Bird care can be daunting, especially if you are new to pet birds and parrots. After all, birds are not domestic animals like dogs or cats. They are only a few generations away from their wild cousins. They continue to have strong instinctual needs and they communicate back and forth with us using "bird talk." If you don't know "bird talk", you may be at a disadvantage!
Like a young toddler who is mobile and smart, but can't tell you what it wants in a way that you can understand, pet birds that feel misunderstood will go about getting their needs met in ways that are unsettling to us people; biting, screaming, feather plucking and more.
There are several aspects of reading bird body language that you will need to learn.
Physical Needs: Bird Housing, diet, health, hygiene, safety, exercise
Emotional Needs: social, mental stimulation, independence
Instinctual Needs: Security, chewing, foraging
Posturing Hint's Give Clues Of What Parrots Want
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Flapping wings: A bird that is perched, yet flapping away like crazy is trying to tell you that I needs exercise or attention. You might observe your bird hanging on to the perch, a play stand or the side of it's cage, crouched a bit, flapping for several seconds.
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Crest position: Crested parrots such as cockatoos, cockatiels, and hawkheaded parrots have special body language powers in how they display their crest. (shown in Figure 1). When the crest is mostly back, with just the tip of it sticking up, the bird is generally going about her business, content and relaxed. When you're playing with her, she may lift her crest, excited by playtime or something new and interesting. Excitement or feeling a fearful startle looks like the image below, an alert, upright crest. An absolutely terrified cockatoo or cockatiel will slick her crest down flat as if to disappear and may also crouch and hiss.
Do you need a quick way to learn parrot body language? Start practicing Clicker Training with your parrot. During the bird training sessions, your bird will undoubtedly go through a range of emotions from excitement to shaking off tension to fatigue. If you try to work past your bird's fatigue point, your bird may start posturing for you to stop. A short, planned training session will offer plenty of opportunities to learn to read parrot body language in real time.
