BirdTricks Tuesday: Flying With Other Flyers
🕑 Added 2019-10-29 18:04:01 +0000 UTCThis has been coming up a lot more lately so we thought it would make a great topic as part of our Flight Training Series.
Resources mentioned in this video:
Comments
Amy Caswell
This is great stuff! How long is βtypicalβ for them to realize safe places to land inside? Like not door and window frames.
BirdTricks
We were so happily surprised about them! Thanks again!
Jenn APMelody
I'm glad the whistles got to you in between all the travelling! :)
BirdTricks
Yes, birds will give warning calls to each other. Jinx, Bondi and Cressi are notorious sentinels. And yes, there is safety in numbers, as well as having people around to keep better eyes on your birds for you. Cressi is really hard to see because of being smaller and her colors so we always ask when we fly her for everyone to be watching her just in case we lose eyes on her at any point. We have not had many interactions with raptors - there is a lot of risk management that goes into flying and we put birds away or hold them if raptors are spotted. We do not continue to fly. I know of a couple of red fronted macaws that went after a raptor that was in pursuit of a third red front macaw and they teamed up enough to chase it off. I know of other circumstances where a raptor was able to break one bird off from the flock and chase it off (recovery was about 3 days later for this bird and 25 miles away from the original area). So I think every situation is different based on the dynamic of the birds in the air.
Rosanna Lam
Poor Jinxi! No retaliatory body slam? π Is there more safety in flying with groups in regards to raptors? Will the birds give warning calls to each other? Will your own flock protect each other (e.g if Comet is attacked by a hawk, will Tusa help him out?)?