Abstract
The release of captive-raised parrots to create or supplement wild populations has been critiqued due to variable survival rates and unreliable flocking behavior. Private bird owners free-fly their parrots in outdoor environments and utilize techniques that could address the needs of conservation breed and release projects. We present methods and results of a free-flight training technique used for 3 parrot flocks: A large-bodied (8 macaws of 3 species and 2 hybrids), small-bodied (25 individuals of 4 species), and a Sun Parakeet flock (4 individuals of 1 species). Obtained as chicks, the birds were hand-reared in an enriched environment. As juveniles, the birds were systematically exposed to increasingly complex wildland environments, mirroring the learning process of wild birds developing skills. The criteria we evaluated for each flock were predation rates, antipredator behavior, landscape navigation, and foraging. No parrots were lost to predation or disorientation during over 500 months of free-flight time, and all birds demonstrated effective flocking, desirable landscape navigation, and wild food usage. The authors conclude that this free-flight method may be directly applicable for conservation releases, similar to the use of falconry methods for raptor conservation.
Highlights
Reintroduction is often a necessary conservation strategy in the face of rapid environmental change and anthropogenic impacts [1]
When wild birds, which were most often doves and songbirds, alarm-called or flushed, the parrot flocks increased wariness or launched into flight, demonstrating learning of heterospecific signals and behavioral cues. These hand-raised parrots trained with free-flight methods successfully developed skills in flocking, predator evasion, navigation of complex landscapes, and wild food use
Whereas the level of human effort for free-flight training is high, it is comparable to other intensive bird management schemes utilizing hand-rearing, wild nest management, cross-fostering, and intensive soft release [12,39,40,41,42]
Summary
Reintroduction is often a necessary conservation strategy in the face of rapid environmental change and anthropogenic impacts [1]. Researchers have been successful in encouraging birds to recognize wild foods, remain near the release site, interact in group settings, increase stamina, and recognize predators [2,4,9,10,11,12,13,14]. Many of these methods could be improved, and methods for creating other key survival skills, including effective flocking, landscape navigation, and coordinated response to predators, remain undocumented
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