birds.)  They are also much easier to spot and recover.  If someone messages me that they are very interested in pursuing free flight with their baby macaw who is healthy and has fledged normally, my response is quite different from the one I would give a person who messages me wanting to free-fly their previously clipped, five-year-old cockatiel.  There is simply no point arguing that the risk to reward ratio is the same in either case, because it is not.  It is my opinion that the most ethical way of keeping larger parrots going forward will be to free-fly them.  I believe that it will, at some point, become mainstream.

It is likewise misleading to write off all small birds as unsuitable for free flight training.  Some smaller species have excellent track records, especially when flown in flocks.  Some smaller species have unknown, vague, or dubious reputations.  Some smaller species have been successfully flown in flocks, coming and going from an aviary like pigeons often do, but have not proven successful in small numbers and/or away from their home territory.  (Budgies, for anyone curious, fall into the “aviary-based flock” category.  Due to their natural tendencies, budgies cannot be flown in the same manner as many of the larger species.)  Data is lacking not just for small birds, but for other species as well.  There are some species which excel when flown under certain conditions but do very poorly if those conditions are not met.  There are some species which people say make poor candidates but which we actually have very little documentation on as free-flyers.  Of course, I do understand that the definition of “success” in this context is subjective.  To the people who vehemently oppose free flight, I am sure that even one bird of a given species lost or killed in the activity’s entire history would render that species unsuccessful.  I personally think of success as maintaining a relatively low incidence of permanent loss or death: the lower the incidence, the higher the rate of success.  This is never going to be zero, just as the chance of totalling one’s car or being killed in an accident while driving is never going to be zero.

My point here is that free flight training is not a blanket concept that can be indiscriminately applied to every parrot.  Some species are easier to free-fly, some are harder to free-fly, some can be free-flown relatively safely under specific conditions, and some species might be able to free-fly relatively safely under specific conditions, but we have no idea what those conditions are.  Even beyond species, there are so many more factors to take into consideration.  Age, developmental background, native birds/birds of prey, location selection, flying solo or with a flock, and even genetics all play a role in determining the level of risk a bird will be exposed to while free-flying.  (More on this later.)  Do you really want to “self-teach” or “learn from the internet”, never knowing if you might be missing a critical piece of information which could cause you to lose your bird forever AND damage the reputation of free flight as a whole?

There are some very well-tested methods and guidelines for flying many species, yet so many people choose to reinvent the wheel by pursing this avenue of “self-teaching” or “learning from the internet”, usually subjecting their bird to incredible risk as a result.  How do you think the most experienced free flight mentors learned lessons about what works and what doesn’t?  The road to building our current free flight knowledge has been paved with devastatingly hard lessons.  It is understandable that, when an activity is in its infancy, there will be issues and failures.  However, we should learn from the hard lessons of others so that we can make free flight safer, not repeat unnecessary mistakes because we are too lazy, proud, or impatient.  I lost my first bird trying to self-teach/learn from the internet.  I did not secure a mentor and therefore did not do everything in my power to pursue free flight training safely and responsibly.  I cannot even find comfort in the thought that I did everything according to recommendations, because I sought none.  I want to prevent you from experiencing such a tragedy.

This is one reason why a mentor, research, and discourse with experienced free-flyers is important.  There are too many people, especially teens and young adults, trying to free-fly whatever bird they have at home by watching videos on Facebook and Youtube, often emulating cringe-worthy practices such as hurling inexperienced birds into the air to force them to fly.  Sure, sometimes it works out, usually because they happen to have a species that tends to be forgiving and more easily trained.  But when it doesn’t…?  You don’t often hear about it; most people don’t want to deal with ridicule on top of shame and grief.  I know I never posted about it back then.

Species is just one factor which influences if/how a bird can be free-flown.  Early development, as many free-flyers will tell you, is another.  If a bird does not learn to fly at the natural age, brain development is altered.  (I discuss early development in more detail here.)  It will be substantially more difficult and dangerous to train such a bird for free flight.   I am a big proponent of rehabilitating birds and teaching them to free-fly whenever possible, and I have done this myself.  It is often a difficult journey, however, and success is dictated even more heavily by species than it is under normal circumstances.  Do not buy a clipped baby bird with the intention of free-flying it.  The number of times I see this is staggering, and it fills me with deep exasperation.  A bird flying outdoors must have the best mechanical skills possible so that it can successfully navigate, contend with the wind, and avoid predators.  If we are getting a baby bird for free flight, why would we choose one whose development has been stunted by a disability?  I would argue that it is much easier and safer to train a fully flighted adult bird who has never been clipped than it is to train a baby bird who was clipped before fledging.

If you already have a clipped baby bird, seek help from an experienced mentor.  Feather imping is an option which may ameliorate the situation.  But, if you have the choice, raise a baby bird yourself or get a baby bird who has fledged normally and been afforded every flight opportunity possible.  There is contention over whether a free-flight bird should be raised by the future trainer or the breeder.  My opinion is that either can work well; the environment in which the bird is raised and the normal development of its flight skills are more important.  Co-parented and parent-raised birds have also been taught to free-fly successfully.

Though I have already written a great deal, I have barely grazed the tip of the iceberg.  (You can find my attempt to list a great many free flight variables here.)  My intention is neither to persuade nor dissuade people who are interested in free flight, but to offer some indication of how complicated it is.  I can tell you right now that if you are inexperienced, you cannot discern whether your bird is a good candidate, you cannot discern if/when your bird will be ready for its first outdoor training session, you cannot adequately arrange or even know the best conditions for your bird to fly outdoors, and you cannot guarantee that nothing will go wrong.  Do not play Russian roulette with your bird’s life.  I hope that in reading this more people will pursue mentors and fewer people will lose their birds in totally preventable ways.

If you are sold on getting a mentor, you’re probably wondering where to find one.  In general, when someone messages me wanting to get into free flight training, I do a few things.  1.) I ask the person where they are located to see if I can reach out to an experienced mentor/free-flyer in their region, particularly one who has experience with the species the person wants to fly.  2.) If no suitable in-person mentor is available, I usually suggest an online mentorship with me or one of the other trainers listed in the resource section below.  3.) I ask about the bird’s species, age, developmental background, and flight status; if it sounds like the bird is going to be subjected to a higher risk than what can normally be expected, I tell the person directly.  In some cases, I tell the person I just don’t recommend it.  In others, I tell the person I simply do not know enough to make a judgement call and refer them to someone else who may.  I am not a veteran, but I am in touch with people who are, so I try to use the knowledge I have gained from them to guide others.  I am also in touch with relatively new free-flyers who have nonetheless gathered valuable insight from their experiences.  Every piece of information, when interpreted as a part of the overall picture, is important for achieving a better understanding of free flight.

Think about it carefully and have a look at the resources below.  If you are still interested in free flight training and have questions, let me know and I will be happy to answer them or refer you to someone who can.  Though some may disagree with this “open door” philosophy, I believe that honest discourse is the key to preventing reckless free flight.  Free-flyers do not often mention specific accidents or catastrophes when discouraging others from free-flying in public posts, and that is completely understandable.  However, I find that these stories are exactly what communicate the gravity of pursuing free flight most effectively.  If we paint free flight training as something arcane and inaccessible to all but a chosen few, preaching about the dangers while giddily posting pictures and videos of our birds free-flying, the average bird owner will regard us as snobs and never heed our words of caution.  Likewise, if we are too optimistic and imply that anyone or any bird can do it, we are promoting an unrealistic view of free flight and may encourage people to do things that will lead to disaster.  Ultimately, no matter what we do, the decision is up to the individual.  The best we can do is to inform them.

Additional Reading/Viewing

Remember to read my “Free Flight Variables” page (if you haven’t already) to understand why you need a mentor: https://parrotvolancy.com/free-flight-variables/

Here is a thorough discussion on free flight by veteran free-flyer Hillary Hankey of Avian Behavior International: Part 1 | Part 2

This is a commentary on free flight by veteran free-flyer Chris Shank of Cockatoo Downs: Part 1 | Part 2

Veteran free-flyer Chris Biro of Liberty Wings has several articles about free flight available on his website: https://www.libertywings.com/articles/

One man tells the poignant true story of how he lost his bird while trying to train her for free flight by using internet research: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKlxjZQUueQ

TielZone, an experienced at-liberty cockatiel free-flyer, offers his genuine thoughts in answering the question “Should you train your cockatiel for free flight?”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WSIJgTf0No  This topic obviously hits close to home for me, and I feel he handles it very well.

Free Flight Training Mentors & Courses (Online)

Online Mentorship With Me (Focus on Small Birds and Rehab)

I am now offering online mentorships, particularly for those wishing to fly smaller species or previously flight-restricted birds (clipped wings, cagebound, etc.)  For a better idea of my training experience, please check out my Instagram, where I have been documenting my free flight journey over the past five years.  I have personally trained several species, including cockatiels, GCCs, galahs, and a 15-year-old cagebound cockatoo.  Additionally, here is a video of some of my mentees who started free-flying in 2020 (an update video with those and new mentees is in progress).  My teaching style is more informal rather than lecture-based, meaning I work with you and your bird step by step and according to your needs.  We also have a Discord server (a kind of chat group, for those unfamiliar) where I, some of my free-flyer friends, my mentees, and my patrons all talk to one another.  If interested, please e-mail me at parrotvolancy@gmail.com.  You can also message me on Facebook or Instagram (@parrotvolancy).

Flighted Feathers Online Course (A Must for Australians!)

I highly recommend Brisbane-based free flight trainer Maddy Stoneman of Flighted Feathers.  Maddy is an outstanding trainer who has successfully trained a variety of species, large and small, to free-fly in one of the most challenging natural environments in the world.  You can also follow her on Facebook and Instagram (@flightedfeathers).  Note: If you are Australian, GO WITH MADDY!  She has years of first-hand experience with the challenges of flying alongside some of the most aggressive native species and an extensive host of predators.

Liberty Wings Online Course

For those interested in free flight training and who understand the gravity of this undertaking, I highly recommend Chris Biro’s Liberty Wings course.  This online course offers an educational, science-based starting point for anyone looking to begin their free flight journey.  The course combines concepts in biology, behaviour, and animal training that I believe most bird owners would benefit from learning.  Liberty Wings students can be found all over the world and fly a variety of parrot species.  By using the course Facebook group, you can seek advice and support from Chris’ past students, which is how I met many of the free-flyers I am now friends with.  Chris also offers a week-long, in-person, private free flight course; you can check the pricing for this on his website.

Note: Though most of Chris’ course will apply to countless parrot species, the location selection aspect is more tailored towards macaws and cockatoos.  Please contact me if you are considering flying a smaller species as there are some adjustments I strongly recommend.

Gone Free Flying Online Video-Based Course

Queensland, Australia

For those interested in free flight in Queensland, Australia, I highly recommend Brisbane-based free flight trainer Maddy Stoneman of Flighted Feathers.  Maddy is an outstanding trainer who has successfully trained a variety of species, large and small, to free-fly in one of the most challenging natural environments in the world.  You can also follow her on Facebook and Instagram (@flightedfeathers).

Queensland, Australia

[Note: Kaya appears to not currently be offering mentorships, but she has laid the groundwork for a multitude of other trainers, so I am leaving her up out of respect.  Maddy, listed above, has worked with her!]  For those interested in free flight in Queensland, Australia, I highly recommend Brisbane-based free flight trainer Kaya Klaw of Feathers for Flight.  Kaya is a highly skilled trainer who started flying species like Alexandrines, eclectuses, and African greys when other people said it couldn’t be done successfully.  You can also follow her on Instagram (@feathers.for.flight).

London, UK

For those interested in free flight in the UK, I highly recommend posting on the Parrot Harness & Free Flight UK Facebook group; there is a very active and supportive community of free-flyers there.  Experienced macaw free-flyer Chucky is now offering mentorships for those in London!  Message him on Instagram if interested (@chucky_bw).

Scotland, UK

Cape Town, South Africa

Guide to Finding a Free Flight Trainer by Mikey the Macaw & Friends