parrotvolancy

21/11/2024

What makes my babies different from the cockatiels you would get at a bird store? Mine are:

- Naturally and fully fledged
- Started on outdoor free flight
- Fed entirely by their parents
- Truly abundance-weaned
- Given ample enrichment and free roam in the bird room
- Offered a variety of food items
- TRAINED daily on recall (sometimes in the outdoor net), stepping up, hopping onto a shoulder, and entering a travel cage
- Taken to different locations for exposure to various stimuli
- NEVER CLIPPED or physically forced to interact
- NO ADOPTION FEE CURRENTLY--adopter pays for any desired testing and shipping/transportation, if applicable

I'm not perfect, but you will not get a SINGLE ONE of these attributes from any bird store that I'm aware of in our area. Good luck finding a bird store in our entire region of the country that has two or more. The "catch" is that I am primarily looking for people who want to free-fly to adopt my baby cockatiels.
paint.w.cockatielqueen is another pro-flight breeder who does not have the same outdoor free flight preference.
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16/11/2024

If anyone in the U.S. wants to join me in breeding cockatiels for free flight, please let me know. Aesop and Arkady have another clutch, and I would like for a bird from this clutch to go to someone who shares this passion of mine and likewise wishes to breed successful free-flyers. I start birds on free flight BEFORE adopting them out so that we can, at the very least, determine whether they were able to do it successfully as babies--following their parents, taking HUGE flights without getting lost, and coming down to me for food--which is a good baseline.

As you probably already know, cockatiels in captivity have, for the most part, been bred either 1.) at random or 2.) for aesthetic reasons (crest size, recessive colours/patterns, etc.) I have been trying, working within my means, to start moving away from this and towards breeding for function--that is, the ability to free-fly successfully. So far, I have worked towards this by:

Producing offspring from Linnaeus, who was one of the most successful free-flying cockatiels I am personally aware of.

Producing offspring from Linnaeus' son, Aesop, and Arkady, both successful free-flyers.

Starting birds on free flight before adopting them out and certainly before making any decision as to whether to breed them. I have incurred two baby cockatiel losses this way, both of whom were white-faced and carrying the pied gene. This combination does not seem to be well suited, genetically, for the pressures of free flight, on average.

I am keeping Baby #3 from Aesop and Arkady's clutch this year; he is a grey male who strikes me as very similar to Linnaeus in temperament and mannerisms. I will continue free-flying him, and, if he continues to succeed, he will most likely be father to the next generation of free-flying cockatiels when the time comes. (And yes, I have a bias towards breeding phenotypes that are more "wildtype" if possible because they seem to do best with free flight, on average, compared to some of the more recessive mutations, though this is by no means a black and white issue.)

I can't keep all of the cockatiels. I have already adopted out/found homes for several babies with free-flyers or people interested in free flight who are otherwise great bird owners anyway. However, I would like to start placing birds with people who are not only free-flyers but who also want to embark on this difficult and exciting journey with me.

Even if our only short-term initiative is simply to pair up and breed healthy birds who have free-flown successfully (made possible by the fact that I and whomever else would be flying them as youngsters, so we never have to commit birds to a lifelong mate without at least a little bit of free flight data), we are already taking a step in the right direction that has never been bothered with before.

Long-term, with more data and more individuals to choose from, we might even manage to breed males whose adolescent dispersal instinct is diminished or absent; I have noticed, at least from my personal experience, that males with a great knack for free flight--confidence, survival skills, predator evasion, intelligence, etc.--nevertheless seem to harbour this instinct. I suspect that this facilitates genetic diversity in the wild when males leave their "home flock" to find another.

I believe we can change the future of cockatiel free flight and impose selective pressures on the captive population that will lead to free flight being safer, birds being healthier, more cockatiels being capable of free-flying, and people who wish to free-fly cockatiels having a better source for where to obtain their birds.

This is not easy, there will be losses, and some people will hate us for free-flying this species, but it is possible that fifty years from now, if enough people care about chipping away at this goal, we might have a line of cockatiels which are objectively better suited for free flight than any of the birds we have had access to thus far.

16/09/2024

Posting on PawBoost if he doesn't show up by sundown.

10/09/2024

This is the "short" version of the babies' first free flight...lol. It was definitely crazy, but these babies were born late in the summer and we're running out of time for good beginner conditions, so I made the decision to have Babies #1, 2, and 3 out at the same time. I knew it would probably take all day, but I had all day to spend. As you can see, Aesop absolutely killed it, watching out for and guiding his babies while remaining super reliable. I definitely feel extremely privileged to be able to watch this kind of natural cockatiel behaviour and see Linnaeus and Ki-ok's grandchildren free-flying along with their parents. It has been a long road, and I know I fell off social media, but actually doing things is more important.
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09/09/2024

:D

29/08/2024

The babies are doing great! We're getting very close to free flight. Still looking for a couple more people to adopt! I am waiting for Arkady to finish moulting because she has new flight feathers growing in and I want her to be in good form for flying with the babies. I have some more cute pictures, but Instagram was giving me a hard time, so I'll post them separately.
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26/08/2024

Yesterday when we were cleaning up the rescue we have Havoc providing his supervision from up above.

22/08/2024

Beautiful addition to Straw Hat Parrots' rescue!

13/08/2024

This is a new Australian group my friend made for flight education. :]

13/08/2024

I'm over the moon for Havoc!

08/08/2024

Baby update! Let me know if you're interested in adopting, preferably if you would like to free-fly. :] All five babies are being lovingly interacted with and learning to come to me for millet (though they are all still very young, so some are farther along this process than others, based on their age). Outdoor enclosure training will start soon. I'm sorry I haven't been posting more updates, but I struggle to get everything done in the day even without posting. However, I want to keep getting the word out, because these babies will be free-flying and looking for awesome homes.
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17/07/2024

Your Prime Day delivery has arrived. XD These babies will be up for adoption AND trained to free-fly beforehand! These are the babies of Aesop and Arkady, and Aesop is Linnaeus and Ki-ok's son. This means that they will be third-generation free-flying cockatiels.
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04/07/2024

Yep, I'm going to be looking for awesome homes for these babies. :] I do plan on getting them free-flying before adoption, and I could teach anyone who chooses to adopt. I was not expecting this many, nor was I expecting Nemo the budgie to assist in the endeavour, lol.
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02/07/2024

Havoc!

14/06/2024

The best boi living his best life thanks to Straw Hat Parrots!

A cockatoo on a mission!

06/06/2024

I'll be answering questions about cockatiel free flight on 's Instagram live tomorrow around noon EST, for anyone who wants to tune in! :] (I know you guys probably think I got bodysnatched or something posting twice in one day, lol.)
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04/06/2024

Not drawing any concrete conclusions yet, but I had Aesop out with Linnaeus yesterday. He was initially enticed to fly when Linnaeus flew. He flew around and landed in trees for about twenty minutes, then he flew down onto the top of the cage and flew to me when Linnaeus chased him off of it (lol). I held him up to the door of the cage, and he went in for food. I had Arkady out first, but she only did a few short recalls and then just didn't seem interested in flying, so I put her away. These two will only take turns until I'm really sure about Aesop. Might not even fly together until next year. We'll see what happens, but I hope that if I keep things tight Aesop will be fine. He had a really, really tough experience last time he was lost, so I'm hoping that he learned from that.

I'm taking them to the park where we had the meetups instead of the other location because he flew off from there twice, so I don't want to call up any patterns of behaviour he might have made there at this fragile stage. Not to mention the park is much, much easier for me because I can just fly them from where I park the car. We're not out of the woods yet, though, because last year he was fine the first session and flew off the second. However, he has never flown off and not come back at this location, so my hope is that even if he gets a bit adventurous, he won't leave entirely. He did really well yesterday, though. I was really pleased. Fingers crossed next time goes just as well if I stick to the protocol. :]
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