What is my bird doing?

I hope this link will work....

http://i851.photobucket.com/albums/...-B2B5-18223A201B82-58072-00003BEF0390A7D8.mp4

Can anyone tell me what my sun conure is doing to my finger?? Sorry for the bad iPhone video.

Thanks!
Beth and Lola bird

The placement of you finger right at the corners of Lola's beak is triggering her feeding response, or feeding reflex. The head motion she's making is called "bobbing." It's a baby bird reflex. When it's time to feed their babies, a parent bird will turn their beak sideways and cover the babies beak. The tips of the parent beak will touch that area of the babies face triggering that bobbing reflex. The two will then start bobbing in rhythm with each other which causes the parent to regurgitate food for the baby and the baby to swallow the food.

This behavior/reflex is most notable in young birds and can last up to a few months after they're fully weaned. It usually extinguishes at that point but can be maintained by doing what you're doing.

It's not inherently harmful that I'm aware of. The baby isn't bringing food up or anything, he's just bobbing his head. I don't even believe that he's consciously expecting to be fed since the motion is just a reflex, rather like the human patellar reflex, when the doctor hits your knee and your knee kicks out. It's an involuntary response on their part. I expect that if it were unpleasant for them, they'd move away.

That might have been more information than you were looking for, but I hope it helped.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

Thanks for the reply! That's what we were thinking but it's funny that she still seeks out something to do this head bobbing action on, my finger, my nose, or my ear lobe! She is 13 months old now so I guess she's still a baby!

Aw Audrey used to do that when she was a baby, I kind of miss it lol, it's cute!

My sun is 5 years old and she does this constantly! Now she moves her bottom jaw from left to right while doing it and I'll put my index finger and thumb on each side of her beak. She'll do it without our fingers there to indicate she wants our fingers. She's also been shoving her beak in our mouths and bobbing while we exhale...it's quite strange, but we try not to encourage mouth to mouth due to us possibly getting her sick. She'll also bob her head if you blow on her face. She never used to do this as a chick, it's just been within the last two years or so. A few months ago she started "sucking" the collar of my shirt or my towel when it's on my head with her eyes closed, and then precedes to bob her head. It's really weird, but funny!!

my nanday does this too! he does it a lot and i thought it was a reguritating/ feeding thing. thanks for the question and info!

Yes it's the bobbing motion. You have to remember that conures can live to 30+ years. So at 13 months, she is still a baby. So even in a few years, don't be surprised if you still see that reaction. It is very cute. Thanks for sharing the video!! You have a beautiful birdie

My sun conure does the same thing, and I've been curious for a while, thanks for the great response WindyRed.

Your bird is beautiful, awesome colouring, and so cute
Your bird is behaving absolutely normal....as the above mentioned members have explained.
Mishka my AG, almost 5 years old and still keeps bobbing his head, when I place my fingers closely to his beak, even after eating.
As a baby would suck a dummy, Mishka after eating always sucks a chain LoL

My birds do that bobbing motion especially when their excited so we put a name to it. THE HAPPY DANCE, and when they do we laugh and applaud, Sweetie pie now will do it if you tell him do the happy dance, and with two fingers of your hand you wave them up and down a few times and he starts bobbing and squaking and thinks he so smart. Tiki also does the same thing and Chiquita is learning it too

our conure does that when i feed her a few salt and vinegar chips,
she goes crazy !!!

im amazed at how smart of a bird she is