recommended flying type?

Should I catch a pidgey? Keep the sidequest spearow? Is there something else I should catch?

i recommend you using a spearow,and after the 8th gym getthe dragons den dratini

Hoothoot is a good flying type, you just got to know how to use it safely. Firstoff, its HP and Special defense are quite good, tthis is its main selling point. However it has bad Defense that can be fixed by using Relect. It has some decent offensive capability, mainly on the special side. It also can make for an emergency Psychic type in a way, as it learns Extrasensory by level up. Xatu may seem like a much better pokemon for this role(with the Psychic replacement) but Xatu hardly learns any good move by level up, until Psychic at Lv.59. I use one and it works great.