Our military macaw has always struggled with flying well. Mostly because he would spook and panic if he missed his first attempt at a landing, and end up crashing. We tried training him in a flight aviary where he could learn on his own time, we tried batting cages, we tried having him watch birds that were good at it and learning from them (observational learning) we tried indoor, outdoor, little space, lots of space, cageless space, everything! Anything to develop his skills. Let me tell you it was very slow going. His disadvantage was being clipped when he was young and never learning to fly when he would have naturally learned in the wild. Luckily, the passion stayed with him to learn. 6.5 years later... maybe it has been 7... He is finally retrying his flights! This is something baby birds naturally do, they keep trying and they go around again and again until they figure it out or run out of steam. It took this long for Crash to finally get to this stage and we are so proud of him! This is a huge breakthrough and we're so excited to use it to work him into the show eventually for he can show his skills off for thousands of people. See what exercising your bird on an often basis can do for his confidence? We are so excited. More videos of his breakthrough on our youtube here.

Article by Jamieleigh Womach. She has been working with parrots and toucans since the age of 17. She isn’t homeless but is home less than she prefers to be. She travels the world with her husband, daughter, and a flockful of parrots whom she shares the stage with.