Wings Revisited

By Mattie Sue Athan

Wing Feathers Revisited: Conundrum on Treasure Street

On Sun, 9 Oct 2005 "Mattie Sue Athan" wrote:

I didn't wake screaming last night, like I did the night
before and the night before that. As time passes, I expect
that to happen less. Undoubtedly these anxious cries
escape from a heart troubled by things I witnessed
retrieving trapped birds and other pets from the rubble of
the mother of modern North American disasters. My bad
dreams are personal, not about the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina, but about nightmarish things that could happen to
my pets or to me.

To say that I've been affected is an understatement. Could
anyone with a life dedicated to the care and keeping of
companion parrots not be torn -- like an earthquake might
someday rend California or Missouri -- by seeing what
happens to birds in cages when disaster strikes? Some
birds survived by eating their cage mates. Some birds
drowned; some died of thirst with food still in their
bowls; some of starvation with water still available. Some
birds, likewise, were found in time, given Gatorade or
Lactated Ringers, and moved to safety. Some will,
undoubtedly, be recaptured or naturalize -- become a
wild-living part of the environmental gumbo on the Gulf
Coast.

I'm comforted tonight remembering a rooftop on Treasure
Street near Elysian Fields in New Orleans. The scene is
etched in my conscience: a vision of cages, many empty
cages, with doors wide open and evidence of birds
returning time and again to eat and drink. Kudos to those
who released their birds rather than leave them entrapped
on the altar of time.

In that circumstance those untrimmed wing feathers were
tools for survival, for I did see free flying parrots in
the days I was there between Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

While it is not my place to question or judge anyone who
didn't release their birds -- many people were running for
their own lives and didn't have the luxury of time needed
to make decisions about their birds -- I must send special
congratulations to the people on Treasure Street and to
others who, when the barometer was falling, the winds and
waters rising, released their birds to the sky to freely find their fate.

Of course, disaster kills caged and free birds alike.
There were dead birds -- both parrots and native species
-- on the roof with the empty cages, too. Wild life is no
picnic, especially during a widespread environmental
disaster. Water was available, but it was filled with
organic and chemical filth. However, unlike the aviaries
with mostly drowned birds and a few escapees surviving
above the water line, on Treasure Street there was
evidence of mostly living and only a few dead birds. We
visited that rooftop time and time again to refill bowls
and saw recently-molted macaw and cockatoo feathers;
ringnecks, quakers, and one parrotlet in the trees
overhead.

RETHINKING MY WAYS

Here again, I must reconsider the great conundrum: to trim or not to trim a companion parrot's wing feathers.While I did, for quite some time, openly advocate trimming wing feathers for safety in companion parrots, in recent years I have increasingly counseled careful clients to allow flight for behavioral reasons in their companion parrots. Now it's time, also, to reexamine safety issues.

Certainly disasters on the Gulf Coast have killed many
birds in cages, but likewise in-home accidents have
probably killed equal numbers of flighted companion
parrots in sinks and toilets, ceiling fans and swinging
doors. Most of these deaths are probably preventable. Is
it time for behavior consultants to counsel better in-home
safety, flight-training, harness-training, and retrieval
techniques rather than reaching for the scissors?

Every year I have come closer to a radical shift in
philosophy. I haven't trimmed my own birds' wing feathers
for years, but I have now backed off on recommending it
for others.

On September 15, 2005, I arrived at the philosophical
point I needed to reach. In most circumstances, if a home
can't be made safe for a bird with wings, I don't think
that is the right place for a parrot. Yes, there are a few
circumstances in which trimming wing feathers may be in
the birds' best interests; but if I have any opportunity
in the future, I will be counseling to accommodate flight
rather than trim wing feathers of most companion parrots.

Mattie Sue

Best-Selling/Award-Winning Author, IAABC Certified
Companion Parrot Behavior Consultant

A mind is a terrible thing to close.
No good deed goes unpunished

Books By Mattie Sue Athan

Guide to a Well-Behaved Parrot
Guide to Companion Parrot Behavior Parrots
The Second-Hand Parrot
The African Grey Parrot Handbook
Guide to the Quaker Parrot
Guide to the Senegal Parrot and Its Family
Parrots in the City

Return to main menu