Learn to Free Fly Your Parrot!

 

We are now accepting applications to our freeflight course. Please email Kim, our freeflight coordinator, at info@birdtricks.com for more information as well as a copy of the application. Thank you! 

What is the Freestyle Flyer's Club?

The Freestyle Flyer's Club is a group of bird lovers from around the world who have successfully and safely trained their birds for outdoor freeflight by BirdTricks trainers, and come together multiple times per year to fly their birds at breathtaking places.

Why do you fly your birds outside when there are so many risks?

Birds are designed for flight, so who are we to take that away from them? We believe in giving our birds the freedom of flight for their health; mental and physical. When you are able to witness this experience first hand, you will have a new understanding of what this means to both human and bird.

As part of our flight course at the Freestyle Flyer's Club, we teach about the risks in freeflight and highly advocate risk management. This means we minimize the risks as much as possible regarding our parrots' safety by knowing our predators as well as we know our own birds, flying at the proper time of day, picking our time of year and seasons accordingly, choosing the safest locations to fly and traveling there to do so... and very importantly, never forcing a bird who doesn't want to fly, to fly.

Can I do this with MY bird?

It's never our intention to encourage the average bird owner to go outside with their bird and see if it will come back. We not only have a strong relationship with our flock, but the ground work of training is in place as well.

This course takes a minimum of 4-8 weeks (in most cases) though some clients may take 3-4 months. We highly advise against training your bird for outdoor freeflight without guidance from a proper trainer.

If you are looking for a place to start with indoor skills, consider joining us over on Patreon where we have an entire BirdTricks Tuesday video series on ALL aspects of flight training ranging from, but not limited to:

  • Flight training baby birds
  • Flight training OLDER birds
  • Flight training clipped birds (yes, it's possible, but there's different rules!)
  • The perfect recall
  • Off limit locations
  • Random rewarding
  • Inconsistency vs consistency and when to use both

How much does this freeflight course cost?

Please inquire for price with us at info@birdtricks.com with ATTN: KIM for more information about how to get started! 

We do not offer freeflight advice on a consult-by-consult basis. You MUST enroll in the entire course to receive outdoor freeflight training from us and we require being present for the first few days of outdoor flying. This is for the success and safety of our students and their birds.

What age does a parrot have to be to learn to free fly? 

When starting with a bird of the age it would naturally fledge in the wild, it is much easier because you are working with nature within your training (the bird naturally wants to fly and does not need much encouragement to do so).

With older birds we end up spending most of our time breaking current bad habits and enticing the bird to want to fly, and understanding the concept that flight is a means of transportation.

However, the age of your bird does not matter as all birds are capable of learning at any age. Even previously clipped, currently plucked, or older birds can learn how to free fly. 

Check out 35 year old Storm, the blue fronted amazon parrot Jamieleigh taught to free fly: 

When accidents happen...

Every day we receive emails, videos, posters, etc. of birds who have accidentally gotten outside and are lost (usually for days at a time - imagine losing your bird for 4-5 days!). Some have happy endings and find their way back home, others we never hear about again.

At BirdTricks we strongly believe that if indoor/outdoor recall training was implemented that every bird that got outside would have the proper skills and ability to come back to their human companions.

Pet birds that get outside don't fly away because they don't want to come back to you, they fly away because they don't know how to come back to you.

Although birds are designed for flight, they don't naturally just know how to do it and do it well at any age. They have to learn and master the skills properly and outdoor flying is much different than indoor (wind, distractions, predators, stimulus overload, etc.)

Be prepared by having the proper training already in place. You won't believe the level it can take your relationship with your bird to.

Have you ever lost a bird?

We haven't ever lost one of our birds to death via free flight. We've also not had to recover lost birds that were trained using our course. 

Do we use GPS?

We have teamed up with Marshall Radio Telemetry and GPS to offer the BirdTricks package from Marshall! Be sure to enter the promo code BIRDTRICKS upon checkout on the Marshall website, or via phone when making your purchase to receive the BirdTricks package, which includes a dummy unit that is indestructible. It allows you to train your bird to get accustomed to wearing the unit, without the risk of ruining your real unit.

This collaboration is something we are so excited to offer our students - if they do not have their own unit, we help them to learn the system by using our own devices on their bird on the initial flight trip outside. The data we are able to compile from this system is bar none! We can tell the distance flown, the speed and so much more. It's a great way to gain important data to improve your bird's skills and ability throughout the course. Want to know more? Check out the following videos:

  1. How to use the Marshall x BirdTricks GPS on a parrot
  2. How to use the Marshall x BirdTricks GPS on a parrot part 2

Order your Marshall GPS BirdTricks Package here... don't forget your BIRDTRICKS code!

Where can I see more?

Check out some of our freeflight students: 

Where do I sign up for this course?

Simply email us at info@birdtricks.com to arrange your initial consultation and check availability for this course.