Flighted Parrots
Can a
parrot, designed by nature for millions of years, be
truly mentally and physically healthy without
flight?
At Hartman Aviary, we have spent 20 years researching what makes a parrot "a parrot". We have found the number one characteristic that defines "a parrot" is its ability to fly. Flight is fundamental to every component of a parrot's mind and body.
Learning to fly well is the most complicated and important task a parrot can learn. We will see that learning to fly will make a parrot healthier, more active, more coordinated, and better able to see. Flying helps with language development, higher intelligence, self-confidence, self-esteem and ultimately makes a very social companion.
Preparation for flight begins when most parrots are about three or four weeks old.
Development of neuropathways in the coordination center of the very young parrot is the first step in preparation for flight. When about four weeks old, parrots begin to program their brain for coordination. This process begins the first time the baby starts to move around in the nest and is substantially complete by six months. Every new type of physical activity constructs more neuropathways in the cerebellum in the back of the baby's brain.
The cerebellum is the part of the brain that stores the program for coordination and ultimately supplies the motor skills for flight. Neuropathways are the brain's electrical connections that allow motor skills to develop as the baby becomes mobile.
Since
more experiences and activities lead to better
motor coordination, then it makes sense that
learning to fly adds an incredible amount of
neuropathways to the cerebellum.
Babies learn best when multiple senses are rewarded simultaneously (IE. sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell). This means the best opportunity for a parrot to learn is when a combination of the senses is experienced at the same time. The senses of sight, sound and touch take on a very different nature during flight. This flying activity offers a greater variety of situations that parrots need to utilize for optimum mental and social development.
The parrot brain develops on a pre-determined schedule that has been fine-tuned by evolution for millions of years. Each one of the senses, as well as mental and physical skills develop over a period of time, but not at the same time. Some of the development phases are symbiotic, meaning that they need the information being developed in another area of the brain for their own development. For example, vision develops best when the baby can move around and see things from different angles and distances. Conversely, coordination develops best when the visual cortex can provide information on distance and perspective. Without this symbiotic relationship of vision and coordination, it is difficult to develop three-dimensional vision.
It is also important
to consider the effect of exponential
development. Every time a new neuropathy is
added, the effect is many times greater than that
one additional connection. We can think about
how important it was to learn how two times two
equals four. Once we understood this simple
concept, we were able to perform millions of
multiplication equations that are useful in many
areas of our life outside of math class. It took
many neuropathways to get to the point of
understanding that simple math problem, but just
a few more to make it useful in many areas all of
our life.
Let us consider just two developmental phases that are important for each other's optimum development: coordination and vision. Then we will look at the broader picture of how wing clipping can cause problems in many areas of development.
Coordination and vision develop in different parts of the brain, but are essential for each other's maximum development. As mentioned earlier, the area of the brain most important for coordination is called the cerebellum and is located in the lower rear section of the brain. Coordination develops as we move around and repeatedly try new and progressively more complicated activities.
The
parrot's visual cortex, which is quite different from
ours, connects with virtually every part of the avian
brain. A baby's vision, at hatching, is a jumble of
blurred shades, shapes and movements. The
baby has the basic program to recognize these
light rays entering his eyes, but needs to learn
how to interpret the basic images so they can be
directed to the appropriate part of the brain for
interpretation. The fast movements associated
with flying are important for developing motor
skills, as well as developing coordination of the
two eyes with the other senses.
Motor skills and vision are in some ways so integral to each other that it is difficult to separate the two. When a baby takes it first step, it does not know where its foot will end up and usually stumbles. Is this because he cannot see the floor or because his muscles do not know how far to extend a foot to touch the floor?
A feedback loop
between the visual cortex and the cerebellum
develop to fine tune each other. The ability to
judge distance or the speed of an object cannot
develop without experiencing movement in
relation to the object or distance.
As a baby flies towards a tree, he will begin to associate the visual change with the closing of the distance between him and the object. As his motor skills develop, he will begin to associate the closing distance with an impending crash and learn how to slow down. The faster he flies, the faster the visual ability needs to be and the faster he can interpret the visual changes, the faster he will be able to fly. Teaching the brain to process information faster and on higher levels, promotes faster decision-making and fewer mistakes in all areas of mental and physical competence.
Now that we know how neuropathways develop in a symbiotic and exponential manner, we can see how the elimination of flight will affect other areas of development and personality.
When the brain is not
able to make proper associations as a result of a
disability like wing clipping, it sometimes creates
"compensating networks" in the brain.
These networks develop to enable the baby to
make sense of a faulty situation.
Basically, when the brain is called on to make a decision, there are usually several variables that need to be considered. Highly functioning individuals analyze every variable until they make sense. Lower functioning individuals often use compensating networks to jump to conclusions and avoid the problem. This often occurs for two reasons: the bird wants to bypass frustration, or for security and defense reasons, does not have the time to work on the problem.
The resulting intelligence and behavior may or may not operate in a normal fashion when the baby becomes an adult. Most often, the result will be inappropriate physical and social behavior.
Flight is so integral to a parrot's identity that it is difficult to break the components into exclusive groups. Below I have attempted a very basic review of five arbitrary groups that influence a parrot's behavior on a continual basis.
Defense
A
parrot's primary means of defense is flight. Any
time a parrot even suspects danger, he can
easily fly away. Parrots fly away so freely and
readily that they rarely feel scared in the
wild.
We must understand the difference between feeling threatened and being scared. As humans we can feel threatened by standing in the middle of a highway, but we need not be scared since we can easily walk to the side of the road and avoid danger. This is how parrots experience threats in the wild. They can easily fly away and rarely ever feel scared. We must also understand that parrots are prey species. Because they can be someone's lunch at any time, they become VERY scared when they cannot avoid threatening situations.
When a parrot cannot remove himself from a threatening situation, he will default to his second line of defense, biting. Parrots that find they have no ability to escape danger or even perceived danger, become paranoid and tend to develop the "bite first, ask later" method of defense. As a prey species, their defense response system operates so fast, that they respond automatically when scared and often bite us by accident. They lose the rational ability to choose between flight or fight and defend themselves at any cost. Ultimately, most of these flightless adult birds become unpredictable and lead very restricted lives.
When scared, a baby will not learn at a very high level. Young parrots that develop without the ability to fly will usually develop into a paranoid, untrusting adult, unable to socialize appropriately.
Safety
No parrot ever
jumped out of the nest in the wild and knew how to
fly. Babies fly into the side of trees, miss their
landing sites and end up in a bush or worse. At
Hartman Aviary, thousands of babies have used
these same experiences to learn how to fly well.
By experiencing these near tragedies as
developing babies, they have honed all of their
senses so that they will automatically avoid those
situations in the future. A juvenile that learns the
limits of his physical body, and how to stay out of
trouble, will be more confident and easily learn
how to fit into a domestic flock as an
adult.
"Flightless parrots are safe parrots" is the advice often given by many short sighted professionals. Our 20 years of experience have proven that hazards are more abundant for flightless birds because they cannot avoid dangerous situations.
Some of the common arguments in favor of clipping wings include:
The
bird may fly onto the stove or into a boiling pot of
water.
Birds can learn more
quickly than us where danger is. A parrot can be
easily taught that a stove is dangerous. If he finds
himself accidentally headed in that direction he
can easily hover like a helicopter and fly in
another direction.
When a bird in a multiple-bird
household flies on another bird's cage, he will get
into a fight.
Birds in a natural
situation rarely get into fights. At the first thought
of danger, one of the birds backs down and flies
away. A clipped bird that accidentally ends up on
another bird's cage will often get hurt because
neither bird has the option to back down if they
cannot get away. It is very easy to teach parrots in
a multi-parrot household to get along and respect
each other's space if they can fly.
He may fall to the floor and get
stepped on or eaten by the dog.
When a flighted bird accidentally finds himself on
the floor, he can easily fly to a safe position. You
must watch a flightless bird very closely because
they often end up on the floor and may become
the dog's next treat.
Clipping wings will make a
parrot easier to handle.
A parrot
that does not develop properly will be a retarded
adult that will either rebel and become very
aggressive, or become passive and docile to an
unnatural extent.
Flightless parrots are constantly exposed to situations where they feel afraid and out of control. Parrots that have no control over their life often develop paranoid schizophrenic behaviors. These individuals lack the ability to trust others and even themselves.
Unfortunately, most parrots that are rendered flightless end up regrowing enough feathers to gain lift and get into trouble. These parrots are unable to fly well or see well, and perpetuate the myth that parrots are too stupid to learn to fly in a home.
Exercise
A parrot in flight for
just a few minutes receives more exercise than
an active flightless parrot receives all day. In
comparison, just think about how you feel after
running a mile (if you can) as opposed to walking
around the house all day. We all know the mental
and physical benefits of exercise on all aspects
of life. If a parrot is healthier and feels better, it
can concentrate and focus its attention and it will
learn faster and be more easily trained. It is
necessary for a young developing parrot to gain
the maximum advantage from exercise to build
billions of neuropathways he needs to achieve his
potential IQ.
Self-Confidence and Social
Ability
A high level of
self-confidence and self-esteem are the
by-product of a well-developed individual.
Confident individuals present and interpret body
language accurately. Individuals that can read
each other's body and vocal language can easily
learn to fit into the flock or household.
An
ability to demonstrate socially acceptable
behavior often determines how much time a
parrot spends caged. Early development plays an
important role in developing self-confidence, but
it does not stop there. Any shortfall in the
development of any of the basic senses can
result in lower self-esteem and inappropriate
behavior.
The symbiotic relationship of all of these traits are also in jeopardy when an adult parrot cannot fly. A paranoid parrot that often feels insecure will not be able to maintain high levels of any basic social skills.
Intelligence
Every parrot is born with a genetically determined
maximum intelligence level. Achieving this
maximum IQ requires the individual to be supplied
with all of the necessary stimulus while the brain
is developing. The brain is very adaptable and
can compensate for some missed experiences.
However, a flightless parrot may miss out on as
much as 50% of the activity he requires for
proper development. Currently, there is no way to
tell just how much damage this shortfall causes. It
could be as much as 10% or 20% of the potential
intelligence.
Conclusion
Flightless parrots lack the great abundance of life
experience that their flighted friends enjoy. At the
minimum, flight is a significant factor in the proper
development of parrots.
Learning is a life
long process. 90% of the neuropathways a parrot
will produce occurs in the first six to eight months
of life. The other 10% form as the adult learns
how to use the information learned before
adolescence. Following this rule of thumb, we can
see that a baby who only builds 80% of the basic
neuropathways will at best top out at 88% of his
potential as an adult.
Young parrots crippled during the exponential development phase of the cerebellum and visual cortex show a marked decrease in coordination relative to a flighted bird. Because of the symbiotic relationship of the development of all parts of the brain, the consequences of clipping can be seen in the adult parrot. Unfortunately, these birds will never be as mentally and physically sound as a parrot that was encouraged to develop to their full potential.
Rendering a parrot flightless is not a substitute to spending the time training him to be a well-behaved and responsible adult. Most parrot owners believe their pet to be smarter than a dog, but we do not see dog owners cutting off their legs to keep them out of trouble and make them submissive.
At Hartman Aviary, we have developed the techniques that make it easy to teach parrots to behave and safely learn to navigate well in our domestic environments. A parrot that learns to fly well will never get hurt flying into a window or wall, or accidentally fly out a door.
Flying is the most complicated
activity a parrot can ever be involved in. Thus, it
makes sense that the symbiotic relationship in the
development of each part of the brain is
maximized during flight. Not one area of the
parrot's brain will ever develop to its maximum
potential without the development of a finely tuned
ability to fly.
Spread the word and help every pet parrot thrive and enjoy life the way nature intended.
****Reader's Comments****
Hi Steve
We appreciate your article on flying.
Our two macaws which as you know are fully flighted, are very confident, loving, fully functioning parrots. It would take all day to type all the advantages of fight so I will just hit on the ones that quickly come to mind.
Our boys are more loving and less nippy because they don't need to bite, they have the option of leaving the area by way of wings. Yes, it is work to teach them where they are allowed to be since they can fly where they want, but it is well worth the effort. Like all things you get out of something what you put in to it.
They now fly to their perches to potty, no more having to watch or remember the last time they went. Hungry, lets fly over and get a snack. They are with us doing what ever, and they want some time to their self, off they go to a place they know is theirs, no biting or bad behavior. They fly just for the exercise and then are calmer.
The door bell rings, they know that means someone is here, they fly to me or Sharon to feel safe. Think of a clipped parrot being scared and ready to bite or misbehave, while our flighted boys are safe and calm.
They fly to us when called either by saying "come Nino" or "come Teo" or by raising our arm and motioning for them to come to us. They will be playing and for whatever reason they need some love/attention, out go the wings, to us they come, get their head rubbed and back to their place to play. No screaming "come and get me, I want you to play with me" or nipping "I want time alone to play." I could go on and on but that is enough for now.
One more thing. Teo has taught our older macaw Nino the art of flying. Nino flies very well now. At first he chose his spot to land and went for it. Now he can choose a landing spot while in flight, which has been a big development for him and us.
Thanks,
Jim & Sharon Stewart
