A wide assortment of tricks can be taught which incorporate flight. Recall flight, targeted flight, and the flighted retrieve trick, where the parrot flies to retrieve an object and bring it back. A parrot can fly to retrieve a coin and fly to a different location to drop it in a piggy bank or it can fly to pick up a ball and fly up to a basketball hoop and drop it in.
Flight training a bird to be a reliable flyer requires expertise on the trainer's part. If the trainer is not dedicated to both Positive Reinforcement and Negative Punishment training, then problems will occur in the training. Birds may learn to fly away from the owner or new objects as a result of flooding. Trainers that do not rely exclusively on Positive Reinforcement and Negative Reinforcement training will often use harnesses on their birds because of the poor training techniques they apply such as; grabbing the bird when it does not want to train, snatching the bird out of mid flight, launching the bird off the hand, and dropping the hand to make a bird fly, all of which increase the fear response in a bird. Harnesses can be a great tool when used properly as a rarely used backup plan to keep the bird safe. But if the trainer heavily relies on a harness to keep the bird safe, then it is an obvious sign that the training methods used where not Positive Reinforcement and Negative Punishment. Trainers that use the harness too much often have problems controlling the bird in an outdoor environment and have problems with birds flying off and not coming back. This problem can be remedied by refining the person's training skills and by eliminating Negative Reinforcement and Positive Punishment from the training routine.
