Alright, I was very stupid two nights ago and was debating posting this but here it is. Jean (had) 5 flight feathers grown back in from his molt (he has 4 now because of this incident). And from what I'd seen of him flying indoors, he could make it a max of 7 feet at a continual downgrade of altitude from a take off height of 5 feet. So I'm like, okay, he can't fly up. So when Scott asked me to move my car I pulled it out of the lil garage so he could move his bike behind my car to get it out so I moved the car, took Jean with me and put him on the lil wall outside the garage (it's about 5 feet tall.) And I've never been next to a motorcycle b efore when it starts and had no idea that a 4 thousand dollar Harley would be so loud....

Jean took off like a rocket and flew away from me, I panicked and chased him across the street I thought a car was going to come by and hit us it was like 10PM at night and I run fairly fast...couldn't grab his sorry butt and I couldn't reach him he actually got up higher than my finger tips reach but about 30 feet later he dropped onto the ground and raised his wings at me like I was going to hurt him and I scooped him up and appologised to him. I know it was my fault.... I guess fear can spur a bird to fly even with 5 wing feathers. So I took him back inside and checked him over for damage, none, and then pulled his wing out with the 3 feathers and cut the pretty yellow one (>_< I really wanted him to keep his pied look but this seemed neccicary) then I put him on my finger, facing his cage and he flew to it, almost fell to it to be honest with you because his furthermost flight feather was gone. I don't feel he was trying to "escape" to leave me forever and it was...after the panic had subsided pretty funny to see him take off like that because he's a scardy cat. But it's just a thought, I've taken him outside before like this many times and he's never tried to fly away from me, in fact he hides under my hair for protection I guess this time though he felt mom wouldn't be able to save him fast enough.

Brave of you to post, and a good warning to people.

Birds have no concept of "get away from you" out there. Once they are outside their undomesticated hard wired brain usually prevails and if not once then some other time. And yep they can get quite a bit of altitude with not full feathers even clipped. They CANNOT control what they do outside without intensive training like free flight programs and even then "overnights" are not uncommon. The only birds that successfully fly outside are like olympic athletes on a very strict program and even then it's VERY incremental and can take months and months. And usually they have to be babies.

And no, just because they "dont" fly up in the house doesnt mean they cant do a bunch of other stuff inclucding flying up LOL

He's very lucky like you said....falling out of trees, cars, etc.

Thanks for telling everyone and people, PLEASE this has nothing to do with clipping. LOL

Doesn't lessen the blow that I was stupid... I guess that means I will have to buy 2 harnesses now. God it's wensday....thur...fri....sat....so.... 3 days til Data gets here and just in time for Jean to teach him/her bad lessons. @_@ Just what I need him learning and mom just called me yesterday to tell me that Data's confined to a bedroom because he does fly like a maniac despite his clip so that means I have to pin him down and clip him too...I really want to leave my birds semi flighted but I don't want the constant worry that they have to be harnessed all the time.

I'm glad he's ok and back home with you.

Thank you for posting this because others can learn from it. I think we all need a reminder every so often of what they're capable of in regards to flight. Just the other night my husband wanted to "quickly" go out the front door (which is in the living room where the birds hang out) while the birds were out. I yelled at him for being complacent enough to think that "just this once he could sneak out the door fast as lightening" - oh he was sorry he asked because I say "NO WAY with 3 flighted birds in this room at this moment!"

I don't think it was a matter of him trying to get away from you - it's the automatic flight response that all birds have.

I'm glad his little heart didn't stop, we were standing 10 feet from the motorcycle at ground zero and I don't think it has a muffler because when it went on, you couldn't hear ANYTHING else around you.

Well Tinna....I agree...brave of you to post. But I feel that accidents happen. At least Jean is OK. Live and learn you know. I am glad you got to him and he's fine now. Sometimes the strangest things spook birds. I actually had a kinda similar thing happen to Maple over the winter.

I was visiting a friend's house for a week and of course had the animals with me. Anyway, at the time Maple was sleeping in this huge dog crate we outfitted for her. This one day she was sitting on top of it, just hanging out, and my friend walked through the living room with a shovel to clear off the back deck. For some unknown reason the sight of the shovel spooked her, she launched herself off the top of the crate (clipped and injured wing), and flew straight into a dining room chair. She hit her wing and was bleeding!!! We had to towel her and stop the bleeding with cornstarch. To add insult to injury ..the wing she hit was her already injured one. It was a total freak accident, but both myself and my friend felt SO bad!!! Lucky for us it was inside.

Anyway, my point being, you were not doing anything that you would not normally do with Jean or that you hadn't done before. And it didn't occur to you that the noise of the bike would set him off...just as it did not occur to us that the shovel would set Maple off.

It's brave of you to share your story, everyone makes mistakes and sharing them just helps all of us learn how to better care for our birds.

Try not to feel too bad. Jean is safe, and none the worse for wear. Live and learn! (I know we are learning something new everyday).

OK but for real, taking a bird outside is not a safe thing. And it doesnt sound like something you do all the time but if it is, I'd stop.

And having the bird there with ANY vehicle,,,,um...ok enough said....

Especially outside with FLIGHT feathers so even though I said dont make it about clipping I take it back LOL

There's no reason to clip birds so you can take them outside without flight harnesses. No bird should be taken outside NOT IN A CAGE imo, and only with flight harnesses that you are used to using and are sure they work. They can ALL fly enough to get hurt even clipped.

Also I'm not too sure you're going to want to take a conure and a Tiel out together in flight harnesses right away. Especially in winter.

I wouldnt be so fast to clip a Tiel who flies especially. Having a Tiel cheeping day and night can make a person nuts, and imo she will cheep endlessly when she cant get around like she's used to.....

I"d suggest you give it time when you get them together and they are acclimated. What you see in the first weeks is never the real bird that they are when they settle in.

Brave to post this. I had a similar experience. Cut off saws are scary also. A birds first response is to flee, mostly this fleeing means dispersing away from the flock. They all go separate ways to confuse predators. Jean did not know the motorbike was not going to jump up and eat him. I had the supermarket incident not so long ago. Peanut is fully flighted but we are working with recalls. I am a clipping supporter. With regard to Data, I think s/he should be left fully flighted at present, s/he needs a means to be able to escape any danger Jean presents.

My tiel could also "fly well" when she was clipped - "fly well" meaning she could fly quite a fair distance but her coordination was AWFUL at first. It really took her months to get her flight skills down. So I agree with Cindy in that I would hesitate in clipping Data more until you can see how well he's getting around.

I respect your opinion....but I do not agree with it. Taking a bird outside is not necessarily an unsafe thing to do. It all depends on the bird IMO. Birds, and other animals and people, all have different personalities and react differently in various situations. It all depends on how the bird has been raised and what it is used to. We take our birds outside all the time....and neither one is in a harness. One is clipped and yes he can still fly a little, the other has a wing injury and would happily walk everywhere...she doesn't even attempt to fly.

I just think saying that no bird should be taken outside without a cage is a pretty large blanket statement. In other words....putting all birds into one category. I am not saying in any way that it is ALWAYS a safe thing to do. I just think that it is something that should be decided by the keeper on a bird by bird basis.

IMO, dumping all companion birds into one group is a mistake. Both of my birds behave very differently, and are treated as such. Each have there own set of rules, their own boundaries, and their own level of trust. I don't think Tinna was irresponsible here...I think this was an accident. It happens to us all. There can be just as much danger inside the house.