- So I had a Sun Conure, a couple of years ago,
and, I was looking for videos
of Sun Conures in the wild. (laughs)
And so I kept coming across you guys' video,
and I guess I watched it enough times
that then all of your videos came up on my YouTube feed.
And then unfortunately I did not take
any of that training that I was learning
from the videos, to heart.
And, I had my Conure on my shoulder,
I was going to pick my kids up from school.
And it was February, really cold,
really windy,
she saw her reflection in the window,
or the doors, and she flew away.
And it was like four o'clock at night,
so I did literally everything wrong, with her,
and I never recovered her.
And so, I knew that I wanted to get another bird,
and that if I was gonna get another bird,
I was dead set on free flight training her.
(gentle music)
(music tempo increases)
Birds are meant to fly.
It is really sad to me to see a bird
that's just stuck in a cage, all day.
You know, again, just watching the free flight videos
and just how happy the birds are,
you know, I knew it's the right thing to do.
I got the Green-Wing after I lost my Conure
and the breeder wouldn't let me
bring her home fully flighted.
So he let her fledge, and so she did learn how to fly,
but when it came time to bring her home, he was like, nope,
I'm not gonna send a bird that can hurt itself home.
And so he clipped her wings, but she still flew.
Come on!
No!
What you doing?
Like she had five flight feathers clipped,
and she was still flying around my house.
And so I didn't take advantage of any training then,
but in January, her flight feathers started falling
or the clipped feathers started falling out,
and she just lost enough of them
that she couldn't, couldn't fly anymore.
And so, as soon as those flight feathers
started growing back in,
which was about April-ish this year,
is when I really started training hard with the flight.
And I watched some of the flight videos
on the Birdtricks Tuesdays on Patreon,
and so I kinda started doing my own thing.
(plate clanking)
Really?
And then, in June is when I started with you guys.
(gentle music)
My biggest struggle with the process of training
was allowing failure.
I can't tell you how many times I heard you gotta allow
failure, you know, because that's how they learn.
And I am a control freak, I'm a perfectionist.
And so failure isn't in my, isn't in my tool belt.
- [Man] Nice, nice
(bird chirping)
- [Woman] Awesome.
- [Woman] Good job Sheila.
- And so, that was really hard.
But then, I came up to a point where, you know,
it was a struggle.
When I first started with the free flight training,
my kids weren't home.
And so I had a very nice, quiet, calm house for six weeks.
And then my kids came home and it was just immediate chaos.
And so that was really when I started struggling
and then I'm like, "Okay".
But it helped me learn, like, you know,
set yourself up for success,
and really be prepared to, you know,
be prepared to figure out what the issue is.
- [Man] You ready?
- [All] One, two, three.
(birds chirping)
- [Man] All right Fox.
- [Man] All right.
- [Woman] That's some good navigation.
- Good bye.
- [Man] All right, ready?
- [Woman] Let's go.
(birds chirping)
- [Woman] Nice.
Ooh, yes Green-Wing team.
Woo!
There's the answer.
That was awesome.
- [Man] Let then hang on to you for a little bit.
So, I'd say about a minute,
and then go ahead and put them down.
- [Woman] So that's the answer, fly them together.
- [Man] Success!
- When I told my kids that I was going to free flight Fox,
they were like, "Mom, no, we don't wanna lose another bird".
And so they, you know, for them, it was really a struggle.
And even up until Monday when she flew,
I showed my kids the videos and they were like,
"Oh mom, I was so worried, but I wasn't gonna say anything".
So, but you know, they,
they have really enjoyed watching the process.
My dad is, you know, Mr. Positivity.
He's like, "You're gonna lose that bird.
And how are you gonna make sure it comes back",
and all of this.
So I really had to be like,
"No, you don't understand.
I've spent months training for this".
And so, you know, that I have the kids on my side,
but even yesterday, my dad,
I showed the picture of Fox splatted in the tree.
And my dad is like,
"You're gonna lose that bird to a predator one day".
And so, you know, they haven't won them over, yet.
We planned to meet up at 6:00 AM
and I was up at three that day.
I did not sleep, and I was so nervous.
My hands were shaking.
It was, it, it was bad.
I'm glad that I got to see other people go first,
but then, you know, I put her on the perch
and I turned around and next thing I know,
she's flying over my head.
And that was, I don't know,
I just, it was kind of unreal to me.
Like I wasn't prepared for her to just take off
and go do that exploratory.
But then, from then on, I was like, "Okay, I got this".
(upbeat music)
And then for two days she did nothing.
(gentle music)
So after the two days, I realized that
I should be using her highest reward treats,
which I still feel really dumb
for not catching them at first.
But then, she just, you know,
she got more confident in her skills
and I pushed her a little bit harder.
And now it's just, it's so cool with her watching
the other birds get to fly like yesterday,
at the level three, she,
I could tell that she's like,
"Oh, I want to go do that too".
And that was amazing.
- Should we go?
- [Woman] Yeah, nobody knows.
- Let's go.
(birds chirping)
(group cheering)
- But, so she doesn't get scared, I'm gonna wait for them,
a couple of other birds to go.
- I agree, I think what Justin's saying
is, he's like,
"Let's watch everybody else.
See what their birds do,
see what they do wrong".
- Well, even down on the bottom,
we noticed until we stepped out,
Ocean was too, to skittish.
- [Man] Nice.
So, do you see how she's...
- The, you know, the one on one feedback
was so, so important.
And just being able to have that constant,
"Okay, you're doing this great.
We need to work on this.
She's ready to learn this skill".
You know, having expert eyes on that was so important.
If I was trying to do it,
like I was trying to do it on my own.
And the first video I sent Dave, he's like,
"Okay, well, we have some things to fix". (laughs)
Just this whole trip has been really amazing.
Yesterday with that breakthrough, I really think that,
I mean, you even caught me,
after Fox finally took off on her own,
after two days to struggle,
that was, that was awesome.
Cause I was like, man, I went through all this work
and my bird doesn't wanna fly.
And so, being able to see her do
what she's intended to do
was just amazing.
(upbeat music)