Is it safe to take a wing-clipped Jardines parrot outdoors?
A – From Rita: The group of Poicephalus parrots are also called “long winged” parrots. Even with a full wing clip, some of these well-muscled birds can still manage to fly quite well. The Greater J’s, especially, are very streamlined because of their slim build. Despite my warnings, I have had customers take their J’s outdoors, uncontained, but clipped. For one family the bird was startled one day and ended up flying over 300 yards and landed in a tree. They managed to follow the direction of his flight and did get the bird back after he spent a night in a tree (in which he could have been singled out and tormented by crows, become hawk or owl lunch, etc.). This bird was completely clipped. Another J customer had his clipped red-belly out of doors sitting in a low limb of a tree while they were out enjoying summer weather. A Motorcycle drove by and the loud noise scared the bird and off he flew. Again, this bird was recovered. Many group members have been using the bird harnesses now a
