Soooo Bondi started recall training on himself today....

I agree with Aaron, I think if cat and bird are out together, bird needs his natural ability to evade to stay alive. In a very basic sense, this is only fair. I would also be extremely careful about Bondi being on the floor and cats can move REALLY fast. Cats also have a bacteria in their saliva (as do all mammals) called pasteurella, which can cause avian cholera in birds and kill them within 24 hours. Even if the cat just licks the bird, the bird may end up severely ill or hurt. Just something to bear in mind.

Having said that, yay for Bondi! That's great! Maya's wing is currently clipped (it was clipped at the shop, badly. They only did one so she's lop sided, poor girlie), but I'm really keen to let it grow out and keep her flighted if I can. As Julianna says, the decision has to be yours. Parrots that are clipped are less likely (though not totally unable) to fly away, slightly easier to tame and will generally stay where they are put. However, there is a lot of evidence to suggest that flight in parrots is fundamental to maintaining happy and healthy birds, both physically and psychologically. There are plenty of people on this forum who keep their birds clipped for very valid reasons, and from what I can see, the birds are very happy, healthy and contented. There is no doubt that a flighted parrot takes more effort, however, I know of plenty of people who, with proper training, vigilance and an understanding of their bird's personality, run their households very effectively and happily with their birds.

There is also evidence to suggest that flightless birds can sometimes become aggressive as they have no real means by which to remove themselves from situations that scare or upset them. Maya is flightless at the moment, but is not (as yet) an aggressive bird. She is going through a teenage phase at the moment, and so can sometimes get stroppy and territorial (she bit my finger today because I wouldn't share my mints. She learned the hard way that if she bit me, I still wouldn't share my mints, but my finger took a beating!) There is no right or wrong answer to the question of clipping, each situation is individual to the bird and the owner. However, with a cat, I would strongly advise considering keeping Bondi flighted. There's a great book by Rebecca O'connor that details how to train flighted parrots, and the parrot wizard also has a section in his book about training flighted birds, though he is very anti-clipping, his training advice is useful. He has three birds; a senegal, a cape parrot and a scarlet macaw, all of whom are flighted and extremely well trained. It sounds like Bondi is doing really well and recall is a really good start. It's the most important part of flight training, so little Bondi is on the right track!