Expert: Roger Lederer - 3/21/2007

Question
Hi Roger!  Thank you for volunteering here!

My apologies if my question isn't truly in your area of interest, but I'm looking for information and perhaps a description of the act of clipping a birds wings for the purpose of keeping them in a certain locale (for instance at a resort, zoo, casino, etc.).

I'm not asking with any politics attached, I'm just looking for factual specifics.  It is 100% reliable?
Does it need to be done over and over again to keep the birds flightless despite moulting?
Is it even done?

Much thanks for any sort of answer or even a point
in the right direction to more information on the topic.
Kevin.

Answer
There are two major ways to clip a bird's wings to keep them from flying. You can simply clip the flight feathers - primaries attached to the hand and/or secondaries attached to the wing. But eventually they will grow back. For permanent flightlessness, the entire hand of the bird is removed, which removes the major flight feathers as well as the bone to which they are attached. Roger Lederer at Ornithology.com