- [Jamieleigh] Hey, I'm
Jamieleigh with birdtricks.com and I'm a parrot trainer. And one of the things I often
hear or read about on blogs is people asking, "Hey, what
should I do with my bird? "I just brought it home. "What's the first thing I should do? "Should I just leave it
in the cage to settle in?" And almost every time,
100% out of the time people will say, yeah,
let your bird settle in for a few days before even approaching it. Just give it plenty of food and water and let it get used to
it's new surroundings. And I 100, probably
500% disagree with that, and I'm gonna show you why. I actually brought home a Camelot Macaw, who is around seven years old. She had never known me before. This was her very first time
meeting me, coming to my house or anything like that. And I immediately interacted with her and she had one hell
of a first day with me, and I'm gonna share it all with you, and the reasons that I did what I did. One of the reasons that
I immediately spend time with a bird that I first bring home, is because everything
is new, including you, and I like to establish
that I'm a person of trust. I'm a person of interest. And I want the bird to
immediately bond with me and want to spend time with me. I also want to do that by creating a language
that we both can speak. I want the bird to understand
that I understand the bird and we create our own language
in the process of bonding. And I am just really keen
on reading body language and getting those signs. You should never get bit by a bird because they show you a zillion
signs leading up to a bite, that you can read or choose to ignore, and then act upon it. So, I'm gonna share all this is with you. I waited for Morgan to let
herself out of her cage, her travel carrier. I didn't wanna pull her out,
force her out, lure her out. I definitely offered her breakfast, but she could reach it well
inside the cage as well. I wanted her to come out on her own. The other thing I did, was I
introduced her to my birds. - [Parrot] Hello, hello. - [Jamieleigh] So that she
knew other birds like her were around in the area. Oh, she got poofy with you. You're not even gonna say hi? Oh, spacing out on the toes. I didn't wanna overwhelm her,
but she at least got to meet my three macaws, which went really well. Yeah, good girl! Look, I got my breakfast. Let's keep this open, so
it doesn't close on ya'. You got your breakfast. So, I think it's really
impressive here to note that it only took Morgan eight minutes to eventually come out of her
travel carrier on her own. It felt like a long time to me, but it was actually pretty extraordinary. And I just kept going
about my normal routine and putting her carrier away. And then I made myself breakfast to be able to enjoy with her, just to make her a little bit
more comfortable around me and make it so that we
could do something that was, kind of, bonding together. But, turned out she
was way more interested in my breakfast than her own. Also, you're about to
notice, when Morgan walks, you're gonna kinda see her bum left foot. And that is a challenge that
we're gonna be dealing with the entire time with her, because
that's kinda here to stay. She did have one toe amputated
and the rest of her foot is somewhat functional as
far as she can move her toes. But, yeah, the foot is
pretty much just like that and there's nothing they can really do. Good morning, Patty. Morgan and I are having
breakfast together. Her breakfast, my breakfast. Hey, that's mine! Rude, well, don't worry about a thing. All right, Morgan is getting
an idea of the morning routine. It was really important for me to show Morgan my
routine with my own birds and let her get some
observational learning in there. So, I let her hang out on a perch while I took care of my
own birds for the morning, and didn't do anything differently so that she would get used to it. I used the vacuum when I would vacuum. I used the broom when I would sweep. I did everything identically and she did really, really well. She actually flew, which
is the exciting thing, because my goal is to free
flight train her, eventually for outdoors, but obviously,
starting indoors first. So, I was really excited about this. she stepped up really nicely for me and just everything worked out great. Good, good job! (mumbles) Come on down, hey girl. Come on, Morgan, good girl. Good girl, good girl, it's okay. Good girl, I did get her using a ladder. We got this shoulder thing going on. Got this shoulder habit
stuff we gotta break. (talking drowned out by background noise) Forgot about my tea
that was probably cold. I'll show you where I set Morgan. She goes there super easy. I felt like Morgan had a
really exciting morning for the most part, everything
that I exposed her to. So, I wanted to have her
go through some downtime. I did some live videos with
her via Instagram and Facebook and then I let her just chill
on my chair while I worked, and she got really, really content and just started preening
and hanging out super calmly. And I was really, really excited. And then an awesome moment happened, and she let me pet her
for the very first time, which I did not expect on day one. Still day one with Morgan who's hanging out with
me while I work and-- - [Dave] Morgan Jorgenson, ah! - Happily, happily preening
until Dave had to talk (laughs). Guys, check it out. She's like, what are you
doing with that camera? Guys, I'm so excited, check this out. Hey, Morgan, can I pet you? (gasps) What a good girl! What a good girl! So, obviously I was really excited that Morgan let me pet her, but I want to make sure
it wasn't just like, a fluke or a one off thing. So, this clip really shows
my signal that I give to her that my intention is to pet her. And then she can respond by telling me in equal body language, yes or no. And so I've been really
excited that we, basically, made our first form of communication in me being about to tell her,
"Hey, this is my intention," and her saying, "Yes, I
do want that intention." or, "No, I prefer not to." So, this was really, really an
exciting breakthrough for us. (laughs) Good girl! Okay, so my main goal with
Morgan is to flight train her. And my first step in doing
that is creating a bond where she wants to be with me. So, that was kind of, my
entire goal all day on day one. And then, I would just encourage her to fly to me as often as
possible, and she really resisted. I think the main culprit
of it is her bum foot. You know, she can't balance
very well on her own and so she really doesn't
trust someone else to do that for her. So, I needed to establish that, hey I understand how to work
with this foot and I got you. Okay, everyone, day one still. And I've been trying to
convince Morgan to fly to me, cause she wants to be with me. She flew to my back the first time. I think cause she doesn't trust me to catch her with her bum foot (laughs). Oh, she just gave me
the chills down my back, cause she was like, picking
at the back of my neck. She's just messing with my ponytail. So, literally, I tried to
convince her to do a short flight. She wouldn't do it. I walked away and I heard her and saw that she was trying to fly to me. So, I put my arm up and I
kinda caught her between like, my elbow and my shoulder. And her reward, because she doesn't seem to be doing this whole treat thing, her reward is playing with my ponytail. So, literally, this is the reward. Cause Jinx does this stuff, man. I have like, a bigger Jinx now. So, she's just obsessed with my hair, which is fine, you can
use that as a reward. But yeah, I'm so excited. She's already flying,
day one, this is amazing. So, gonna keep trying! Okay, so we have a major shoulder bird. This is going to be probably the biggest time suck of all the training (sighs). It's way harder to get her down, because she only has one good foot. So, she like, doesn't trust that other things will help her balance. So, gonna try a chair. I'm gonna try a perch,
I'm gonna try the counter and I'm gonna try to like,
keep it in the video screen. Wait, is this bum foot? I can't tell, which side? I still don't really know
which side is the bum foot. I still can't even tell. I think I have the good one. I have the good one on my side. Okay, can you go? If I lift up?
- [Child] Mom, (mumbles). - [Jamieleigh] (laughs) I know girl, you just love the shoulder. I'll put it in, in a second, okay. (child mumbles) So, good foot is on this side, which is why this is so difficult. I wish she was on my other shoulder. So, I'll have to keep that in mind. Excuse me, excuse me. Morgan (laughs), Morgan, there we go. Are you doing it? (wings flapping)
- [Child] She's not. - [Jamieleigh] She's not? - [Child] No, she's...
- [Jamieleigh] I can't tell what I'm feeling. I also think, now that's the good foot, we'll be set up correctly. Is she holding on? - [Child] Yeah, I can't,
one of her foot is, oh yes. Um, she's quite down low. - [Jamieleigh] Rachel I, there we go. Oh, I see, my sweater actually, was tangled in that other foot. Is that what was going on? You were such a good sport about it. Not a good sweater to wear. I need to switch my sweaters. We're gonna try this, see
if this will help the whole shoulder issue, because I
think part of the reason was her, like, feet were
stuck actually, in my sweater. - [Child] It looks like
the same sweatshirt. - Well, it's just the same color. - [Child] Then switch! - I did switch. - [Child] Switch a different (mumbles). - Do you wanna fly again? Do you wanna fly? - [Child] Mom, please just put that back. - Put what back? Oh yeah, I forgot, sorry! (flying noise) Good girl, good girl! - [Child] Don't scare me next time! - [Jamieleigh] Good job Morgan! Where's my phone? Oh, did it record that? Heck yes, she flew and
she landed right here! So stoked, yes, I forgot I was filming. What a good girl, what a good, good girl. I'm so proud of you, I am so proud of you! You're doing it. You can hang out for a while,
but not up on my shoulder. No, no, no, I'm putting you
down if you try to go up. Good girl, good girl, Morgan, what a good girl, good job! Her eyes are pinning right now. Good job, girlie. So, we're gonna use praise on that one instead of playing with my hair, because I really don't
want her on my shoulder. So, our next breakthrough came in the form of Morgan
accepting my husband, Dave. And all of this so far has
happened before noon on day one. So, that is just amazing. I'm kind of blown away by my own progress on this
first day with Morgan. I continued to try to
get her to fly to me, but unless my back was turned,
she was not likely to do it. Actually, not likely meant not at all. So, she would not fly to me
if I just kind of, asked her. But she would fly if I
wasn't paying attention and had my back to her, so that she could land on my
shoulder, which was a problem. So, I'm gonna walk you through the next couple of training phases, where I had my major breakthroughs. I don't know but I think
I might have found a treat that Morgan likes. So, I'm gonna try to
ask her to fly for it. I made myself some toast
with peanut butter on it. Okay, you wanna try this? Can you come? Come on, you jump, you
get the whole thing. You jump, come on, come on, come on! You can do it, or do you wanna turn around and come this way? Can you turn around, turn
around and come this way? I know, I know you wanna step
up but I want you to fly. Girl, look, you can have the whole thing. I'll give you the whole
thing if you just jump. Come on, you can do it! I'll catch you, I promise,
catch you I promise, come on. You can do it, come on. Morgan, Morgan, come on. Not happening, is it, not happening? Can it happen short? She's tryin' a' reach. Jump, jump, you can do it. You can do it, I promise, do it. Okay, let's do that, tt's
okay, I gotcha, I gotcha. Look how steady I got
you, I got you so steady. I got you so steady. Go ahead, you can go back, go back, nope. You don't wanna go back,
okay, well I still gotcha. I still got ya', see you, I gotcha steady. We're gonna learn how to use
this foot super good, okay? We're gonna get this, we are. Now, if you go back, I'm
gonna give you another piece. I'll give you another piece,
you just gotta step up on here. You can do it, go on, step, step. Come on, you can do it,
come on, you can do it. Step up on to it with your good foot. Good foot first, you got it. Come on, oh you're
climbing up, aren't cha? Let's do it this way. Good girl, good girl, good job! That's what I wanted, that was so good! That was so good, easy right? You got it, we gotta go beak
first, that's the trick. Okay, I can do that, I
can help you do that. My reward (chewing). So, I think one of the big things with Morgan is she needs to trust that I'm not gonna let her
fall or cause her to fall. So, we're gonna work on just like, coming to me and going
back on to something. Can come, I don't want beak
first, I want foot first. You want this, okay? So, can we work on step? I don't want beak first,
I want your foot first. Good, good girl, that's what I wanted. 'kay, now, I totally gotcha and going on to another object,
you can use your beak first. Good, good girl, see
you used your beak first on other objects, foot first from me okay? Good job, so proud of you. It's gonna be the key for us,
is that sort of communication. I need to clearly communicate to her that she can use her beak
first on other things, but I want her foot up for me. So, foot first for me. Nope, I want foot first. Give me your foot first. I know, it's difficult. Good girl, good girl. That was so good, okay? Beak first, good girl, Morgan, you got it! (wiping sounds) Crumbs on my chair. I hope you guys can see that super well. I consider that total
communication breakthrough. Foot first, good girl, I gotcha, good girl, good girl! Oh, you just got a
peanut butter that time. And can we go down? Good girl, wanna try again? Foot first, good, I got your
foot, it's okay, I gotcha. You can balance, good job. What do you do? Beak first to help, good job. So, I'm gonna leave it at
that for our training session. Seems crazy short, but
we're both enthusiastic and it's very compelling to
wanna go until she stops. But I really don't want
her to end the session. I want her to be anxious to do that again. So, stopping there but that was awesome. Good, good breakthrough. Thanks for wiping your
face all over my chair. One of the main reasons it can be so hard to flight train parrots
is because they do not already understand that flight
is a means of transportation. So, one of the things that I really like to instill in a parrot, that
I'm trying to teach that to, is observational learning, for one. Seeing other birds use their feathers as a means of getting
where they want to go. Also, that other birds get
more attention for flying. And just to learn that,
hey, that's a better way to get you from point A to point B. When birds understand this
and start using flight as a means of transportation,
that is really the key. You don't want them
crawling down something and walking to get there. You want them to learn flight
is much more effective. You wanna try, you gonna try? Come on, you can do it, do you wanna try? Come on, come on, Morgan. Back, you want to? I want your foot first, foot first. Good, beak down, good girl. (parrot flying) Morgan, Morgan, Morgan, Morgan. You wanna try, Morgan? So, one of the cool things
that I did takeaway from this, even though using Tusa, I did not provoke or convince Morgan to take flight, is her body language during this, If you really pay
attention, she is so excited by the prospect of flying. I can tell she wants to do it so badly, but the confidence just isn't there. The confidence in herself
and the confidence in me, is not there enough for
her to take that leap and take that chance on us. So, I cannot wait to get
there with this bird. I know we will. (slow motion flying sounds) (child talking) Darn it, yeah, I wasn't ready either. Tried to catch her on my hand
but she got me that time.
