Phoebe the free-flying African grey glides over the desert outside Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

EVERY WEEKEND, Janet Jeanpierre and her husband load up the kids and Phoebe the African grey and head out of town in their Land Rover.

When they reach the open desert just outside Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the Jeanpierres stop the car, open the door to Phoebe's carrier, and set her free.

Sometimes, the liberated Phoebe makes a beeline for the horizon, flying until she becomes a speck in the distance.

Most of the time she stays close by, winging low figure eights over the dunes. The stocky grey bird dives and swoops, shrieking as she dodges the shrubs dotting the landscape. Sometimes she buzzes her owners by zooming by their heads.

Phoebe's aerial acrobatics make Janet Jeanpierre smile.

"She loves pretending she's a cruise missile, just skimming over the desert and popping over the bushes," says Jeanpierre. "Lately she has been doing a lot of really close and fast fly bys."

After about an hour, Jeanpierre blows a coach's whistle to signal Phoebe it's time to wrap it up. Phoebe obediently glides in for a perfect landing on Jeanpierre's hand.

The Jeanpierres pack up bird and family and make the return 45-minute trip home.

It's been another great fly for Phoebe the grey.

Clipping versus flying
Pet parrots allowed to fly loose are nothing new, of course. Before cages were mass produced, birds typically had the run of their owners' property, especially in Europe.

Cosmo, a blue-and-gold macaw owned by freeflight proponent Chris Biro, prepares to land during a performance at a fair.

But these days, a parrot in flight is an unusual sight indeed.

In fact, it can be downright controversial.

Just ask bird trainer Chris Biro. Like Jeanpierre, Biro goes against the standard advice of the day and does not trim his birds' wings. Since 1993, he has let his parrots - including a Patagonia conure, two mitred conures, a sun conure and two macaws - fly freely on his rural property near Amboy, Wash.

But Biro knows better than to discuss his passion with just anyone. When he tried on the Internet a few years ago, he was "royally flamed and roasted," he says. "I can assure you, the word controversial will take on new meaning for you as you search out information and other people who free-fly parrots."

The flamers accused Biro of unnecessarily exposing his birds to raptors and other outside dangers. They called him a bad owner.

Soon after that incident, Biro decided to start his own mailing list for people who shared his interest in letting pet birds fly freely. He called it "freeflight," after the model airplane hobby.

He hasn't looked back. Neither have the almost 500 subscribers from all over the world who have found a home at freeflight@yahoogroups.com, including Jeanpierre.

"The list has become a valuable source of information and support for people who wish to live with and train fully flighted birds," claims Biro.

Sydney Marie, a Moluccan cockatoo owned by Emily Heenan, barrels over a rooftop.

Freeflight practitioners believe flighted pet parrots enjoy happier, healthier lives than clipped birds. They also believe that if handled properly, flying is not as dangerous as others might think.

"I truly believe that I can train my birds to fly in a way that is as safe or safer than the life they would live with clipped wings," Biro writes in this issue's opinion piece, Should you freefly your bird?.

Nobody knows how many parrot owners practice freeflight. They are probably only a fraction of today's bird-owning population.

A spokesperson for the Association of Avian Veterinarians, which occasionally issues position statements on pet-bird health issues, said she had never heard of the phenomenon.

Freeflight fans don't mind the obscurity. They say that freeflight not only has become a way of life for them, it is one of the best decisions they have ever made - for their birds or themselves.

Flight au natural
Most people who decide to allow their birds to fly are initially attracted by the sheer wonder of their pet's ability.

Jeanpierre became interested in training her birds to fly outside after seeing an Animal Planet segment about a zoo in England that allowed its macaws to fly free.

"I was awestruck. I wanted my own birds to be able to fly a distance and not just a hop across the room," she said. Now Jeanpierre introduces outdoor flight to as many of the family psittacines as possible, including Bitsy, a white-capped pionus.

Emily Heenan at first found it "inconceivable that I would ever allow my own cockatoos to fly free." However, the more she observed a friend's birds, the stronger her resolve became to allow her own the same freedom.

Jeanpierre, Biro and Heenan practice the "purest" form of freeflight: allowing a bird to fly outdoors without benefit of aviary netting or a harness. The owner has only a clicker, a plastic whistle, or his or her own voice to control the bird's movement. Ideally, that includes reeling the parrot back in when it's time to call it a day.

Many owners train with clickers, a form of positive reinforcement now highly favored by the dog-training community. Followed by a treat, a clicker can be an effective way to teach "tricks" ranging from stepping onto a hand to fetching toys to flying from point to point.

Dean Moser launches Raina, a green-wing macaw, on a bluff near his home in Windsor, Colo.

Most owners chaperone their birds' outdoor excursions. However, a few (see The free flyers of Cockatoo Downs) allow their birds to come and go without continual supervision.

Setting down rules
Freeflying a bird might sound as easy as letting clipped wings grow out.

But responsible freeflight involves a lot more than a full set of feathers, say the experts.

For one thing, birds are not automatically expert flyers. It's a skill that must be learned, ideally at a young age - and most pet birds are way past their prime.

"It takes adult birds months or even years to pick up the same flying skills it takes fledging chicks only a few weeks to learn in the wild," says Biro.

Also a small-scale breeder, Biro starts flight training his baby birds before he weans them. It's a lot easier - and safer - for the bird to learn to fly then, rather than later, he says.

"Adult birds may eventually learn how to fly well, but the longer training period exposes them to danger from predators longer," he says.

Many pets can become adept flyers inside the house, but that does not automatically mean they can fly well outside, too, says Biro.

Rough landings
Take landing, for instance. Outdoors, a bird not only must learn how to choose a branch that will support weight, he has to gauge his speed just right, so he doesn't overshoot his target.

Landing proved tricky for Jeanpierre's African grey, Phoebe.

On her first desert outing, the bird could not figure out how to descend, so she flew endless circles above Jeanpierre. Finally, Jeanpierre managed to reach up and snatch the exhausted grey out of the air.

Along with learning the finer points of maneuvering, outdoor flyers also must become physically fit enough to withstand the rigors of flying longer distances, and learn how to recognize landmarks so they don't get lost.

Of course, birds have to figure out a lot on their own, says Biro, but owners must do their part by teaching recall and providing a place to fly that's as safe as possible.

Elliott the cockatoo zips between houses in semi-rural Washington state.

Most freeflight practitioners start indoors, training their birds to perform short hops from arm to perch and back again, gradually adding distance.

After several months - or sometimes years, in the case of adult birds - owners begin practicing the same point-to-point hops outdoors.

Emily Heenan spent two years drilling each of her five cockatoos, including taking them outside on harnesses to gain familiarity with the area, before allowing them to fly outside.

Some owners have developed their own training techniques to fit special circumstances. Heidi Jankowski's dusky conure, Captain, was standoffish with her but liked Jankowski's female conure, Maggie. So Jankowski used Maggie as a flight lure, holding her in one hand while turning her body at an angle and offering her other hand to Captain as a landing spot.

Other owners say that a close relationship with their bird is what ultimately keeps them around.

"Elliott comes back to me because he wants to be with me, not just because I give him a treat," Tom Beard of Yakima, Wash., says of his Goffin's cockatoo, which flies in his semi-rural neighborhood.

When flying, Elliott always remains within Beard's sight and keeps in contact by repeatedly calling, "Hi, guy!". To retrieve Elliott, Beard taps his left forearm with his right hand.

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