Budgie has problems flying

[kiwibeere]

Hello!

I have 4 budgies in total and recently one of them, Peanut, seems like he has problems flying. He's about 2 years old.
In the past weeks he seemed to fly a bit lower and today he even landed on the ground today even though he wanted to land much higher.
The 4 of them aren't very tame so they get startled easily when I walk by their cage, but they almost never actually land on the floor. (has only happened twice or so so far before today)
Today I came home at around 9 p.m. and I still needed to feed my hamster who is in the same room. After walking by my budgies a few times (to get something) they got startled and Peanut landed on the floor, he seemed to want fly somewhere much higher but lost height. He flew to the others again but landed on the floor again a few minutes later as he got startled again.
He seems completely fine otherwise. Their poop also looks normal.
What could be the cause?

Couldn't take a pic because I didn't want to stress him any further today.

The nearest budgie vet is pretty far away from here so I wanted to ask here first before driving a few hours and stressing my budgie.
In any case I'll probably only be able to take him to the vet next week at the earliest...

[Hezz]

Can’t tell you anything without a photo to show his flight feathers at least. Have they been moulting? Sometimes they will moult too many flights on one or both sides which limits their flying ability. Where do you live?

[Marianne Marlow]

Agree with Hezz, we need some photos, with at least one of the budgies back to see if any flight feathers are missing.

It could be anything from a respiratory disease to just moulting.

Any tail bobbing?

[kiwibeere]

I didn't notice any tail bobbing, no. I live in Austria (Europe)
Though when he has younger he flew against something when I let them fly in the room, he wasn't injured or anything but perhaps he is scared of flying? He hasn't come out since either. He always takes the routes which require the least amount of flying and he prefers hopping or climbing instead of flying.
He has no problem with short distances.

[Hezz]

Ah, so there is more to his story than just recently not being able to get lift. Since it appears that he has a full complement of flight feathers, I think the only way you would get any answers is through a vet. It could be anything from too fat, too lazy, too scared, or not physically capable. If he hasn’t been exercising for some time his muscles may not be strong enough.