Poor risks
Not all species of parrots make good freeflyers. Cockatoos, macaws, African greys and conures are considered among the best candidates because they respond well to recall training.

Nicholas, an eclectus owned by Dean Moser, shows off his wings during an outing.

Dean Moser of Windsor, Colo., was afraid he would not be able to train his favorite bird, the eclectus, to fly outdoors because he had never heard of anyone else doing it.

Moser tried anyway and discovered that his male eclectus, Nicholas, was "pretty stinkin' good at it!"

Now Moser regularly flies Nicholas, along with several other pet birds, in the fields near his home. (To see a video of Goffin the cockatoo flying to Moser's daughter, Rebekah, click here.)

Pet cockatiels are considered too unreliable for freeflight. Easily spooked and nomadic in the wild, most pet cockatiels introduced to the outdoors tend to fly in a straight line, often never to be seen again.

Location, location, location
Another key aspect of successful freeflight is choosing a good location. For most birds, it's an open area clear of trees, tall buildings and other distracting objects, not to mention cats, dogs, power lines and automobiles.

Therefore, city dwellers often find themselves packing up their birds and traveling to a field or pasture.

"The wide open desert is a pretty safe place to start a free flier," said Jeanpierre. "I can get to [my birds] in the Land Rover very quickly, so even if they ever went off in a straight line and didn't turn (which has never happened), they couldn't fly out of sight before they have to come down."

Shanlung walks Tinkerbell around a field outside Chiayi, Taiwan, to familiarize her with the area before flying.

Emily Heenan introduced her galah cockatoo, Gucci, to freeflight at a friend's house in the country.

Gucci flew as a guest for a year. Then, like many other urban owners of free-flying parrots, Heenan decided perhaps it was time to permanently accommodate her bird's new lifestyle.

So she pulled up stakes and moved from the small town of Alameda, Calif., to Montesano in western central Washington state.

"I organized my life specifically for the purpose of allowing [my birds] safe outdoor flight," said Heenan, who now flies not only Gucci but four other cockatoos, including a citron, two umbrellas and a Moluccan, at her new rural home.

When outings go bad
No matter how carefully owners prepare their birds and themselves for freeflight, something can always go wrong. Sometimes, the most innocuous-seeming detail can throw a wrench in the works.

Jeanpierre follows a strict list of don'ts to avoid startling her African grey, Phoebe. She never wears unfamiliar clothes, or uses a harness that must be removed prior to flight, or brings out a camera.

"I found that the times I got into trouble were the times when the bird was stressed at take off," she said. "They don't seem to think clearly."

For Shanlung, an engineering consultant who lives in Chiayi, Taiwan, pigeons ruined a good time.

After spending several months training his African grey, Tinkerbell, to come when called, Shanlung figured she was ready for her first big outdoor flight.

Shanlung took Tinkerbell to an isolated spot in the lush green padi fields just outside Chiayi. When they arrived, he set up her toys and a perch to provide a familiar base, and walked her around on his shoulder to help her get her bearings.

Tinkerbell surveys base camp.

With the nearest high rise almost a mile away and visibility good enough to see it clearly, Shanlung felt confident that Tinkerbell would remain within sight no matter how far she flew.

But when Tinkerbell finally took off from his shoulder, she quickly spiraled 100 feet into the air and joined a passing flock of pigeons.

While his wife, Joy, stayed behind in case Tinkerbell returned, Shanlung jumped on his motorbike and sped back toward the city, trying to keep Tinkerbell in sight.

But it was no use. The haze swallowed the bird and after 40 minutes of aimless searching on the outskirts of Chiayi, a dejected Shanlung turned back to the padi fields to tell Joy.

Shanlung doesn't understand how his assumptions about Tinkerbell's flying abilities could have been so off. "I kept wondering how my Tink could fly so far and so high with no sign of tiring," he said.

A poster eventually brought the free-flying Tinkerbell home.

"We have your bird"
Shanlung plastered more than 60 posters around the city and told everyone he saw about his lost bird.

Two days later a mysterious caller informed Shanlung that another family had found Tinkerbell and planned on keeping her. With neighbors' help, Shanlung tracked her to a house where one of the children had rescued Tinkerbell out of a tree.

The family turned out to be friendly, and after drinking and chatting with the parents for an hour, Shanlung left with not only his bird but a bottle of a home-made plum wine.

"God knows, I went about it in a very careful and methodical way," he says of his first freeflight experience. "And yet I nearly lost Tinkerbell. Tink will free fly again but that is not going to be soon."

Even experienced freeflyers can run into problems. Three years ago Biro's conures startled and flew out of sight when he released them in unfamiliar terrain for an event in heavily wooded Grass Valley, Calif. One, Obee the Patagonia conure, stayed out overnight.

Another time, Obee went missing in Seattle after spooking at a performance. Biro finally recovered him five days later from a family that had already clipped his wings.

Danger overhead
If one fear looms larger than all others for people who fly their birds, it is an attack by a hawk.

Unlike wild parrots, which usually travel in protective flocks, most pet birds fly solo, leaving them more vulnerable to birds of prey looking for easy pickings.

With practice, some pet parrots are able to eventually develop the maneuvering skills necessary to outfly predators such as red-tailed or Cooper's hawks.

But even good flyers cannot always escape a determined raptor. Falcons are considered especially dangerous. Clocked by radar at diving speeds up to 260 miles per hour, they can easily kill with a single strike.

For now, Tinkerbell the Congo African grey will practice flying inside the house.

Sooner or later, most free-flying parrots tangle with one of these predators.

"Elliott was chased by a hawk twice," said Tom Beard of his Goffin's cockatoo.

Both times the cockatoo kept its cool and hid in nearby trees until the raptor, which was not much larger than the parrot, went away, said Beard.

Janet Jeanpierre watched in horror as Griffin, another of her African greys, was repeatedly punched in mid-air by "a big raptor of some sort" while flying in the desert.

"Lots of hits in the air by the bird of prey, lots of yelling with a rampaging Land Rover with horn blowing tearing off to the rescue, not to mention a very upset family," she said, recalling the incident.

Jeanpierre believes the ruckus her family made helped convince the hawk to give up and allow Griffin to land unhurt.

An even more frightening incident occurred this spring, when Jeanpierre witnessed "an escaped and trained" peregrine falcon hunt her newest freeflyer, Phoebe.

"The trained falcon was not the least put off by us as the wild birds are," she said. "It took a while before Phoebe was able to find the falcon far enough away from her and me close enough to risk slowing down for a landing."

To reduce the danger from hawks as much as possible, most owners of freeflyers become raptor savvy.

They avoid flying their parrots during heavy raptor populations and do not fly before, during or after bad weather, when birds of prey are more active.

"I have learned which particular hawks are most likely to be a danger in my area, how to identify them, their migration, hunting and breeding habits," said Emily Heenan. "I have never lost a bird as a result of outdoor freeflight, although I do know that we've been very, very lucky."

Few owners ever actually see predators kill their birds, but when a parrot goes missing they assume the worst.

Jeanpierre, owner of Phoebe, has lost two African greys since becoming a disciple of freeflight. Grayson, whom she allowed to fly in town, a practice she now considers a mistake, may have been captured by a local, who could have sold the bird for a month's wages, says Jeanpierre.

But she doubts Griffin, who escaped out an open door not long after surviving his first hawk attack, is still alive.

"I am sure he was taken by a raptor, as they had all just migrated in," she said.

Sticking close to home
Fear of hawks and other outdoor hazards prompt many owners to practice safer variations of freeflight.

Casper the African grey flies on a home-made harness designed by his owner, Dorothy Schwarz.

Like many bird owners, Dorothy Schwarz of Greenacres, England, takes her two Congo African greys outdoors in harnesses. But Schwarz's harnesses are special: they're home-made out of lightweight nylon rope so the birds can fly.

Twenty-foot leashes allow the harnessed birds to reach nearby branches and the roof of Schwarz's one-story house. Casper will even fly in circles "like a horse on a lunge," said Schwarz.

Once, Schwarz accidentally dropped Artha's leash and it snagged on a tree limb. "Artha dangled like a pendulum until a brave fireman climbed the tree and cut down the branch and she fell into my arms," remembers Schwarz.

Aside from that rather upsetting episode, the harnesses have worked well.

"I don't think they're a substitute for free flying, but if you're like me and inexperienced, they are a compromise," says Schwarz. "The birds get out, to see people and places and have new experiences."

Coming inside
Of course, most owners consider the safest type of freeflight to be inside a house.

Robbin Whitbread of Vancouver says her maroon-bellied conure, Fischer's lovebird and Timneh African grey are so good at flying indoors they can vertically zoom "from floor to ceiling in seconds".

They descend from heights the same way - straight down, spreading their tails "as a parachute," said Whitbread. The only bird she does not allow to fly is her Congo African grey, whom she keeps clipped because the handicapped bird flies sideway into walls.

Unfortunately, indoor flying is not always failsafe, either. With their full set of flight feathers, unclipped indoor birds are even more likely to escape than trimmed ones.

Lynda DeTar let her Timneh African grey, Lola, grow out her feathers because she repeatedly fell off perches when clipped. However, Lola has escaped twice when DeTar absentmindedly walked outside with the bird on her shoulder.

Once, DeTar spent three anxious days scouring nearby neighborhoods in suburban Concord, Calif. before finally locating her bird at a nearby apartment complex.

April Salem was not as lucky with her cockatiel, Cheeky. The bird enjoyed the run of Salem's 4300-square-foot California beach house by day and slept on a play gym by her bed at night.

Cheeky was so faithful to his mistress, she could take him to the beach on her shoulder. Then while on a business trip in 2001, Salem received word that Cheeky had flown out an open door, looking for her.

She posted 300 laminated posters, sent faxes to every veterinarian within 20 miles, mailed 1,000 colored postcards to area residences, and even consulted a bird "psychic".

"Petfinders.com told me I was the most persistent owner she had ever met," recalls Salem.

Cheeky's loss still pains Salem, who continues to scan the lost-and-found ads.

"I will never give up," she said.

Health experts disapprove
Most veterinarians frown upon the practice of allowing pet parrots to fly freely, especially outdoors.

"I think it is extremely irresponsible to keep exotic birds at liberty," said Dr. Kenneth Welle, who treats birds and other exotics at the All Creatures Animal Hospital in Urbana, Ill. "They are not prepared to elude predators from this continent. How well will they recall with a peregrine falcon attached?

"As a veterinarian, I cringe when I see dogs and cats that people let run loose," added Welle. "I certainly don't want bird people to start emulating what has long been considered irresponsible care for traditional pets."

Many bird behavior experts agree.

"You are making the decision to risk your bird's life - he isn't," points out Mattie Sue Athan, who once recovered an escaped flighted scarlet macaw that was starving after a month on the lam. (Read Athan's counterpoint to Chris Biro's opinion piece at Why free flight is a bad idea.)

Sticking by their decision
The backlash does not deter freeflight devotees, who say the positive physical and mental changes they see in their flying birds outweigh the risks.

Her remaining three indoor cockatiels enjoy improved stamina and have developed larger breast muscles and "fatter tails", says April Salem. One has stopped his habitual screaming.

Some say flying can cure featherpicking.

Tom Beard first took his Goffin's cockatoo, Elliott, outdoors on a harness hoping to distract the bird from multilating himself. The outing helped so much Beard decided to let Elliott fly inside the house and then, as he became a better flyer, outside in the yard. "I knew he needed sunshine and exercise to get well," says Beard.

Eventually, Elliott stopped picking and Beard was able to remove the collar the bird had worn for two years.

"He's changed from a hyper, feather-plucking, self-mutilating, don't-touch-me bird into a happy, healthy, highly socialized, well-rounded, I-love-everybody bird that is the joy of my life," says Beard enthusiastically.

Wal Schwarz and grandson Aaron admire Casper and Artha in their home-made harnesses.

Even those who have lost birds because they were fully feathered stand by their choice.

As much as it hurt to lose Cheeky, April Salem would not change anything she did. "Flying meant too much to him," she says.

Jeanpierre, who lost two African greys, agrees.

"Free flying allows my birds some very strenuous physical exercise which I think relieves a lot of their stress," she says.

Freeflyers acknowledge that their way of bird keeping is not for everyone.

"The lifestyles of many people do not allow for safe freeflying of their birds," says Emily Heenan. "It requires a discipline, a conviction, a proper environment and a control over that environment that many people simply don't have."

Biro also believes each bird owner must make the best decision for his or her own pet. For him, it is allowing his birds to enjoy the same freedoms - and weather the same dangers - as wild parrots do.

Heenan echoes this sentiment.

"I have come to believe that my parrots would much rather live a short, joyful life flying free than a long, boring earth-bound existence," she said.

Enough flying, thank you
Some birds make their own decision about flying, and it's not always the one humans expect.

When Jordan, a green-wing macaw, lived at Sea World, he flew for a living. For three years the big macaw soared daily over the heads of thrilled spectators in an open-air arena.

Then Jordan lost his job due to budget cutbacks and went to live with Cathy Timma in St. Louis. Although he was permanently retired from show business, Timma assumed the big handsome bird would be eager to continue using his wings.

But Jordan apparently is not keen on reliving his past. So far, he has rebuffed every basic flight cue Timma has tried.

"Perhaps he simply didn't like performing and would rather be a pet," muses Timma.

That's okay with her. Jordan is welcome to relax with her non-flying cockatoo and four other macaws, she says. "I'll just let him be himself."

All photographs in this story courtesy of the birds' owners.

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