- Hi, my name is Eleanor, I am 14 years old.
This is my blue and gold macaw, Sam.
He is 17 years old and he has been in my family
for 17 years. (upbeat music)
Sam's flight background was close to none
throughout most of his life.
I can only recall two times where he flew on his own.
And that first time was around the house
when I was very young,
that my dad happens to tell me often of.
Why I chose free flight,
I saw a lot of potential after his outdoor fly off
because he was showing signs of wanting to fly.
And I saw potential in almost
what most would say an impossible bird.
(upbeat music)
Before BirdTricks, Sam was on a pretty bad diet.
He was eating a fruity pellet, a lot of a fruity pellet.
He had a lot of peanuts every single day
without working for them, which made him overweight.
And he only ever got fruit as a source of fresh food.
He refused to eat any vegetables
and his behavior overall was just not great,
he'd be extremely ornery at times.
How I found BirdTricks was quite literally
searching up parrot care online.
And the BirdTricks YouTube channel came up.
And the first video I saw come up personally,
it was a video with Jinx and Jamie.
And I looked up free flight and all of that,
and I found nothing helpful,
and the only thing helpful I found was BirdTricks.
And that is where I started Instagram DMing Dave
and being like, hey, I wanna free fly my...
At the time 16 year old macaw.
Is it possible?
And that's where it all started. (chuckles)
So, I watched all of BirdTricks free flight videos,
several times over.
And I knew Sam's journey
was going to be so much more different for many reasons,
and probably the biggest one is his age.
And there's nothing wrong with that.
It was...
I knew it was going to be a challenge,
but I also knew it was possible 'cause he was motivated.
I saw the potential in him and I knew he could do it.
And I believed in him.
And he did.
Maybe not for the first few days, but he did.
And like you would...
When watching these videos or even being there in person,
you see these young birds flying
and doing these giant exploratories
and just all of these crazy things.
I was like, Sam could do that one day.
There's an example of several, like Katie's story with Mia.
But that takes time.
I'm proud of him for what he's done,
but I also knew his journey
was going to be so much more different than these birds,
because he's not as young.
At first, yeah.
It was very discouraging at first
because I remember taking him out
and batting nuts and he'd do great.
But once I got to Hanksville, he was just,
he was frozen for a day on his perch,
just sitting there like...
I was like, "Come on Sam,
you've been doing these big giant long flights for a while
and you're in shape and you're doing great.
What happened?"
And then it kicked in that he's older.
He is a lot older and he's not...
It's gonna...
It's the baby steps, like you build that all up inside,
but then you take him outside and they're like,
even if they are desensitized, since he's older,
he's going to be like,
well, we've been doing this in this house the whole time.
What now?
Because I've never seen this place,
I've never been to this place.
I have...
It's all new.
And I was really discouraged.
And I was like, but wait a minute, this is his first time.
And also I was really scared that day
because I never saw Dave or Jamie in person.
And I was like, dang, are they gonna judge me? (chuckles)
No, except for Jamie did get on me a little bit.
Which I thank her for.
(beep) (Jamie and Eleanor laughing)
- [Jamie] I'm the judgey one?
- You're not the judgey one.
(Jamie and Eleanor laughing)
- [Dave] I'm going to cut that out of there.
(upbeat music)
(parrot squawks) - Ooh.
- [Jamie] Nice, let him hang out.
(upbeat music)
(parrot squawks) - [Jamie] Yes.
- Good boy.
- [Jamie] Do you think she can jump further?
- [Dave] Yeah, you can keep trying to go further.
- Some of the biggest struggles I had
through Sam's free flight training and the overall course,
there are several, it's not just one.
There are so many and a lot of that stems from the past,
but also a lot of it stems from the time of year.
I started with the training in April.
It was great then, but we only have like...
Alright, there's videos of just walking back and forth,
probably for a couple of weeks.
And so that was great.
So most of that was spent conditioning.
And then we got into summer and it got so hot.
There were days where the thermometer was in the sun
and it was showing 124.
It was insane.
And so naturally not having any AC where we were
and it being incredibly smoky,
that is when our progress started going down.
Those weeks were hard, I felt very discouraged through that.
Probably more discouraged than seeing all these other birds
do these things.
Because I knew he could do it,
but the environment was not right for it.
There were times where I was like,
why can't I just have air conditioning?
Or, we were also moving in the process,
so boxes were packed up all around.
There's probably a video in the file,
of where there's just boxes stacked up behind me
and all around my room looks just bare
and all that's left is Sam's stands.
That was challenging.
And then there's a factor of getting him into shape.
He never fledged, he was clipped for most of his life.
So, wasn't sure if it was possible for a long time.
Yeah.
He has so little muscle mass in his wings,
is he gonna be able to do this?
Does he have arthritis?
Is it hurting him?
Because he always makes this rah noise before going.
I was like, is it hurting him?
And I think that it was a very special experience
to go through all of that.
I think it was very eyeopening.
So I'm having a lot more success even with other birds
through what I've learned through this course.
And there are all these factors.
And sometimes days were hard with him.
But I think those days made the better days even better
because we had so much success some days.
So, when I first enrolled into the free flight course,
it of course started with a consult.
That is how that started, and a lot of that was food, right?
And okay, so we start consultations and I sent my check out.
And pretty much the only way I knew
that Dave was not gonna take my money is when he said,
"I'm not cashing this check until I see a flight from Sam."
There is a video out there
that has me encouraging Sam to fly
in a very painful way for me to watch
to the point where I have completely riddet that video
from existence on my phone.
(screams) I didn't press record.
He just flew.
(upbeat music)
Hey... (sobs)
Why didn't I...
Yeah, but...
Come here.
Here, sit down, let's try it again.
He just flew.
He did so well, oh my...
Ready?
Oh God.
Come here, let's start again.
(indistinct chatter)
(parrot squawks)
Oh, you're trying but you hold on.
Okay, one..
One, two. (parrot squawks)
Oh, good boy, good boy.
Did we get that?
We got that, good job, good job.
Right?
I was doing a table with him
and he was getting really motivated
and he started flapping his wings
and sliding across the table.
And so I took him over to his perch.
He of course moved the paper.
I didn't catch the first time.
And I meant to, but I didn't press record.
And he...
I just squat down and I let him do a little flight,
and I thought I was recording, but I wasn't.
Oh, I'm so happy I got that, good boy.
Good boy, you did so good.
That's such a good sign.
I just don't like it.
But basically, it was a perch right here
and I was right here.
And I just launched him onto the perch.
So, getting out side for the first time,
it was challenging.
In Escalante, he was doing flights
like that pretty consistent and then that kept going.
And especially with a bird like him,
it is constant upkeep because he will lose some muscles
if I don't work with him frequently.
And that is because of past
and he never got the chance to develop those,
so it's constant upkeep for him.
But it is far from over, very far from over.
The rest of my life I will be doing A to Bs
in a room with him on probably the same perch.
This is just at the beginning,
I know he's going to keep progressing
and I'm excited to see it.
(upbeat music)
I'm happy that it was possible.
You can do it with older birds.
It's not impossible, it's just harder.
And there's videos of people on the BirdTricks channel
with their birds in a week, they just jump in weeks,
that's what Dave told me the first time.
He was like, "Well, with baby birds,
you'll just see these huge leaps and strides.
But with Sam, it's gonna be a step forward
and then a few back, and it's more steps forward
and a few back."
So, if you did not notice,
there is a Congo African gray right here.
She is 25 and her name is Squeaker.
She has been in the family for 25 years.
My grandmother hand raised her with a syringe
from a very, very, very young age.
And my grandmother passed and she went to me.
And so she is my next little prodigy.
And there's a lot of hurdles, she is obviously older,
which is fine,
if you haven't picked that up from this video.
But I do not want to outdoor free fly her
because I feel like it's going to be too much stress
for her.
But, indoor free flight seems like a good option.
And I'm excited for that.
(upbeat music)