Cocky's response to torchlight - why?

So, I had my torch out because I'd been looking down my dog's ear, and my galah was visiting with me. I switched the torch on and she immediately went into her "gymastics routine" where she yells and sticks out her wings and carries on like that. She usually only does it when she's in her cage, sometimes she hangs off her dangly toy thing and starts flapping and yelling, sometimes when she's in her outdoors cage, she'll do it in the morning. She's never done it when we're hanging out together, this was the first time.

Any ideas as to why a torchbeam would send her into "gymnastics" mode? She didn't seem distressed by it, she just seemed to want to yell about it and make a fuss.

Just throwing a random guess out there; maybe the torch created moving shadows which she reacted to?
From my experience, I've noticed that parrots are very sensitive to random shadows and general changes in light.

Thanks. She didn't really wait to notice any shadows, she reacted as soon as the light went on. Maybe it is something to do with sensitivity to light. Maybe she thought it was the sun coming up, so started her morning "performance" It was quite odd, but interesting.

Sounds like a startle response. It probably spooked her.

That thing! I've never seen anything like that before...

Should I be curious or worried? I don't know, NOW I'M BOTH!!!

Attack it? Play with it? I just don't know...

hahaha, that imagery is priceless. Now I'll be imagining her with that internal dialogue going on.

I'm not sure that she was startled as I think of it, she didn't look startled. When she gets startled she usually goes for a bit of a fly and lands somewhere away from "whatever" - she flies away. She didn't try to get away, she stayed right here, she just started her "thing". She looks different when she's scared, sort of shifty and suspicious. She stayed "normal", just cheerful and her regular self, just with a lot of arm-waving and yelling. Maybe she was worried and was warning her "friends"???

Not spooked enough to fly off cuz you were far enough away from it, but a little spooked... probably mostly curious and excited about "the thing."

The visual capacity of a bird is vastly different from that of a human; hard to know how she perceived the light!

Birdman666 said:

Not spooked enough to fly off cuz you were far enough away from it, but a little spooked... probably mostly curious and excited about "the thing."

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From my perception (keeping in mind it all happened very quickly) yes she was excited. It's just so interesting the difference in the response. Curiosity is usually the little head tilt, the little eyes looking, the foot extended, the little hairdo popping up, and the "hello! hello!" not WHAA WHAA WHAAA get a load of THAT! We weren't away from "it" (ie the beam) because we were both sitting on the bed and it's just a little torch, the beam was moving about on the bedcovers as well as further away. It wasn't just something she saw across the room.

Scott said:

The visual capacity of a bird is vastly different from that of a human; hard to know how she perceived the light!

Click to expand...

Good Point. Also, she's probably never come across a concentrated beam like that, sunlight and indoor lighting is more diffuse. Not only would it be "new" but whatever "it" was to her may have been completely different to what it is to us.

Poor little thing, we were just playing about, I hope she's not been traumatised. (Nah, she's ok, she's just the same.)

Thanks for the replies!

When the sunlight hits my phone and sends a reflection of light onto the ceiling my galah can see it and reacts. He gets angry at it, he throws his head under his chest and starts flapping his wings while making his hissing nosies (it's actually funny to watch)

I guess it's the same like cats they see the torch light and want to catch it loll.
I do like your idea of the sun raising but

Oh, that's interesting that someone else reacts to a light. I'd love to know exactly what the birdy logic is.