Sounds like a press release-ish kind of thing to me :)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: lynne page
Date: Fri, Jun 1, 2012 at 12:43 PM
Subject: [Mickaboo Discuss] Educating public about lost birds
To: General mickaboo discussion
[Soap box rant alert.] I think someone mentioned lately the need to educate
the public about the consequences of deliberately turning a bird
loose, either because it is no longer wanted or from some misguided notion
that the bird "wants to be free." One piece of the ignorance behind
this is the mistaken belief that any bird can fly well, regardless of prior
experience. The story of Pico shows how false this is. Years ago, my
cockatoo also suffered several harrowing days and nights outside, wanting
nothing more than to return to me but not knowing how. A few times, she
became desperate enough to try to fly to me, only to pass maybe 30 feet
over my head with no idea how to decrease altitude or even turn. (She has
since learned to fly some and, while I have no intention of letting her
loose to test it, I think she would now be better able to return to me.)
What had never occurred me until the Pico episode was that the belief that
all captive birds fly well also makes it harder to get people to
help capture escaped birds. If someone believes a bird can just fly home
when it wants to, why help "rescue" it? So 2 points: 1) Even birds that are
clipped can be encouraged to learn to fly downward for short distances.
This just might be enough to help them descend in some tall trees. I know
my Noble macaw would not even hop 1/2 inch before I started working with
him, but after months of encouragement, he eventually learned to do that -
and then to extend to bigger jumps. 2) We should all take all
opportunities to explain to non-bird-people that birds who do not learn to
fly during the normal window of learning, will be able to flap like crazy
and gain altitutde, but will not have the skills to turn and descend and
may be terrified of flying because of that lack of control. Any time we
have a lost bird story published, we should emphasize this aspect.
------- HOW TO --------------------
CHANGE PERSONAL SETTINGS:
https://mickaboo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/options/discuss/
VIEW LIST ARCHIVE: https://mickaboo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/private/discuss/
HOW TO RESET YOUR LIST PASSWORD:
http://confluence.mickaboo.org/x/2wFj