So you’ve decided to train a bird for freeflight and now you need to select a suitable bird for hand-rearing. The last thing you want to concern yourself with at this point is price, yes, cost is important but there are several things to consider. Getting the healthiest most robust chick you can is primary. The freeflying bird will have a more demanding life than a bird that has it’s wings clipped and spends its time indoors.

You may encounter breeders that are very reluctant to sell you an unweaned bird. This is understandable since most people raising birds are rather selective about where their birds go; this is a good thing and can work in your favor as someone who is scrutinizing potential buyers is likely doing so because they don’t want their babies going to just anyone.

Make sure you have done your homework and can give a brief overview on how you will be training your bird and where your reference material is coming from. Be prepared to offer a referral on where your support for the training is coming from. Read the articles on the Liberty Wings website and partake in discussions on the freeflight list. If you have a seasoned veteran who is going to help you, provide that reference.

A healthy bird, regardless of species will have similar traits, it will be fat and have plump, pink, pliant skin. Its extremities will be fat. The ends of the wings will look plump. The bird will have a fat belly. Fat, healthy chicks will appear very content most of the time. They don’t behave as though they are uncomfortable or agitated. They have plenty of calories in reserve and will sort of loll from side to side. The overall picture is one of comfort and well being, the eyes will be clear and bright, their breathing will be steady and clear, their skin will be pink and pliant, they will have a healthy feeding response but will not cry or beg incessantly. They will rock gently and fall asleep easily.

It should not appear excessively hungry; birds that climb over each other and beg incessantly could either be too hungry or have a bacterial infection that is causing them to not absorb all the nutrients they need from their food. Healthy, well fed chicks will have a doughy consistency and appear relaxed. The eyes (once open) will be clear and bright and there will be no discharge from the nostrils or any goop in the mouth. The chick should be clean and well cared for with no dried food or feces caked anywhere.

There should be no foul smell to the droppings and breathing should be clear and steady, never labored or any signs of wheezing or clicking. Birds with red hectic looking skin, heads that seem large for the size of the body or any signs of boney extremities should be avoided. These birds are likely stunted, may have been sick and fallen behind or are in the process of becoming sick. Walk away from birds like this. A bird that is going to be living as a free flyer should start off with everything going in its favor. This is not a time for sympathy or charity.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions; you are interviewing for a very important companion. Be selective. Ask for Veterinary references as well as previous customers. Someone who has a lot of birds coming and going through their collection is at a higher risk of disease outbreak than someone who keeps a closed collection with good Veterinary support. Be cautious of someone doing a lot of buying, selling and trading especially if they tell you they have done so for years and never had a problem.

So now you have a breeder picked out and you are comfortable that you will be getting a healthy chick. You need to be prepared for that chick.

Once you bring a new bird home keep it quarantined from any other birds you have. 30-60 days is a reasonable amount of time.

When everything goes smoothly, handfeeding can seem very simple but there are things that can go wrong and to avoid a catastrophic situation you should understand some of the
potential problems and how to avoid them.

The supplies you need should all be on hand before you ever consider bringing the chick home.

You need something to keep the chick housed in and the options range from a cardboard box with shavings and newspaper up to thermostatically controlled environments. A chick that is 6-8 weeks old will have a fair amount of feathering and be large enough to keep itself warm provided that the ambient temperature is not too low; 70-75 degrees F should be fine in most cases. If the room the chick is kept in gets cooler than that you will need to provide some supplemental heat.
Be mindful that the chick needs to be able to move away from the heat source, so have enough room for it to move in and out of the heated zone. Overheating can stress a bird, dehydrate them or in severe cases burn them.

Two relatively inexpensive ways to provide supplemental heat are 1) A heating pad. If you use a heating pad put the tub, box or brooding container on top of the pad and be sure the bird cannot get to the cord. Only put one end or half of the tub,box etc.. over the pad so the chick can move off of the heat if need be.

2) Ceramic heat bulbs. These screw into a normal light socket but because they produce heat not light they need a ceramic or porcelain socket not plastic. This is easily accomplished because you can buy clamp on portable lights that have a reflector shield and cage. Most hardware stores have them and they are relatively inexpensive. The ceramic bulbs can be purchased from any reptile supply store. These bulbs have been in use in the U.K. for decades and emit only infra-red heat and no light which makes them great for chicks that need to sleep and rest. They are also excellent for a sick or injured bird for the same reason. I use an inline rheostat (dimmer switch) so I can lower or raise the wattage. In this manner you can compensate for ambient temperature fluctuations. It also enables you to buy the largest wattage bulb and run it lower but still have more power (heat) in reserve if you need it. Be sure that this is out of reach of the chick; you don’t want it chewing the cord or getting burned from being able to touch the bulb.

You should know how your chosen method will function before the chick comes home.
Pay particular attention to fire hazards.

You will need an appropriate hand feeding formula. It is best to continue using what the bird is used to; if the chick meets the criteria of a healthy chick then the breeder is doing a great
job, it makes sense to get hands on instruction about mixing and feeding the food and following what they have done. It makes sense to acquire a chick as locally as possible or if you do have to travel plan on spending enough time to go over the details thoroughly. Any breeder who is willing to ship an unweaned chick to a novice should be avoided. You really need some hands-on instruction if you have no experience. Another option is if you have a seasoned veteran nearby who is willing to help you.

You need hand feeding supplies and a way to clean and disinfect them.
There is an article on this site that addresses the different hand feeding methods so we can refer to that. The method you choose should be the one the breeder is currently using and once the chick has made the transition to its new home, only then should you consider changing methods. Ideally you will get step by step instruction from the breeder and visit several times before taking the chick.

Always take your time when feeding; rushing through feeding can cause many problems.

If you try to feed a chick too fast or feed them food that is too cold they can aspirate. This is when a little food gets into their windpipe. It can kill them outright on the spot or cause them to die a slow painful death over several hours, days or weeks and despite any medical treatment you can still lose them. They can also live but develop a secondary infection that invades the air sacs and causes problems later. Take your time; feed the chick at his/her pace and keep the food warm.

I keep a tub of water the same temperature as the formula (105- 106 F) and use it as a water bath to keep my formula warm while feeding. If you are using syringes just leave them in the water bath. If you are using the spoon or cup method a jar or bowl can be placed into the water bath.

All hand feeding supplies that come into contact with the chick or formula need to be cleaned and disinfected between uses. Cleaning and disinfecting is a two step process, washing everything well with soap and water gets everything free of debris and organic matter but it doesn’t stop microbial growth (the bugs you can’t see). Disinfecting can be done in several ways, there are chemicals that work and they work great but should be rotated to prevent resistance. Bacterial counts are all about the numbers. If you kill most but not all and the surviving bugs develop a resistance then you will eventually have a resistant strain of bacteria. It’s the reason we have antibiotic resistant strains of diseases in both human and animal populations. Rather than list all the chemicals, their uses, hazards and shortfalls (that would be a lengthy paper) let me make several suggestions. Ask your local vet what he/she recommends and the availability.
My local feed store carries a couple of good solutions. Make sure they understand that you are using this for feeding utensils as some disinfectants can be quite harmful if ingested in even in very small amounts; be certain to rinse them very well after soaking.

The next components are available just about everywhere, you will need household bleach, distilled white vinegar and water.

To make your solution mix one cup of household bleach, one cup of distilled white vinegar and one gallon of water, this will make a disinfecting solution that is effective at killing just about any bacteria you will likely encounter during hand feeding. Keep in mind that bleach is caustic and it really needs to be rinsed thoroughly.

This solution is for soaking your feeding utensils. Bleach and vinegar work together to make a solution that is much more effective than either of the two components would if used alone.
One other note, bleach is very corrosive and will cause stainless steel to rust when kept in constant contact.

Bleach also dissipates and gets weaker with time and exposure to air, so keep a fresh bottle on hand, keep it tightly sealed and once you mix up your solution keep it in a covered container and change it every
few days.

Another readily available option is boiling or steam sterilizing. Nothing is more volatile or grows bacteria faster than milk and no human baby formula manufacturer, Pediatrician or Nurse would ever recommend a chemical to safely sterilize baby bottles. They recommend a sterilizer. You can buy a very inexpensive baby bottle sterilizer at almost any store that sells other baby supplies, they are inexpensive and very effective. Just follow the manufacturers instructions and use it for your mixing and feeding utensils. Just remember, always clean AND disinfect.

Feeding temperature is very important, birds will refuse food that is too cold and you can burn them if food is too hot. Food that is just marginally too hot can weaken the crop muscle and in time cause problems. There are very inexpensive thermometers available in any kitchen supply store, they are almost always accurate but take the time to check that they are calibrated.

Here is a simple method to check the calibration that can performed quite easily. Pack a glass or jar as full of ice as you can, add cold water and stir well, place your thermometer in it and it should read 32 F. Some thermometers can be calibrated. If so, adjust as per the instructions it came with, otherwise throw it away, or better yet don’t buy one that can’t be returned or calibrated.

Even if you have calibrated your thermometer, formula can be unevenly heated so make sure you keep it well stirred and squeeze some on your wrist to check for excessive heat, if it burns you, it will burn the chick. This all about precautions; take your time.

I have some rather expensive thermometers that I use to measure others against. If you have more than one thermometer and you get different readings it can be difficult to ascertain which one is correct. The method described above will enable you to determine if your thermometer is accurate at 32F. Double checking warm food on a sensitive part of your body will insure that you don’t feed formula that is too hot.

It is important to keep your chick in a low lit, low traffic area to minimize disturbance.
It might at first make sense that birds which are always awake and stimulated and being socialized will be better pets but the reality is that a chick that has not ventured out of it’s tub (read nest cavity) is not ready to be overly socialized. They need to rest in order to grow. A chick in a quiet area will burn fewer calories and grow better. They will be subjected to less stress; everything about hand rearing is in order to minimize stress. Chicks in a low stress environment will be better able to develop a strong immune system.

Baby birds that are not quite warm enough will not only burn more calories trying to keep warm but if they get chilled the food in their system will move slower and that can grow bacteria.
If the hand feeding supplies have not been properly sanitized they could introduce small amounts of bacteria and further exacerbate the problem. Slow crop motility, aka a crop that empties slowly, is not a condition in and of itself; it is a symptom of a larger problem caused by something having not gone quite right. A lot of people think that “sour crop” is a condition but it is the symptom of food having slowed down or stopped because of other stress factors or a bacterial infection that has caused the digestive tract to become inflamed. If you are seeing signs of a slow crop a Vet visit is in order, sooner not later.

Weighing chicks is an excellent indicator of how well things are going. A scale that weighs in grams is an inexpensive investment. Chicks should be weighed at the same time every day, preferably the first thing in the morning with an empty crop. Having an empty crop insures that you are weighing the bird and not the bird plus the formula weight. A partially full crop makes it very difficult to guess how much that amount of food weighs.

Often times a problem will be apparent by a sudden stop or slow down in weight gain.
A chick that has reached a peak growth rate should not be confused with a chick that was rapidly growing and has suddenly stopped. The breeder you chose should be able to give you some guidelines as to what age the species reaches its peak growth rate, how long it stays at the plateau, when it drops weight to fledge, and ultimately how much it should weigh at weaning. These are good numbers to know as they can help ascertain whether the growth/weight loss curve is within normal parameters. You should keep good records so you have them for comparison.

If you follow the above guidelines you can minimize a fair amount of stress but good sanitation is important as well.

The area you keep the chick in should be kept clean and dry. The food itself needs to be kept fresh. No matter how expensive you think formula is, it is a fraction of the cost of dealing with a sick bird. Any formula mixed and not fed should be discarded; it’s really cheap comparatively.
The high grain and protein components used to make most formulas are a breeding ground for yeasts, molds, fungi and bacteria. Feeding food from an earlier feeding or previous day is just asking for trouble. The crop should be allowed to empty completely at least once every 24 hours. The crop empties from the top, so if you are feeding new food on top of old food for too long the food in the crop will ferment and start growing pathogens (bacteria, yeast etc…). You can see why allowing the crop to empty is good practice.

About the time your chick starts venturing out of the security of its nesting environment it will be refusing some food and dropping some weight in anticipation of first flights
and entering the weaning phase.

Weaning is a critical stage because you don’t want to develop the wrong type of dependence. Many novices will try to keep a chick hand feeding long after what would be normal or even worse, wean them too soon.

A chick should be confident and well adjusted in regards to their food. By paying careful attention to how and when they refuse food or beg, you can work within their normal cycles. A chick that was previously at 3 feedings per day prior to venturing out of their tub will generally go to 2 feeds per day. From 2 feeds per day you don’t automatically drop to one feed but rather stay at 2 feeds and gradually reduce the amount fed at each feeding. Some birds will self wean rather quickly and others can take a while. Any bird that cries or begs incessantly may have something low level going on, the formula could be mild enough on their system that it passes just fine but the introduction of solid foods is irritating enough to cause discomfort. A visit to the vet is in order.

A chick that is starting to fly has a real advantage over a chick that is not allowed to fly (fledge) at weaning and will be much more confident and well adjusted than their clipped cousins. Fledging helps greatly with weaning. At this stage you are not withholding any food from your chicks and are introducing them to a wide variety of foods so that they can spend the rest of their lives eating a well balanced diet.

Chicks that are not getting enough hand feeding may be too hungry and will be too distracted to feed themselves. Sometimes a small amount of formula boosts their energy and slows their hunger just enough to get them to feed themselves. An overly hungry chick will flick its wings a lot, stay puffed up and beg incessantly. It generally holds its wings out and sits low on it’s perch. This is a sign of a chick that is too focused on being fed to be trained in any way. Being too hungry can lead to unnatural food associations that can have lasting effects.

A properly fed and weaned chick will demonstrate an air of confidence. When you see that, your bird is ready to start training.

Ray Varellla

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Addendum, Some indications that something could be going wrong:

A chick that is still in rapid growth phase (still in pinfeather stage and has not hit peak growth or plateau stage) fails to gain weight on a couple of consecutive days. It is not unusual for a chick to occasionally have a day where it gains little or no weight but if it have been gaining rapidly and that has not tapered off, a sudden drop in growth rate could be a signal that something is wrong.
Keep a chart where you record weights and amount of food fed.

Droppings have suddenly taken on a strong odor or have started looking much darker despite the chick being fed the same formula in the same/similar quantities. Droppings are an excellent indicator of what is going on with a chick and it is something I have always paid very close attention to. Strong odors can often be a sign of bacterial infection, as can darker than normal droppings. When food goes through a chick at a slower rate the droppings can take on a darker appearance.

If droppings suddenly start becoming much less in volume and the chick is still consuming the same amount of formula that can also be an indication that something is going wrong.
Seek Veterinarian attention and have cultures run for bacterial infection.

Chicks that have trouble getting comfortable and sleeping are likely experiencing some form of discomfort; they could be too hot or too cold. Most chicks that are too hot will pant, they will also hold their wings way out away from their bodies in effort to increase air circulation. Chicks that are too cold will sometimes move around a lot and not go to sleep, wing tips are an excellent indicator of temperature as the extremities will feel cool to the touch. Your lips and eyes (with the lid shut) are really sensitive to temperature and if you touch a chick to either of those areas and they feel cold then they are cold. I always touch chicks to my lips to see if they are warm. This is especially useful in very small chicks but also works very well on the wing tips of larger chicks. Adjust temperature accordingly.

A change in skin color is something to take very seriously as is any bruising under the skin or bleeding from feather shafts. Have your vet on speed dial if you see any of these symptoms.

Chicks that seem to shuffle from one foot to the other and never quite settle down can have a bacterial infection that hasn’t affected how food is going through their system but it is causing them discomfort none the less. Sometimes it’s just an indication of a formula that they may be sensitive to and it is hard on their digestive tract. This is a situation that needs Veterinarian expertise. A sudden change in behavior from a chick that was previously well needs diagnosis.

Inspect the feet regularly, paper towels or shredded paper can cause very tiny (almost invisible to the naked eye) cuts in their feet and they will stomp and shuffle. The reason this is bad is because they can develop a bacterial infection from stepping on their droppings, even though your sanitation is good. Watch for strings and threads getting tangled if you are using towels, wash cloths, diapers or other material that could wrap around an extremity. A chick could lose a toe, wing or get strangled.

Any sort of discharge is bad and a wet mouth is not normal. If you open a chick’s mouth and see any sort of sticky moisture that is not good. Healthy birds do not produce mucous.
Seek Veterinarian care.

Be very thorough about wiping formula off of the chick. Some chicks will spit up when they are nearing fledging; they are just not needing as much food. Dried food stuck to their feathers is harder to remove than fresh food. Pay close attention to food inside the mouth and on the beak, below the upper mandible. Dried food under the upper mandible can cause a beak to grow unevenly. Food left inside the mouth can grow bacteria. A little cleanup with a Q-tip dipped in warm water or the corner of a napkin, towel etc… goes a long way towards preventing a problem.
Be in the practice of doing this at every feeding.

Speaking of chicks spitting up, while it s not abnormal for some chicks to spit up and shake their heads when they get close to weaning a bird that does this all of the time could have something wrong, particularly if it results in weight loss. Get Veterinarian care.

Chicks that appear listless and don’t have a strong feeding response could just be sleeping and need a few seconds to wake up but if this persists it can be an indication that they are not well.
When I wake up a sleeping chick to feed them I will talk to them and gently tap or lightly rub them with my forefinger. Touching the corners of their mouths will stimulate a feeding response. Never feed a chick that is not demonstrating a strong feeding response, it is too easy to aspirate them. Some species of parrots have less feeding response than others. You should be familiar with the feeding response of your species of parrot.

A crop that suddenly does not empty as quickly as it previously did is an indication that something could be going wrong. Since you will already be in the habit of weighing the chick daily, be sure to record the amount of food they take. This will aid in determining if they are gradually eating less because they are close to fledging or if they are in fact not emptying at a normal rate.

Problems caused by formula that is just marginally too thick may take several days to become apparent. If the chick is using more fluid than is available the solids will slow down digestion and create a secondary condition (slow crop, bacterial infection). If this happens you need to see a Veterinarian. Follow the instruction that come with your formula.

A sudden change in breathing is a sign that things are going wrong. Heavy labored breathing, wheezing or clicking and gaping or gasping are all signs that you need to see a vet.
Food that gets into the chick’s airway passage is very serious. This can be avoided by taking your time and only feed at the rate the chick is swallowing. Never flood their mouth.
Over filling a chick can cause them to aspirate some formula as can feeding formula that is too thin. This is why you want some hands on instruction.

Sneezing can be an indication that something is going wrong. Sometimes birds sneeze for the same reasons we do but if it is persistent you need a Veterinary evaluation.

This is by no means a complete list but it covers the basics and should help you understand how to avoid some of the common pitfalls and mistakes.

Ray Varella

Identifying hawk species can be tricky. It takes study and practice. I’ve included a link below to a good educational hawk identification presentation. It is a 42 Mb Power Point presentation so can take awhile to download. If you are like me, you will need to review this several times and fairly often.

HMANA ID Presentation Download Link

For more information here are some good books for learning to identify hawks:

Hawks from Every Angle: How to Identify Raptors In Flight
by Jerry Liguori and David Sibley

Hawks in Flight: The Flight Identification of North American Migrant Raptors
by Sibley, Sutton, Dunne

A Photographic Guide to North American Raptors
by Brian Wheeler and William Clark

The question is often asked “Is it important to offer a treat every time you click a behavior?”

Yes it is important to follow each click with a treat. The clicker only gains its value as a training tool due to the association the animal makes with the sound of the clicker and the following treat. Fail to deliver the treat and the effectiveness of the clicker will diminish.

This is different than choosing not to click a correct behavior and thus not reinforcing that correct behavior – see also the article on Variable Reinforcement. The click serves three main functions:

1. The click identifies the exact moment the animal did something that earned it a goody.
2. The click promises a goody has been earned and is on its way.
3. The click signals the end of the behavior.

A click is a bridging signal and it means something very specific to the animal, otherwise it is of no value. That is the concept behind what is termed a secondary reinforcer (or conditioned reinforcer). The secondary reinforcer gains its reinforcing value from being paired with another reinforcer – either a primary reinforcer (unconditioned reinforcer) or another secondary reinforcer. The primary reinforcer needs no pairing with another reinforcer to have reinforcement effect. If you use the secondary reinforcer and fail to offer the following reinforcement, then essentially you are undoing the pairing and at some point your secondary reinforcer will have no value any more or at minimum will have weakened value. It may cease to function as a secondary reinforcer.

Failing to follow the click with the promised treat will diminish the value and effect of the click as a training tool.

I was just going over some material I have from Marion and Bob Bailey and noticed the following. Due to past discussion I have had with other trainers of what qualifies a reinforcer as a primary or secondary reinforcer I am posting this quote. Some have previously insisted that social interests and play interests are secondary reinforcers because they are ‘learned’. I have disagreed on the grounds that the fact that they are learned is not part of the definition, and that the only consideration that really matters as per the definition is the inherent reinforcement value and not needing to be paired with another reinforcer to gain reinforcement effect. Notice here that they specifically and very clearly include play and social activities as primary reinforcers. Again the defining issue is NOT about being “learned”, it is about having reinforcement value without associative pairing with some other reinforcing stimuli.

“The behaviors we have been examining here are typical of what goes on in the case of the so called primary reinforcing stimuli. These are stimuli that are usually associated with basic biological necessities such as food, drink, a mate, the young, body comforts. Primary reinforcers also include other natural, built-in, often preferred behavior patterns that the organism engages in spontaneously. These include social contacts and social activities, play and “exercise” behaviors, exploration. We may also identify here the primary punishing stimuli, or primary aversive stimuli. These are punishers or aversive stimuli that are naturally painful or unpleasant — natural objects or events that the organism in question would tend to avoid if possible.”

~ Marion and Bob Bailey.

Marion Bailey not only had her Ph.D. but also had the experience of being one of B.F. Skinners grad students and she also had the experience of training thousands of animals through her company Animal Behavior Enterprises (ABE). Her scientifically reviewed paper, Misbehavior of Organisms, written by Marion and Keller Breland (her first husband), had significant impact on the world of operant conditioning. Bob Bailey, as the general manager of ABE, also knew B. F. Skinner and trained thousands of animals. In my personal opinion there is currently no one with equivalent credentials on behavioral subjects than Marion and Bob Bailey.

Misbehavior of Organisms is a short paper that is well worth the time it takes to read it. I would highly encourage everyone interested in animal training to become familiar with this paper. It emphasizes that operant conditioning is only part of the behavior equation, with evolution and instinct being critically important.

PRIMARY REINFORCERS

Reinforcers that are not dependent on their association with other reinforcers. (Compare secondary reinforcers.)

I would prefer the term ‘Non-Dependent Reinforcer’ over primary reinforcer but this is not a commonly used term.

SECONDARY REINFORCERS

Reinforcers that are dependent on their association with other reinforcers. Also called conditioned reinforcers. (Compare primary reinforcers.)

CONDITIONED REINFORCER (S,)

A stimulus that initially has no reinforcing properties but, through occurring simultaneously with unconditioned or strongly conditioned reinforcers, acquires reinforcing properties. Also called secondary reinforcer.

I would prefer the term ‘Dependent Reinforcer’ over secondary reinforcer but this is not a commonly used term.

For more on how to actually use positive reinforcement in training, read the articles Positive Reinforcement and Clicker Training and Target Training.

Written By Chris Biro, Copyright 20 November 2010

Not all species of parrots are equally good flight candidates. Some have physical features that make them better (large, loud and colorful) and some have mental features that make them better (highly social with strong roosting site fidelity). No doubt other species that don’t have these qualities can also be flown, but I would consider them only for trainers with some experience. In my mind, Greys, Senegals Cockatiels fit into that class. That is why I have not spent money to buy and fly an African Grey. If someone gave me a baby Grey I would of course fly it. But I won’t spend money to buy a bird that does not match my criteria for best flight candidate.

There are two main factors I consider when selecting a parrot species to fly outdoors: recoverability and hawk avoidance.

Without any doubt a large, loud and colorful bird is easier to find in a tree or see or hear at a distance. That makes large macaws and large cockatoos good flyers from a recovery stand point.

The smaller parrots are more susceptible to hawk attack simply because there are more hawks around that eat smaller birds. Larger birds like macaws have fewer hawk species to worry about than does smaller or medium size bird like a conure or a grey. To fly these smaller birds we prefer to fly them in flocks for greater protection from hawks.

A Freeflight list member wrote: “I am amazed at how close he stays to me when flying. He never goes more than 100 yards out or 15 yards up even if he has miles of space. I imagine this is because Sun Conures are flock birds and don’t feel comfortable away from the trusted crowd. I have several questions:’

Your observations match ours in that sun conures do not appear to like to fly solo out in the open. If you think of them as little yellow targets, then it would make sense with such bright coloration, they must have some other method of protecting themselves. Such an alternate method may be numbers. Ours seem to be quite happy to fly out in the open, leaving the trees in a flash to fly out over the valley as a gyrating mass of up to 22 birds (11 of our flock are sun conures). With more birds, you have more eyes watching for predators, means earlier detection. Early detection is the key to evading a hunter that relies on surprise to catch its prey. Once up to speed and out in the open sky, most prey birds can actually out fly the larger predator birds. But that takes peak physical fitness and adequate warning to reach top speed prior to the predator making contact. Perches with good height and adequate space to take off in all directions is one element. But having a group of equally alert buddies is probably the most helpful.

“What birds do best?”

I am not quite sure what you are asking here. Do best at what? If you mean do best at being outdoor flyers, I would say we really do not have enough data to make such comparisons. But we can report what birds thus far have seemed to do well and which have shown some potential problems. Macaws, and conures seem to respond eagerly to flight training with positive reinforcement methods (as should most species) including from beginner level trainers. Large birds seem to do better against predators when flown solo. Colorful birds seem to be easier to spot in trees. Loud birds seem easier locate if lost. My usual recommendation for which species of parrot to select as a pet freeflyer involves large, loud and colorful birds since they are generally the safest to fly and the easiest to locate if things go wrong. Based on this criteria and our experience so far, large macaws and cockatoos are probably the most suited as pet flyers.

“Which are most difficult?”

I personally have found Indian Ringnecks to be less social and thus do not respond to social interaction as well as most other species of parrots. This means my reliance on social interaction is not effective as a training tool for young ringnecks. Makes flight training ringnecks dependent on weight management, which I don’t like using.

African Greys seem to be like really intelligent cats, smart but kind of aloof. Training dogs can be easier than training cats so maybe that would mean greys are not the easiest birds to train. Some will probably disagree or dislike this idea. Greys also look a lot like pigeons so some raptors may more easily “recognize” them as prey they are willing to go after.

Senegals are reported to have uncontrolled spook responses, though that has not been my experience with the Senegals I have raised. It may have something to do with how they are raised, I really do not know. But Senegals are small parrots that are not very noisy, that makes them difficult to locate.

Cockatiels are not large, loud or colorful, making them difficult to locate. They also are somewhat nomadic in the wild which means they may tend to wander as flighted pets. They are also “n” strategy survivors, rather than “k” strategy survivors. This means that the species relies more heavily on having lots of babies rather than being smart enough to deal with predators. “K” strategy birds rely more on intelligence and have few babies. This means that “n” strategy birds are probably not the smartest birds in the sky. That makes cockatiels and other “n” strategy birds less ideal flight students than other species of parrots.

I have known people who flew african greys, senegals and cockatiels so it is possible, just not ideal. These are birds I would recommend only for people with experience flying parrots already.

“Is there much difference in training methods between species?”

Most of our training methods are based on the principles of operant conditioning and developmental sequences. This means that for the most part the training is very similar between species. There are some differences between species so a study of ethology can help understand how a particular species might respond differently than another species. There are other factors though that can have far greater impact on the behavior of your bird than the species selection. Issues like the age it was first exposed to flying, its social interests in people or other birds, its comfort in facing new situations or locations, or how much of its natural developmental processes were completed, to name just a few.

“Has anyone trained a parakeet to free fly outdoors?”

I don’t think we have any one on the list currently but there are records of people who have. The Duke of Bedford is one such person; he flew a large flock. Anyone wanting to increase the safety of flying their current larger parrot outdoors but does not feel they have room for several more large birds might consider training up a flock of budgies to act as additional eyes. We are doing it with sun conures but I don’t see any reason it would not also work with budgies. There is of course the risk of sharp shined hawks to consider and each person would have to weigh the benefits and risks for themselves.

Written By Chris Biro, Copyright 31 January 2010

Success training parrots to fly out doors depends largely on your ability to set the animal up to change its behavior. Before attempting to flight train a parrot outdoors I recommend you master basic training skills. There are several articles on this site about clicker training. I also recommend you watch this short video by Behavior Works.

A Freeflight member wrote: “I went about ten feet from him and with my hand held out clicked two times, he kind of looked at me funny like i was crazy but when I clicked twice again he went to his perch, so i placed him back on the cage and tried again, same reaction.”

This demonstrates the beauty of using positive reinforcement strategies for training, you can do it all manner of wrong and still get good results. I think it is great that this person and his birds have made such progress. But let me show you how you can use the clicker to get better results.

Lets start out by discussing how a clicker is normally used and some of the theory behind this.

Usually we use a clicker to do three things: 1) mark the exact moment the bird did something we want, 2) promise that a reinforcer (desired treat) is on its way, 3) mark the end of the behavior.

Normally we do NOT use the clicker as a cueing signal, as you are doing.

The idea here is that a bridging signal (the click) is a way to tell the animal what it just did that has earned it something it wants. This way it can more easily and more accurately understand WHY it is getting the goody. What did it just do that earned it the goody? What ever it was doing at the moment the clicker sounded is what earned that goody. This is very valuable information and not always that easy to communicate to an animal with accuracy without such a bridging signal. As such it is also important to use the clicker with great accuracy on your part, making sure to click at exactly the moment the desired behavior occurs.

And in long duration behaviors, it also tells the animal that it is finished with this repetition.

With continued use, the click may become associated with good things enough that the sound itself becomes a secondary reinforcer. Some animals will work just to earn the attaboy sound of the click and may even ignore the treats themselves. I would not expect this but it is interesting to observe when it happens.

Like with any number of visual or audible signals you could use the clicker as a cueing signal but then what will you use as the bridging signal that has the same precision and uniqueness as the clicker? I do not recommend using a clicker as a cueing signal. I think it is far more valuable as a bridging signal.

The real value of the clicker is that it is very precise due its very short crisp sound and it is unique. You are very unlikely to accidentally tell the bird that it just did something right and that a goody is coming while you were talking on the phone and commented how you have a “good bird” and then fail to follow through with your “promised” goody – some people advocate using “good bird” as a bridging signal. The only time the bird hears a clicker is when you actually intend to use it. Even if you are using it with another animal, the bird can still see that every time the click is sounded someone gets a goody.

With a clicker you can very accurately mark a quick or very brief behavior so the animal knows it was that very tiny bit of behavior that earned it the coming goody. This is highly useful since many behaviors must be trained as a series of tiny steps or approximations. This is called shaping the behavior. Essentially this means that the end behavior is trained by starting with whatever level of behavior is available and then reinforcing slight improvements toward the goal behavior. To do this you break the behavior down into the smallest parts you can and then train each part before moving on to the next part.

To start this we usually begin by “charging the clicker” as some people call it. Which simply means we will help the bird associate the clicker with receiving the goody. Essentially we click and then immediately hand the bird the treat. Do this a few times and usually if you click, delay a moment and watch the bird, it will look to the hand that delivers the treat. This means the bird has made the connection that when it hears the click it expects to get a treat. Now we can start using it to identify actual behavior.

ok i wasn’t quite sure what everyone was talking about as far bridges go, but this post made it a bit clearer lol, so in some way i am also using a bridge and did not know it, because first thing in the morning i open all of our flocks cages (5) and when i go to the kitchen can hear them all playing around on the cages, louie will start calling and chattering up a storm and his favorite things to say are louie bird, and louies a good bird, and then starts his whistles to call the dogs, but he won’t leave his cage until i say louie come to dad, and immediately you hear the beat of his wings and into the kitchen he comes, so is this good or am i still doing things wrong

This is not doing anything “wrong” but it is not using a bridging signal either. Are you telling the animal it just that moment did the very behavior that you want to give it a goody for? And is there a delay between when that is communicated to the bird and when it receives the goody? In the above description the answer is no you are not doing either.

Whenever you reinforce a behavior it is important that the animal can make the contingent connection between doing the behavior and getting the reinforcement goody. Any delay between the behavior and getting the goody will only diminish this association. It is one thing to stand in front of the bird and immediately hand the bird a goody when it does the correct behavior. The bird can easily determine “Hey if I do this, then cool, I get the goody.” But if you are on the other side of the room and the bird does the behavior, you jump up from your chair, walk across the room and as you hand the goody to the bird, it is scratching the feathers on its butt. It now thinks “Cool, if I scratch the feathers on my butt, I get goodies.” Which of course is not what you really meant.

So by using a bridging signal, if the bird does the behavior, immediately you click, get up from your chair, take your time walking over to get the goody and hand it to the bird. And even if it was scratching the feathers on its butt at the moment you hand it the goody, it still knows that it got the goody because of what it was doing at the moment you sounded the click, not what it was doing at the moment it received the goody.

Now for this to work, we must first teach the bird how the clicker is used to mark a behavior. This is usually done with training targeting, touch the end of a stick. Click here to read more about Targeting and using the clicker to train a behavior.

Chris – I do have to disagree with your point below.  About saying “good bird” while on the phone and your bird getting confused because it didn’t get a treat. I think they can tell the difference between when we’re just talking, and when we’re interacting with them. That being said, I still try to minimize when I use a possible bridge if I’m not actually bridging them for anything.

The concept of a bridging signal is that the signal marks a moment in time and then points to a coming reinforcement. This again is another associative pairing process and is often considered a secondary reinforcer. If you use that bridging signal in a non bridging manner, then you are weakening that associative pairing. How much this will interfere with your training will depend largely on how much you continue to strengthen the pairing through correct usage.

To use the best form and have the greatest effect, you would simply select a bridging signal that is used as a bridging signal only, and it would not be used at any other time or function.

The same is true for selecting a signal that is precise. Yes you can get away with all manner of bridging signals, including “good bird”, but if you really want to use good form and get the most from your training, you will select a bridging signal that is specifically selected to produce a crisp short signal. Of course this is supporting a clicker as a general training tool. There are situations where a clicker would be a very poor bridging signal and some other signal would work far better – like try to train during a rock concert or at a distance of 1/4 mile from the student.

The most common reason given for not using a clicker is people wanting to keep both hands free. To me this is a bit like arguing that a calculator is too complicated to be useful for doing math. Bob Bailey says training is a mechanical skill and then he sets to teaching you how to use your hands with a clicker in it. I agree of course – how can you disagree with Bob Bailey on anything related to training ? If a magician were to take the stance that many other people take against learning to use his hands, most card tricks would never get performed because it is simply too difficult to do with the hands. Sometimes the benefits are worth the effort and time spent doing a little practice to develop one’s coordination to learn to do something you could not easily do before. Today I can easily use both my hands to handle and train one or two birds, while holding a target stick, clicker and treats all at the same time. I do it all the time and give no thought to it.

I guess it all comes down to what is acceptable for each person. Early on I was told that a clicker gives me a significant clarity and accuracy advantage when training. And I can say I have seen this many many times with even taming a new hand shy bird. I have learned how to use that clicker both from a theoretical stand point and from a physical and mechanical stand point.

So for me personally, there is simply no question about if a clicker is a great training tool. Everyone else is free to like it or dislike it as you like.

For more on how to actually use positive reinforcement in training, read the articles Clicker & Treat and Positive Reinforcement and Target Training.

Written By Chris Biro, Copyright 5 January 2010

A Freeflight list member wrote: “Since you mentioned the term “negative punishment”. I wonder, Is there anything like “positive punishment”? I Thought all punishment were negative by their very nature.”

There is both positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement and positive punishment and negative punishment. Remember that these terms are scientifically defined, not just defined by common use.

In Operant Conditioning terminology some words have very specific scientific meanings that differ from common public use and can take some getting accustomed to in order to use them correctly.

Operant Conditioning is a leading field in the scientific study of learning and behavior. The main concept is that all living creatures repeat behaviors that have rewarding consequences for them and avoid behaviors that make bad things happen to them. In common usage we think of consequences as coming in two forms, rewarding and aversive but in the scientific definition consequences increase or decrease the target behavior. The active elements of a consequence are either added or removed.

Reinforce means the consequence causes the target behavior to increase, be maintained or more likely to happen again in the future.

Punishment means the consequence causes the target behavior to reduce or be less likely to happen again in the future.

Positive (+) is to add something.

Negative (-) is to remove something.

Note: the “something” is a consequence immediately following the behavior that results in increased or decreased future behavior.

So:

Positive Reinforcement (R+) is to add a reinforcer that results in increasing the behavior. Generally this means the bird’s behavior causes desired things to be added so the behavior increases.

Negative Reinforcement (R-) is to remove a reinforcer that results in increasing the behavior. Generally this means the bird’s behavior causes undesired things to be removed so the behavior increases.

Positive Punishment (P+) is to add a punisher that results in reduction of the behavior. Generally this means the bird’s behavior causes undesired things to be added so the behavior decreases.

Negative Punishment (P-) is to remove a punisher that results in reduction of the behavior. Generally this means the bird’s behavior causes desired things to be removed so the behavior decreases.

Note: From a strict technical sense the punisher or reinforcer are not qualified as good or bad, desired or undesired. They are defined purely by their effect on the future behavior. Generally though reinforcers are desired and punishers are to be avoided.

Defining the target behavior is critical in determining which quadrant is involved. It is currently popular to limit training to Positive Reinforcement (R+) but it should be remembered that each of these four quadrants exist in real life experiences. Each quadrant does in fact have actual training value, even if only in very limited and specific circumstances. And though we focus most of our training efforts in the positive reinforcement quadrant doing so can at the same time be viewed as using negative punishment when withholding the treat for poor performance. Things can start getting a little confusing if you think of withholding the treat as diminishing the specific poor behavior (negative punishment) and at the same time withholding the treat increases the specific good behavior (negative reinforcement). Often there is another cross quadrant simultaneously in play.

For more on how to actually use positive reinforcement in training, read the articles Click & Treat and Clicker Training and Target Training.

Parrots: more than pets, friends for life.

Chris Biro

This page is intended to be a caution against relying on internet information available from internet marketers claiming to be professional trainers.

First off let me mention some legitimate trainers and information sources that we do endorse: Bob Bailey, Sid Price of Avian Ambassadors, Barbara Heidenreich of Good Bird Magazine, Steve Martin of NEI and Dr. Susan Friedman of Utah State University. We do not always agree with them or they us but we feel their overall level of knowledge and experience make them good resources for all parrot owners.

Please read the information here before reading further. This is another link about the same group. I highly encourage you to look over these links.

It is my opinion that Birdtricks.com is a similar internet marketing group. And based on the comments I have heard from other professional trainers and from numerous bird owners, they are well known in the bird community for copying information and presenting it as their own as well as engaging in other questionable marketing practices. Many people have expressed concern to me over the advice given in the DVDs they sell as educational material.

Three articles from Sid Price you should read: Bird Tricks to Avoid and Best In Flock article, The Real Secrets of Training And Where To Find Them. I highly encourage you to read these articles. If you have read these articles you will know to carefully check any bird related website to see if the links to the recommended “bird training videos” lead you to a website with birdtricks or Chet Womach. If it does, it is my opinion the site is probably one of dozens of such websites owned and/or created by Chet Womach of birdtricks or is one of their paid affiliate websites, each designed to make it look like unbiased people think their worthless videos are worth spending money on. It is my recommendation that when you find such a website, immediately close the window and do not return to it again.

We made the mistake of allowing Dave and Jamie Womach of birdtricks to join us here in Moab Utah to help them fly their young African Grey in April of 2008. We picked them up and dropped them off at the airport, let them stay in our home and all for free. While here Dave and Jamie told us this was their first venture into freeflying parrots.

18 months later they have expanded their business to include selling their “expert advice” on freefight training. For $5000 they will provide personal instruction on flying parrots, including personal training with the person’s bird here in Moab, at the very locations we took them.

We recently ran into them at two of those locations. The first encounter we were polite and agreed to fly our birds with them. But after listening to their birds begging for food due to their hunger level we chose not to fly with them the next day when we encountered them again. Though we instead selected a spot to fly several hundred yards away from them, we could still hear their birds crying for food. It was painful to hear and really emphasized for us why we set up this website – because inexperienced bird owners like the birdtricks people should not be training others about freeflight.

I encourage you to also read what Sid Price said about the use of hunger in response to a blog article from Dave and Jamie Womach of birdtricks. Visit Sid’s blog and search for the entry entitled “The Misuse of Weight Management, August 20th, 2009″. The original blog post in question was entitled “Are Pet Shop Birds Trainable?” Posted by: Jamieleigh on: August 10, 2009.

Read these two articles about our position on the use of hunger.

Unfortunately because many professional trainers proclaim how difficult it is to train flight, the Womach videos of flying their parrots at locations in Moab make them look highly skilled. But the truth is that if you approach flight training correctly, as we outline on this website, nature’s built in flight training system does most of the work for you and it is fairly simple to do. Dave and Chet Womach are internet marketers and entertainers presenting themselves as professional bird trainers. At the time of writing this, they have very little actual experience training or flying parrots and have only been flying parrots outdoors about 18 months.

From an academic stand point a huge reason to avoid any birdtricks material is that they use non standard terminology. By doing this they can appear to create a new term or name and then claim they invented the idea. Their term “the power pause” is commonly known as a “time out”. Many scientific terms of operant conditioning are also renamed and claimed as their new discovery. Beside the unethical nature of renaming known terms to claim them as their own invention, it also puts the student at a significant disadvantage when communicating with credible animal trainers, when learning from credible written papers, websites and textbooks.

Please be careful following information and instruction from such people who are so new to training and freeflight. Especially be careful of relying on information from ethically challenged people. The Freeflight concept is a great experience for both bird and owner. Freeflying in any style is great fun, but it is also very serious since birds can easily be lost or killed, especially when Sport Flying.

To be clear here, we do not endorse birdtricks or the Womachs and do not wish to be associated with them in any way. We recommend that you not purchase any training material or courses from birdtricks or anyone who in any way promotes or sells their materials.

www.birdtricked.com or www.birdtricksters.com will bring people to this page. Please help new bird people avoid birdtricks by sending new bird owners a link to this page.

A freeflight list member wrote “I am reading all these messages about the benefit of empowering parrots. This sounds like something I need for my birds as food training is starting to bore them. Can someone please explain what empowering is and simple training examples? Thanks.”

I think the concept of empowering is about helping the bird figure out it can control elements of its environment, namely us. The trick to good bird training is helping them see that through their actions they can cause us to do things they want us to do. Training with positive reinforcement sends exactly that message. The trouble is in how to communicate this concept to the bird. Since we do not speak their language it is all about communication through body language. We use body language in the sense that we communicate through motions, sounds, inflections and timing – by sounds I am talking about sounds that do not already have dictionary definitions associated with them (like words do) . We use a bridging signal (the click) to mark the moment in time the bird did that special something that triggered you to give the bird something it wanted (the seed or nut). In this way the bird can learn to recognize what behavior it does that influences you.

For the bird to feel empowered, we have to do our part in the above process. The bird cannot influence us if we do not play the game in a consistent manner. So by empowering, we make it possible for the bird to feel it has some control by actually volunteering some responsibility to comply with its requests. These requests are not just about it choosing to do what we ask, but also allowing it the choice not to do some things we ask. WIthout the freedom to choose not to comply, there is in fact no actual choice involved.

Empowering is creating a training environment where the bird truly does have choices that do influence your behavior in ways the bird wants.

When we use a clicker we are using a unique sound precisely timed to make the communication process more clear and more accurate. If you don’t think the clicker makes that much difference, I would say try training a chicken to peck a spot without the clicker and this will become more clear.

A freeflight list member wrote “Everyone seems to keep thinking that empowering the bird is actually giving them full control. I don’t think that is what it is. I think it is allowing them to BELIEVE they have full control.”

I agree, empowering does not mean they have full control of their lives. Empowering grants them certain control of various aspects of their lives and the ability to recognize what they have control over and what they do not. The later part is often hard to keep clear both for the trainer and the bird.

“It doesn’t necessarily mean they do but they believe they do.”

I think this is a dangerous slippery slope you are on. It is not easy to keep up this appearance unless it is real. There is a dishonest component to this way of thinking that I believe the birds will quickly see through.

When I am using a clicker to work with a bird, the bird does not just think it has control to get me to click and treat. It truly does. But only because I have agreed to this rule and faithfully honor it. The control the bird feels must be real. It is made real by my level of commitment to keeping it real through my actions. This is not about faking the bird out often enough that it stays willing to participate. It is about setting clear rules and boundaries so both of us are on the same page.

Those rules are defined so that I get what I want and the bird gets what it wants. It just so happens I want the bird to be happy and mentally healthy so I expand the bird’s choices in all areas I think will let us harmoniously live together. In some situations that does not grant the bird very many choices. In other situations the bird has lots of choices. And both of us understand these rules. That is certainly not granting total control. But this seems to be a workable solution for my birds in my situation.

A freeflight member writes “I believe that most of us that have flighted birds indoors do a lot of manipulation, or just quietly lure them back into their cages before things get out of hand.”

Manipulation I think is another word for control. Control is part of everyday life and is absolutely ok in many instances. It is not ok when it becomes coercive. No one complains when they are controlled by positive reinforcement methods. It is when the control takes on coercive components that we dislike it. Even if it involves being set up to face situations that involve removing something we wish to avoid (negative reinforcement).

Control is not bad. Coercive control is bad. Knowing what the difference is is good <grin>.

“What is coercive manipulation and why is it bad?”

Great question. Coercive manipulation or coercive control is the use of aversives or the threat of aversives to get an animal to do as we would like. It also includes our practice of rewarding them by allowing them to escape our use of aversives or our threat of aversives. So if you look carefully at this definition you would see this includes three of the four quadrants of operant conditioning.

Positive Punishment, Negative Punishment and Negative Reinforcement. The first two are pretty obviously coercive. The Negative Reinforcement though can confuse people into thinking it is not coercive just because it contains the concept of reinforcement in the name. But lets not forget that to set the animal up to be able to remove an undesirable factor first requires you to provide that negative factor and at such a rate that the animal truly desires to be free of it. That is setting up a coercive situation.

I see Coercion as the exact opposite of Empowerment. As such it is not possible to empower through coercive methods.

So why is this bad? Aside from ethical issues, from a practical position, the negative side effects are often worse than the original problem. There are many reasons we turn to use of aversives and coercion. Primarily because it often works in the short term and thus is reinforcing for us. Thus we tend to use it again (as is what happens to any behavior that is reinforced). But those two words “short term” that create the problem. Coercive methods may bring about short term results but the long term effects accumulate to create serious problems.

One of the problems is that successful use of punishment encourages additional use of punishment. Use of aversives can quickly become the norm rather than the exception.

Another serious side effect is the secondary punisher effect. When a neutral stimulus becomes associated with an aversive the neutral stimulus also then takes on the punishing qualities of the original aversive stimulus. This pairing process is how the person who applies punishment to control behavior also becomes viewed as an aversive stimulus. If the bird connects you with the punishment, then you will become an aversive. If this intelligent animal comes to see you as the withholder of all the fun things it wants, it will come to see you as an aversive. If it feels coerced by you to perform against its will then you can become an aversive.

Just like there are primary and secondary reinforcers, there are also primary and secondary punishers. The difference between primary (unconditioned) and secondary (conditioned) is the primary is inherently punishing while the secondary gains its punitive qualities through association with another punisher. Often the difference is described as the secondary is learned. This is generally true but not entirely accurate since there are learned components to many primary punishers (as well as primary reinforcers).

I personally see the above two problems with coercion as the two most serious and most likely to be encountered by animal trainers. There are many others undesirable potential side effects such as learned helplessness, depression, displaced aggression, escape, avoidance, loss of creativity, loss of motivation, phobias, compulsive behavior, etc.

I suspect that many of the behavioral disorders we see in parrots are directly related to the amount of coercion in the animal’s life. Most live in coercive enclosures that remove by force nearly all choice and action from their lives. We do not need to add to this by intentionally using coercive methods when positive alternatives exist. With that said, we should also not swing the pendulum in the opposite direction and pretend aversives are not part of life or tools in our training tool box. We need to strive for using positive methods whenever possible and always be aware that as our skill with positive methods increases, so will our ability to find positive solutions increase. Setting boundaries is a critically important element to living with parrots. The ability to do so with positive reinforcement and minimal coercion is both an art and a goal.

A freeflight member wrote “I’m confused at how we are using the word manipulation and missing the fact that if a bird chooses to do something, regardless of if we set it up that way, it is somehow implying they don’t have choice or that it is demeaning. It is entirely how life works for all of us. If the consequence for doing a behavior is desired, I choose that. If a bird learns that doing xxx behavior gives it something more worthwhile than yyy behavior what was manipulated? Don’t lose sight of the fact that it is only the one doing the behavior that decides if a consequence is reinforcing.”

I think the problem here is that the word “manipulation” and the word “control” have gained negative connotations due to how they are often misused. We manipulate our food as we eat it. We control our cars as we drive. It is only when that control or manipulation is done through a coercive method that there is a negative component to either.

Control by itself is normal and neutral. The method of control is what makes all the difference. A bird may have been set up to choose between two bad options of avoiding two things it does not like, and may choose the lesser of the evils. The fact that it did make a choice, then did the behavior and that it was “reinforced” by its own perception does not mean the control/manipulation was good. There was still a coercive component.

The one doing the behavior does define if a stimulus is reinforcing or not by its future behavior but I as the trainer also can detect coercive methods and avoid them when possible. Setting the animal up to face choices to avoid something only so that I can remove it, thus I am using reinforcement, is still a coercive approach. That distinction needs to be understood. Positive reinforcement is always preferred over negative reinforcement or either punishment (positive or negative) because it is the only quadrant that does not contain a coercive element.

A freeflight list member wrote “I believe a bird can get empowered without me in the formula, as I know a child can be empowered if we let her be creative.”

There is a difference in meaning between the two words, POWER and EMPOWER. As you can see both have a common root of power. But the later, empower, implies the assistance of an outsider rather than inherent power. I cannot empower a wild bird because it has all its natural power in its unrestricted freedom and full compliment of natural behaviors and skills. But the pet bird does not have that same set of conditions. In fact it has very few natural powers available to it since I control its cage time, food, toys, and every other aspect I wish to control due to my position of superior physical strength. On the other hand though, I can choose to grant it back some of that power through my voluntarily not using all my physical constraint options and allow the bird to actually have some control over various elements of its life. That not only grants the bird some actual control but it also eases the stresses and negative fall out associated with coercive control, especially from learned helplessness.

“So, are you telling that you just can empower a bird IF you are involved?! I mean, empowering it’s not only having influence on your actions BUT have influence on the environment and you are just a part of that environment.”

There is more to it than just me being involved. It comes down to how I am involved. The concept of contingency is important.

“A very good example is foraging. Foraging does empower a bird and you probably aren’t there!”

Foraging is an example of empowerment but maybe not a good example for this discussion. The animal does certain things that have a contingent relationship to finding certain food items. When our birds are loose outdoors in Moab they use us as foraging sources of goodies. They choose to come interact with us, knowing they can cause us to give them peanuts. They also first thing in the morning go forage on wild juniper berries. But this only works because I have enabled them to do this by giving them the freedom to go do these things. I could just as easily keep them caged or on a tight mental leash and not allow them to go do these things. So this is an example of foraging as empowerment but on a much different scale then most people will offer their birds. This example may actually confuse people about what empowerment is because our birds do have the power to feed on juniper berries but this only happens because have given them freedom and skills needed to be out doing so.

“If you left some hidden items in the cage and your bird is able to find them, then he will perceive that he can get something from the environment on his own…. try to rise the difficulty of finding those items and he will try harder… and will feel even more empowered than before. Don’t you agree?”

Yes I do agree but I don’t think this really fits into what people mean when they talk about empowering in training discussions.

“I found this can be a good technique to “no hands” birds. Or with birds that are afraid of you. You can even build the confidence of the bird without being present… even so, the bird will be empowered, thinking he can rule his environment.”

It is not really about ruling the bird’s environment, because the bird does not rule it. I think it should not feel it does rule when in fact it does not. That to me is asking for problems that do not need to exist. I think it needs to understand it has some things it can influence through its actions and others it cannot. This is simply how life works for all of us. It also needs to recognize the contingency element, the cause and effect element.

As per my understanding of what “spoiled means – getting things without respect to any actions. A spoiled child is not empowered by thinking it can do whatever it wants or that it rules everyone. Empowerment involves an element of having power. Power is the ability to make things happen. The spoiled child does not actually make anything happen. It gets what it wants without a contingent element connecting its behavior to what it gets. It acts with out concern for the contingent consequences.

Empowerment is helping the bird have actual power and then helping it recognize what power it has. Birds who live in a cage do not really have much power unless we give them some through our voluntary effort. It is kind of like the cursor on your computer. You do have control of it but only in as much as the mouse enables you to move it around. If the mouse fails to comply, you lose your power over the cursor. You as the trainer are the mouse that enables the parrot to move the cursor. As such this becomes a team effort. You become codependents. Empowering implies a reliance on you to fulfill certain commitments and duties so that the bird can come to feel it has real power.

Empowerment also is commonly used to indicate someone who offers support to another person. This is true with our birds too. But since we do keep them in cages, and control most aspects of their lives, it takes on a slightly more active role for us than simply offering support. It requires us to give back a certain amount of the freedom we are able to keep from them. As the controllers of their freedom, the more freedom we are able return, the more we are empowering them.

A freeflight list member wrote “Could have sworn that is what I said when I explained…to learn from the consequences of those choices. Past consequences form future antecedents. Consequences come in all forms. Remember, its what behavior is all about. I learn that if I do xxx I don’t like the consequence so given the same situation again, I will make a different choice.”

Not exactly, but close. My point was to distinguish good decision making from just making decisions. There is a skill to this that can be learned with practice and guidance. Learning to make choices based on consequences starts very early in life. But learning to consistently make good choices is a little different because in this case the “good” is defined by us, the handler.

Therefore we have to be consistent in our rules, how we apply them and our methods. This takes teamwork between us and the bird if it is going to be successful in the sense of empowering the bird. No matter how we look at this it always involves more than just offering choices for empowerment to work. It takes an active role on our part to help make those choices effective and in the animal’s and our best interests. So actually we both must learn to help make good choices, not just choices.

A freeflight member wrote “I watched Biro’s birds at liberty in Moab last October and they are truly empowered. I cannot see how it apples to our captive birds whom we are constantly manipulating.”

Yes when our at liberty birds are loose outdoors they are empowered in ways most bird owners cannot even imagine. In their indoor cages, they are still the same wonderful birds even though they have far fewer options while caged. So in some ways they are living with the two extremes – near total control and nearly no control. It is one of the reasons we love to go to Moab and I believe also why they appear so happy while there. I cannot build large enough cages and have come to recognize this as part of the lifestyle changes that come with keeping flighted parrots. It is much more like keeping horses in that we need the right location and set up to do it “right”.

Empowerment by itself does not equate to high quality of life. It is only a part of developing quality of life. Empowering a bird in a cage to have control of various bits of its caged life can help but may still leave the owner feeling their bird has insufficient quality of life. My point here is to suggest people not confuse the two issues.

This brings up yet another aspect of empowerment. It is not enough to just be faced with a choice. It is not enough to also have the option to choose not to take the handler’s preferred choice. It is not enough to have several elements that the bird has control over in its life. There is also the necessary component of developing the ability to make effective choices. There is power in being able to think through an issue and make a good choice. To teach them this ability though involves their meeting both with results they like and results they might wish to avoid. In other words, they need not only to experience the spoils of doing things you want but also the effects of facing boundaries. Boundaries are terribly important and actually help empower the bird. But setting boundaries and maintaining them can be a really tricky line to establish without being coercive. It is easy to go past boundary setting into coercive manipulation.

Being able to make effective choices can help the bird learn to coexist with us in our world. Their natural tendencies were designed for a completely different environment. But that does not mean they cannot learn to adapt to the environment we keep them. Flight is certainly one way we help them fit into both worlds. But the key for flight to work in this respect is effective decision making. Effective decision making is equally important for non flighted birds.

Teaching what the boundaries are and how to make good choices to effectively work within those boundaries expands the level of freedom you can give the bird. This then is empowering since it grants them greater power over their lives.