no flight

[lucky melatonin]

after the dude takes a bath, he cannot fly. i guess maybe because his feathers are so weighed down with water. i wasn't sure though because he's normally a good, accurate flyer. francis can fly after he gets wet though, which is why i was wondering why one would and the other wouldn't. when he goes to fly after he gets really wet, he takes off and goes about a foot and plops.

do any of your lovebirds do this too?

[Kristina]

Fenway has his wings clipped, but can still fly a bit. When he's wet, he kind of just flaps his wings, but doesn't go anywhere.

[linda040899]

Emily,
Wet feathers are heavy (considering the weight of a dry one) and a bird has to be a very strong flier to compensate for that difference. Give him time to build up those wing muscles and you may see him do the unexpected! :)

[michael]

Hi Emily. While Goofy lovebird may not take off right away after a good bath, once he gets his dander up often he'll take off and spray everything and everybody with wing water. Sometimes though he would rather me take him to his cage so he can keep warm next to a metal shaded 40 watt lightbulb near his perch just outside his cage. He likes to preen and keep warm at the same time.............:)

[lucky melatonin]

ha, aww, he's a sweetie. just checking, it really freaked me out. then i kind of thought of science, and was like, well, i guess that makes sense. but then when i saw how my little francis was flying...i got worried again!

thanks again from the avian hypochondriac.