Sun Conure First Flights Outdoors
5 June 2010
21 Comments
11 Week old sun conure “Snicket” makes first outdoor flights with Susan Hilliard and Chris Biro. Don’t try this without proper training.
11 Week old sun conure “Snicket” makes first outdoor flights with Susan Hilliard and Chris Biro. Don’t try this without proper training.
@demmylowther I appreciate your concern. It is very important that a bird owner understand what is involved with flight training parrots before trying this. I have 25+ parrots fully flight trained who at times spend every day, 8:00AM-6-8:00PM loose out doors on our property in Moab Utah. We also take them flying in other complex locations. I hope you will watch some of our other videos to see what is possible with pet parrots if you do your training correctly before letting them lose outdoors.
You guys are taking a awefully big chance .As much as my sun loves me,he would take off and get disorientated.Your better off cutting his flight feathers if you want to take him out
be careful of hawks!
lol – that would be funny if someone new tried this with a $1000+ parrot…and watched it fly away.
wow! thats awesome. I just got my sun conure from pet world and its 9 months old. how can i start training it?
If you do your training correctly, you should not need to worry about fly offs. The older bird does have some disadvantages but if it is motivated to learn to fly, then it can become a good flyer. If it is a small bird like a conure, then it can do a lot of flying indoors as compared to a macaw. Small birds all can become great indoor flyers. You still need to be prepared for outdoor adventures though so recall is important as is time spent in a cage outdoors. Chris
@chrisbiro1 I would be afraid my bird would fly off and not return. It is more difficult for a older bird to learn to fly to you.
do you guys vaccinate your parrots? Do you recommend vaccinating them
Flying off from you is not prevented because the bird trusts you. It certainly helps that the bird has a built in desire to stay close to mom when first learning to fly but this will fade over time and will only prevent fly offs to a certain degree. But this is a very useful tool to help you while you do the training that will keep the bird with you as it gets older. Do not think though that hand feeding alone will prevent fly offs. It won’t. Good training will. See my website for more info.
I agree, but most breeders wont sell you unweaned parrots if you never had to rase one before. The reason I would thing the bird will trust you more is because you bin feeding it from day one and it thinks your its mother, and wont ever try to run off on you.
Yes you can train an weaned baby parrot to fly. It is my personal opinion though that there are significant reasons it is best the baby parrot does this early pre-weaning development in your home, rather than in the environment most breeders keep them. There are many mental and social development things going on at this age that I believe are best accomplished in the environment the bird will live its life. You will give it an environment and care the breeder cannot. Chris
thanks for the reply Chris, I also wanted to know if in order for the parrot to trust me outdoors I need to raise him from basically an unweaned bird? I would prefer to get the bird when it is already weaned.
I have not had a Caique but I have flown several Senegals. There are some species that present less favorable traits for flying as pets. These are not always obvious to people. An example would be how african greys in many ways look like a pigeon. Since hawks enjoy hunting pigeons that could be a problem. Less social parrots like indian ringnecks will be more difficult to influence without heavy food management. I like large, loud and colorful social birds. Macaws are great this way. Chris
one more thing, can you free flight any parrot? Like Caiques or Senegal?
this is awesome, I want to get a sun conure and train it to free fly. Do I need to get a baby and hand feed it in order for it to trust me on free flight? Do you hand rase all your parrots that you take out for free flight?
that is just beautiful
What do you use to reinforce him?
Great work guys
I own a sun conure and I absolutley love him and he loves me and I would be so afraid to do this with him outside becuase of the thought he might just fly away forever
(( And I live in phoenix AZ so I dont know if he did get loose he would last very long out in the wild since he is extremely domesticated. I have him trained to fly to me on command inside the house (I have to make sure all the fans are off and other things to make sure he is safe) and he does just fine zipping around.
Oh, this is too funny! Often we release 25 trained parrots to fly around the property at 8:00 AM – 8:00 PM, most every day. I have been doing this for nearly 20 years. Anyone who has ever seen them comments how exuberant they are when out flying. We have the most survival savvy birds in the country. The methods that we are developing may someday prove useful in reintroducing domestically raised parrots into wild habitat. To me this is the most responsible way to keep parrots. Chris
I have an 8 month old green cheek conure that i’ve been toying with the idea of flying. I have absolutely no idea how to go about doing this but would love any advice you might be able to offer.
Aww! I love conures, I have one myself named Paco. He’s about 3 years old [=
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