#harness ask

It’s really a mix of things, overall I really do love the aviator, it feels much safer and is overall a much better quality harness and I would recommend to anyone with cockatiel and up sized birds.  I love the harness to bits for what it is and what it is capable of but the issue is that it simply is not currently designed for smaller birds, the second they finish this tiny bird model I will be all over it (if they finish it).  The thing that keeps me iffy on it for small birds is that it is so darn heavy, if you don’t take the time to do flight strengthening and get them exercising bit by bit with the harness it would be unsafe for them to use.  The weight of it in comparison to the tiny birds causes them to be really unable to control their flight and because of the way the harness has to be worn on tiny birds (behind the legs instead of in front) it stops the main safety feature from working.  The waistband for the aviator is supposed to rotate around the body so the leash doesn’t pull them at an awkward angle, on small birds putting it behind the legs around a really tiny circumference stops this from working which can cause them to spiral out of control if they hit the end of the lead. With flight strengthening these issues can certainly be avoided, the bird can be trained to be strong enough to fly with the harness and regain control if the hit the end of the lead but it does take a lot of work to get a point where this harness is as safe as it should be.  This harness is easier to train with since you can get a nice open wing hole to practice sticking their heads through, you can make much smaller approximations which makes training easier, the mini wings doesn’t really have that option.  Training can also be harder in some aspects though because of it’s weight, rather than just training a bird to be comfortable with it on you are also have to train them to be strong enough to hold it, find their centre of balance and get used to moving with this excess weight.

The mini wings does not feel as secure as the aviator does, if Zeeby decided to grab the material I’m certain she could rip it up, but it is still safe and it is much lighter.  The shiny metal is more enticing for birds to nibble at and the material can be a bit stiff which may make it uncomfortable for the bird if you don’t bend it around to soften it first.  The lead is short so they couldn’t fly if they wanted to really, you can do short distance recall but there would be no long distances or freestyle.  I like this harness for short outdoor things, like going to the backyard, because all we’re doing is walking and I know Zeeby is comfortable enough not to really consider chewing at this harness if she got bored, longer journeys would risk her getting bored and nibbling at it which could then be a risk.  The other issue with this harness is that it isn’t adjustable in any way, it’s built for an average sized parrotlet so if your bird is slightly larger than average it won’t fit. From my pulling on it and doing various tests it has been strong enough for me to consider it okay to put on the birds and use but if the aviator did make a lighter harness I would likely not have any reason to use the mini wings. 

It’s simply a method of restraint so the wind doesn’t blow her off and if I mess up, putting her in a situation which freaks her out causing her to take off, I can quickly get her back so she doesn’t end up in the jaws of an animal or leaping in front of a car.  All the harness does is help keep her safe, she can still fly, run, climb and everything she normally would, the harness has a nice long leash for basic recalling and everything, it just ensures that she doesn’t get hurt, it goes around my wrist (i personally clip it to my jeans loop since I feel it more secure/ can’t slip off a wrist) same as a dog leash would.  The harness should definitely not be used as any sort of correctional tool, it’s just there to keep her safe.

The harness itself doesn’t give her any sort of ‘don’t fly’ response, her not flying away is due to extensive training, trust building, slowly accustoming her to the environment, ensuring she’s comfortable and always watching her body language, the only reason she would fly off is if I messed up, pushed her too far and put her in a situation that caused her to panic and try to fly to safety (which has never happened, the most we’ve had is she was on a branch and flew back to me when the branch moved and startled her a while back).  A properly harness trained bird shouldn’t feel the need to fly off, they should be fully comfortable wearing the harness from start until finish, responsive to cues, showing relaxed body language and enjoying the whole experience, anything less would just be stressful and pointless!

Depends on the day, their comfort, and the temperature.  If there’s very little wind and it starts getting hot we’ll usually only be out for about 15 minutes but if it stays a decent temperature we can be out anywhere from 30-40.  If she starts acting uncomfortable, stressed, or generally just tired we’ll end the walk early as to end on a positive note and of course the same would apply to if she’s start acting too cold or hot or if the environment starts getting a bit unsafe (too many people, cars, etc.).  

I have been recording mia’s training sessions and have all the ones I haven’t posted in a folder which is currently holding a total of 45 videos, 10-15 minutes long each.  When I find the time to dedicate to harness training properly again (right now we’re only having one session every few days) I’ll get back to progressing and building up that stock of footage. If Mia ends up learning to wear the harness comfortably I will then be going through the hours of footage to select clips, record a voiceover, and compile a video, again, once I find the time to do so.  The frequency of videos on the channel has dropped phenomenally which is the opposite of what I wanted to happen but I just can not dedicate enough time to just sitting down, cropping footage, setting up lights, writing down and recording the voiceover, lining up the footage so what I say lines up with what’s on the screen and then dealing with a laggy computer for a few hours while it renders and uploads.  

I am continuing to record when I can but it is going to take some time and there isn’t a ton I can do to speed up the process, Mia’s going to move at her pace and I can’t rush that. So it will be coming some time in the future, it will likely just take a while to get there.

I live about a 5 minute walk away from a place called Eagle Ridge (you can likely guess why it’s named that) and a forest is right across my street so birds of prey amongst others are usually in the area.  When it comes to birds of prey it’s really about knowing what you’re working with and being safe, I’ve lived here long enough to know that the eagles don’t commonly hunt around my area, when they tend to come and go, and the sorts of vocalizations to listen out for if one happens to be in the area.  It’s best to look in to things like when they breed, what time of day they hunt, seasonal habits, and general behaviours about the birds of prey in your area to know when it’s safest to go outdoors.  Falconers are usually great people to contact since they will have a lot of first hand experience and information you may not be able to find and can usually share some of their knowledge to help another birder out. With every time I’ve gone out there I’ve not once encountered a bird of prey despite them being so plentiful due to the background information I have on them I know when the best odds of avoiding them are. If I was free flying I’d be more concerned and definitely move to them to a eagle-free zone but being on a harness where they’re 2 feet away from me at most isn’t cause for too much worry as long as you’re responsible about it.  If a raptor shows up and just passes by, no biggie, if you notice them hanging around it’s perhaps time to go back inside.  In general you won’t run in to problems with birds of prey with a harness bird, you’re standing right there, a raptor will not find one tiny snack worth getting that close to a person unless you live in an area where it’s actually common for them to do so, over here eagles are never closer than a tree height away from a person.

If a bird is plucking it’s feathers out because of a harness then whoever trained the bird to wear that harness did a terrible job. Harness training is based off of the bird’s comfort and decision, they walk in to it, they let you do it up, or they let you know that they want out, making there be 0 stress in the situation of training as well as wearing.  The only actual way that someone could make a bird pull it’s feathers out because of harness training would be if they forced the bird in to it, left it on for way too long, misused the harness, and generally screwed up. A bird who is properly trained to allow a harness to be worn will not have it’s feathers ruffled or be stressed out where feather plucking is even considered.

For my birds specifically the aviator harness kind of does, because it’s so heavy on them it causes her to use a lot more force to move the same distance, for birds like cockatiels and larger it would work just fine.  It allows for wing movement, lift, and the harness leash is designed to rotate around the body as they fly so it doesn’t restrict them at any weird angles.  Birds can fly perfectly well in the harness provided they’re at least ‘tiel weight.