Some of you might remember me telling about Tausi, and how his breeder had clipped him before fledging, and that its taken a looong time for him to learn how to fly. Well, he's gotten pretty good at flying.

Trouble is, he's....er,......."grace impaired" (thank you Beatriz) in the landing department. Severely impaired. The boy seldom makes a successful landing (defined as anything other than a semi-controlled crash). When I take him out of the cage, he always flies from my hand to his hanging play gym. That's usually his only good landing, and he makes it look easy. Usually, at least once while I have him out, he'll get inspired to take a couple of laps around the room, and he's good at it! The room is about 14 feet wide and 27 feet long, and he maneuvers just fine when he gets to a wall. He just can't seem to figure out how to end it though. Typically, he'll just wait until he gets to one end of the room, sort of pull up, and flutter to the floor. There's all kinds of things around he could land on, like his play gym for instance, chair backs, the counter, a training stand, etc. The one thing he has successfully landed on once or twice is Chico's cage, which is definitely not a good idea. Chico is completely un-phased when it comes to Quito, but he goes after Tausi every time. I finally hung something in front of Chico's cage from the ceiling down just below the top of the cage to keep him from trying to land there.

He's been flying now for a few months. Is he always going to be "grace impaired" when landing? Anyone have any ideas that might help? I've tried making myself available by standing in the middle of the room to no avail.

Lulu was the same way, and I too wondered if the girl would ever get her coordination down pat! She just needed to practice, practice, practice (and a crash helmet would have been helpful LOL). It's great that Tausi already has a good landing spot on his hanging gym. I think that it's mainly about confidence and courage to try new landing spots - I saw this with Winston too at first, he would have one or two spots where he knew he could land well. It was probably a couple months before he began landing on different gyms.

Lulu is now great at landing, even spontaneous lands. Sure they all have their favorite spots to land, but now that the overall confidence level has gone up, they're making great strides with their flight (I can't wait to someday get a video camera because Lulu does the most awesome banking turns at steep angles - when she was so shaky with flight in the beginning I would never have guessed that she would now be this proficient).

I think he'll improve but it's hard to say how much. My Plets make uturns without hesitation and barely even misstep...well flying wise.

My male budgie however, after like two years still gets to the wall and flutters in front of it hovering not knowing what to do. Then goes on the floor.

The budgies are OUT in their room the entire day uncaged and still have not tried landing on their boing lol. I agree a destination is the way to go but maybe there's something he cant manage about the ones there now its so hard to guess. even location like once they pick up speed it's hard to pull it back. Even an artificial tree which after he gets used to it might attract him for landing and be more cushioned than say, a counter which might feel like being on a slip and slide (remember them?).

Piper Plett, though zooms through like a tornado landing on everything including them and flies out again after her destruction is complete. She's only a second year but flighted from birth.

Except for a short stint thanks to the pet store who LOVES clipping why not ?it brings the people back.

Maybe boings hung from the ceiling and even grapevine around the walls. More natural and forgiving if the grapevine is there (even though it sounds like he's learned to avoid walls).

I'm surprised that you being a landing didnt work. Just proves they're all different. And it takes time....thanks for working so hard for them Nate it's so nice to read about different things people try.

Give her time. I took in this female keet who could not fly at all (I named her Lilly -she didn't even have a name, can you believe it?). She tried and tried and tried and the poor thing could not get over a foot or so off the ground and used to perch on the bottom of the cage stands. But that created a problem because she could not get to the feeding platforms on her own so I put her in a flight cage for a couple of week in order to strengthen her wings muscles a bit before releasing her again. Once I did she was fine as far as power went but it did take her quite a while to get the hang of it because it wasn't only that she was not strong enough, it was also that she obviously had lived her entire life in a cage and had never really learned how to do it right. But she did learn... boy did she learn! You should see her now! She is the best flier of the four and the leader of the pack, where she goes the two males follow (Pepin and Elmo, the fourth is an older female -Ernestine- who would much rather take a nap than be playing silly games in the air). She is a regular Red Baron now and zooms around the birdroom like a jet plane! She is also quite naughty and forever coming up with things that she should do -her latest is to dig in the dirt -it's organic so there is no danger to her even if she eats it- of the plant pots and carry a beakful of it so she can then drop it all over the place. As a result, her face and chest are dirty all the time!

Give her time. Birds that did not learn how to fly when babies take a very long time to not only develop the muscles but also master the techniques. It has to do with muscle memory so the more she practices the better she will get.

Thanks, all. It's just funny that he's apparently mastered the flying techniques quite well, but seems quite clueless when it comes to landing. On the other hand, it took a long time for him to learn how to fly, so I guess its logical that it would take a while for him to learn how to land. Part of it, no doubt, is the dreaded "flying down" problem. If he's flying fairly high in the room (which he usually is), then landing involves flying down, and I know that's sometimes the hardest technique to be learned. Although, he is able to fly down from his hanging gym and make a decent landing on my head when I'm sitting in my usual chair. But, my chair is right next to the hanging gym, so there's only about a three foot flight involved. Where he seems to have trouble is when he's been flying for some distance. Maybe part of it is that his muscles still aren't built up enough, and he just unexpectedly runs out of gas and doesn't have enough "oomph" left for a decent landing? Hmmm.....I'm liking that hypothesis, the more I think about it, the more it seems to fit. I've been approaching it from the angle of him not being able to judge the landing, but perhaps its just that his body lets him down before his brain is done flying! Being a Poi, he flies a bit like a baseball with wings anyway, you know. Not like Quito, who flies like a bat and can land on almost any surface, right-side up, sideways, or upside down.

[quote=Quito's Qage;73666]I've been approaching it from the angle of him not being able to judge the landing, but perhaps its just that his body lets him down before his brain is done flying! QUOTE]

I think that both of these concepts are important:

1) Being able to accurately judge the landing and slowing up with the wings AND working the feet when they touch down. I think that takes quite a bit of coordination!

2) Being over-ambitious and then running out of steam - and confidence! That used to happen to Winston, he'd be ambitious and he'd get some decent speed, but most of this would be done higher up. Then shortly after he'd get tired, and realize he'd have to fly downward AND land where he was comfortable. In the end I think his mind often psyched him out.

Oh yeah he's a Poi I forgot. My Senegal wasnt the best flier either but I attributed it to not wanting to... he always wanted to be with me at the store bossing me around. Afraid he was going to miss something ..or some bird get outta line or something lol.

Yes I think it's harder for heavy bodied birds too when they have to relearn (or learn at all). Beatriz has a couple in her room one or two came later in life I'm curious about their flying...

I always marvel at the strength they have to just jump into the air & take off. Laker used to pant something terrible when he started flying. He was flighted, just cage bound. Such a shame Tausi was clipped so young. They are fearless when babies & that time period can give them lots of experience to build on.

Landing & hovering or making turns - that is all hard stuff to do well.
My little fellows practice a lot. How much time does Tausi have to practise each day? - alone? - with his 'buddy' Quinto? - how are they getting along these days?
Yesterday i took a nap & was dive bombed relentlessly & hopped on all over. Have you tried lying on the floor or bed while he's practicing? If Tausi keeps it up & i'm sure he will - he'll get better. If he has to try different landings it will give him the life experience he needs. Luckily he's not very old. I imagine Quinto's example is not lost on him - Laker has tried lots of stuff Rio's shown him - not as agile but almost.

All the best to Tausi. ~ go boy!

Tausi will be flying and landing with ease given enough practice.

I once posted Pebbles a Hy could fly into an 8X8 foot closet and turn and fly out, very few would believe us. The point I'm trying to make is over time you will see them improve, all it takes is practice. Our Redfront can fly and hover turn like a helicopter.

Bella's landing is still pretty sad. She's learning slowly but surely but it may have to do with some of her butt feathers needing to be molted out and grown back in. She broke one of her nice new primaries too during one of her rounds. I guess it goes to being a rookie.