Gathering.

[Erithacus]

We had a gathering with our fids and pets yesterday in conjunction with Labor's Day.

Here are some of the pics.

[Sondra]

Some really beautiful birds! Hope you had a good time.

[steptoe91(tozie)]

wow! such great pics! ....  that last one seems to be a bit on the featherless side...    but purty all the same. 

[BuffaloParrot]

What a lovely group of Parrots, and snake 

[Tammy]

That looks like a fun day:) Some beautiful birds too.

[Nakia]

Those are beautiful pics, very crisp & sharp. 

The ball python is very nice too.  :twirl:

[Erithacus]

Got to know one of the guys' grey flew away before the end of the day.

[steptoe91(tozie)]

   oh  no!!! like escaped?? he didnt get it back? he didnt have it restrained somehow??     that's one of my worst fears, especially after loosing my first 'tiel out the door. 

[Erithacus]

Yes, escaped. So far no news of the grey. I doubt the bird will ever return. This is the 2nd time a grey escaped. The grey was clipped.
The grey must have gotten bored. The owners didn't even know about it until 1/2 hour later. A young lady saw a grey flying and raised an alarm.
I guess the rest of the guys were too busy to hear her.

[Debz]

Not all of these birds have harnesses I take it. I see Cocoa does, but the others seem to have those...foot chains.  Dont know how affective they are.

[steptoe91(tozie)]

wow, how heartbreaking. but then i'm ultra-careful with my angels and outdoors. i lost one, and marley, with not the first full primary, can still fly. he flew across my yard once  and hasnt been NEAR a door since. Thank goodness there was no wind and he couldnt get any lift so he just flew straight across the yard with me running behind him in a complete panic.

[Sondra]

Any bird can fly and get lift even with a severe clip. If you have a bird who flaps a lot a clip will NOT prevent it from flying as well as getting height due to the chest/wing  muscles being developed/strengthened.

Leg chains cause way too much damage to way too may birds. They cause broken legs, wings, dislocation, & nerve damage. They should be outlawed.


I'm sorry the Grey flew off. It will revert back to a wild state and survive, even if hand reared, simply because instinct will kick in & the natural foods/environment available to it. I don't understand why an owner would leave an unharnessed bird unattended.

[BPMar]

  How horrible!  I guess it is now your duty to expose them all to the harness and be a distributor to them for the harnesses! :party: or start your own line of them!
Kito was clipped when I first got him and he could fly like a banshee....Julio also.  We had him clipped once to try to calm him down but it only took not even a day for him to get used to it.  I say you start your own harness company and give a demo at these gatherings!  

[YoshiMike13]

AWWWWHH! look how much the B&G is blushing in the 7th pic xD soooo cute

[Erithacus]

I did introduce harness to them. The problem is most of them prefer to chain their parrots. It's kind of a culture here. In fact the owners (a couple) of the escaped grey bought one from me. The grey was flighted and was harness trained. I was happy to see the grey being brought up initially but lately they decided to make their lives easier by clipping the bird. When I saw the grey on that day, she looked very skinny and not in good shape. The grey must be sad for not being able to fly.

During the gathering, most of the big birds were chained and the owners left them unattended. The owners were busy mingling and feasting on food. Cocoa was the only harnessed bird there and I never left her out of sight. Cocoa is capable of destroying the harness if left unattended. I left quite early because it was going to rain. According to the escaped grey's owners the bird was chained to a cage. Some how the bird broke the chain and flew away.

Cocoa was placed on a tree branch together with the rest of the greys as you see in the pic. I tied the harness + flight line to a trunk allowing her to move about. I was away from her about 10ft playing with a macaw. Cocoa flew to me to check out what I was doing or probably she was jealous. I placed her back to the branch and she flew to me again.  One of the guys who owns a few greys was amazed and asked me how I trained Cocoa to do that. I told him I didn't. Cocoa wasn't chained in her life and she could fly at will. Bringing out Cocoa in a harness allows her to move freely and the bird has sense of freedom unlike chaining restricts the freedom. This is what I told him.