by Amanda Mcknight

Created on: March 20, 2007   Last Updated: March 25, 2007

From personal experience, I must say that letting a pet bird fly free is not only irresponsible, but also dangerous to the health of your bird. I have a five-year-old blue crowned conier named Moe; he is quite a cute little bird (although annoying at times) and an official member of the family. About eight months ago, my family and I returned from a year-long mission trip to the Fiji Islands. When we returned, we reclaimed Moe, whom we had left with some good friends. We were all, of course, overjoyed to have our little birdie back, and he remembered us very well. However, we became so busy with the rush of moving and re-adapting to the American culture, that we simply forgot to clip Moe's wings. In fact, his former temporary owners had left that action completely out of Moe's life for the past year.

One day, though, while my mom and brother were working in the yard and Moe was sitting on his outside perch, a sudden noise scared Moe. Moe jumped up and began to fly. Now Moe wasn't altogether a good flyer; he hadn't much experience, after all. He was very good at flying upwards, but not so good at flying downwards. He simply didn't know how to land, basically. So, in an effort to save himself, he continue flying higher and higher until he reached the top of an elm tree. Nothing we did could get Moe down from his lofty perch, for he was apparently extremely scared. We might have resorted to desperate measures when we called the fire department, but they weren't able to get him down, anyway. To make a long story short, Moe flew to 3 different gigantic pine trees before a friend was able to climb one and retrieve him.

Needless to say, we clipped Moe's wings directly after the incident, and have faithfully clipped them ever since.

The fact is, however "cruel" or "heartless" some would claim wing clipping to be, a responsible bird owner will regularly clip his bird's wings. This protects the bird from the dangers of the inside and outside world, and it gives the owner a sense of peace knowing that the bird is unable to fly away. Clipping your bird's wings should not hurt your bird in any way; it should instead keep him safe, healthy, and protected; you'll find yourself with a happy bird!

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