by Kay Falls

Created on: December 08, 2008

Yes, caged birds should have their wings clipped. Whether it is necessary to do so is another matter entirely and should depend on the bird, the cage, and the living environment.

The biggest outcry against clipping wings swirls around the argument that the freedom of the bird has already been taken away, why is it necessary to add, what some consider injury, to the already grievous insult of their loss of freedom.

The vast majority of caged birds in the United States, as well as many other countries, have been born in captivity. The loss of freedom that we humans lament, is something that the bird in question, most likely, is entirely unfamiliar with. In many cases, the natural habitat of a species, which can be a very small area, has been destroyed so there is no longer a natural habitat for them. Since the late 1960's the import and export of endangered species, which many caged birds are, has been controlled, and to a large degree stopped entirely, by the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
(C.I.T.E.S.).

Freedom is not the issue when it comes to deciding if a bird should be clipped, safety is the issue, for both the bird and the owner.

Caged birds come in a stunning array of sizes, from tiny zebra finches the size of your thumb, to the enormous Hyacinth Macaw that could snap, and possibly even sever, any of your digits with ease.

If a bird is to be inside a cage its whole life, and the cage is a proper size, there is no reason to clip their wings. A proper size cage will allow plenty of room to not only extend wings, but will accommodate short flights. It's fairly simple to house birds of smaller size, finches, canaries, parakeets and others that fall into the smaller-than-the-mouse-attached-to-your-computer size range.

As for large birds, it is impossible to accommodate a macaw inside a proper flight cage, inside a house, unless you live in a VERY large house without a lot of interior walls. Larger macaws have a wingspan up to four feet. Additionally, few people are in a position, or location, to have a large outdoor aviary to allow their parrot full flight. Clipping wings on a large parrot is a safety issue.

Proper clipping does not stop the bird from taking flight, it simply does not allow them to gain altitude. They can get away, they just can't get UP and away. Parrots climb, better and more often than they fly, even in the wild. Proper clipping of a caged bird, especially one that is allowed the freedom of being out of the cage, is essential

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