Oliver’s first free-flight is next week!

I am so excited that my sun conure Oliver is finally going to free-fly outside, hopefully flocking with my macaw Endymion. At least that’s what I envision. Endymion has been been free-flying for a year now and he is really good flying solo or flocking with other macaws. Now, can you imagine a big bird and a little bird that looks alike flying together in the skies? So beautiful and special!

Oliver has been ready to go go outside for at least 6 months, but I couldn’t make it to “his free-flying graduation” location and my mentor suggested to wait until the next one so he could be present. Well, Oliver’s free flying graduation is happening next week in the deserts of California.

How do you know he is ready?

Someone asked me this question on facebook earlier. As I mention, Oliver has been ready to fly outside for a while but I was waiting for my mentor’s availability for this trip. I know, however, that he has been ready for a while because of how strong our bond is, and how well he responds to certain commands. Bond-wise, Oliver would fly from anywhere in the house to where I am. He just follows me around every time he is out. Yes, he comes to me for food too but also seeking protection and love. Training-wise, he can successfully respond to recalls and he can play hide and seek which is a great game for potential free-flyers since the bird has to find you without seeing you, only by following your voice. That’s very helpful in case he gets lost or when there’s obstacles in the way. Oliver would also allow me to put a GPS system in his tail if I have to and he would willingly get into his carrier when I ask. All those are very helpful commands to make my life easier in the open air.

The free-flying graduation with Birdtricks

I picked Birdtricks as my mentor for Oliver’s free-flying process. They’ve been working with birds for many years and are passionate about training birds, as an alternative to the old -sad- school of thought that is “clipping their wings”. We worked for a couple of months, step by step, to get to where we are today. There’s a lot of components to get a bird ready for free-flying such as diet, sleeping habits, flying training, reinforcing behaviors, etc.

Next week is going to be fun. Birdtricks picked a beautiful valley in Southern California for the event. It’s in the desert so we will have plenty of visibility and no many trees to worry about. Hopefully the winds will cooperate. Oliver and I won’t be alone. There are two other parrots graduating at the same time and many other birds from previous graduations are joining us later.

I know Oliver can’t wait to do it. I’ve been taking him out in his carrier to see Endymion fly outside my property and he gets really excited. He is also scared because birds can sense danger and there many threats outside. Every time he sees a bird on the sky (mostly vultures and craws) he alerts me in a very loud screech. Let’s see what happens!