Quite often people who take in a new bird - old or young - find that the bird is terrified of its new owner. This has become one of the most common topics of discussion here at FeatherForum, so I've written this article to put a number of helpful principles and practices in one place, to help people earn the trust of their frightened birds.

Note that the methods in this article are not endorsed by FeatherForum. Please see the discussion at the end of the article.

Chet Womach has written an article on "How Can I Get My Bird to Love Me". In it, he tells how to stop your bird from biting. Since I have only had my wild Amazon for 2 weeks I can't submit this as an expert, but I am making progress with it and maybe it will help you too.

Training isn't just about tricks. People often ask what they can do about a bird that is biting, or screeching, or that won't come out of its cage, or won't go into its cage, or is otherwise being difficult to live with. There isn't a short answer, but I hope this page will get you started in the right direction.

Clicker Training

A clicker is a small plastic-and-metal device that costs just a dollar or two and makes a sharp click when squeezed with your thumb. In clicker training, that sharp click is used to communicate one simple idea to your bird: what you just did, when you heard the click, has earned you a treat. You can also say "good bird" or something like that, but the clicker has the advantage of being precisely timed, so you can communicate more precisely.

People with parrots often ask what they can do about a bird that is biting, or screeching, or that won't come out of its cage, or won't go into its cage, or is otherwise being difficult to live with. There isn't a short answer, but I hope this page will get you started in the right direction.

Rule number one: don't get bit.

Perhaps that doesn't sound very helpful, but think about it for a minute...

Someone asked about training fly-to-perch on the freeflight list in the Spring of 2004:

My birds love hanging on me, so I can easily see them flying toward me. But it's harder to see them flying away because they're just happy enough where they are.

What follows is essentially a description of how I got my bird to fly to me on cue. Many of the related ideas were derived from discussions on the freeflight mailing list. If you have a flighted parrot, I highly recommend that you join this mailing list, it's full of good ideas.

Recalling Phoebe

My bronze-wing pionus, Phoebe, is 5 years old and has only been fully feathered for a couple years. She did fly at her previous home (I don't know how much), but she didn't know recall. She didn't fly much when I