Sun Conure trying to Mate with me?

I have a Sun Conure, Piña. We don’t know her age since we forgot to ask. However, we do know she is young. Anyways, she’s so sweet and I’ve had her for about a month. She’s well trained, will let you feed her, pet her, and hold her. (Reminder: I ONLY pet her on her head. I’ve NEVER touched her back or tail )
Anyways, she does this weird thing were she’ll crouch down, puff up, and rub her bum on me. Today she crouched down again, puffed up, and then, with her tail high, layed her bum on my face. She began to hiss at everything, such as my hands. Now she’s beginning to repeat this! (Lying down, puffing up, and hissing)
Please help!

Edit:
Piña also flicks her wings slightly when she’s excited. But when she’s “mating” with me, she flicks them faster and they go out longer)

Apparently, you are a very attractive bird!
Yes, that's mating behavior. You're already aware of some approaches... not touching n sensitive areas, for example. Some people will use time-outs when that behavior is shown. Some prefer distractions... toys, maybe.
I do have another suggestion. Light management.
Ever since the Rickeybird hit sexual maturity at about 3-4 years of age, I've had to manage his hormones! If kept on too steady a long day, and too much light, he stayed "in the mood" (aggressive, even louder than usual, pleasuring himself on my neck ) year round. If I keep him on a natural light schedule... up with dawn, down with dusk, year around... THEN he's only a little monster rooster from July to September). He has his own room, so I can do that easily.
A lot of parronts just tolerate quite a bit of this stuff as long as there is no aggression.
Good luck!

'Tis the season!!!

Yes, this is definitely "hormonal" behavior, so you can assume that Pina has gone through puberty and is at least a year old, if not 2 at the youngest.

Are you 100% certain that Pina is a female (meaning you had a DNA test done)? This is something that you should absolutely find out for certain if you don't 100% know, as you must know to be ready for egg-laying and what you need to do to enhance her diet if/when she does start to lay eggs, as Egg-Binding is 100% fatal without proper, IMMEDIATE medical intervention...So you must be prepared to recognize the signs/symptoms of Egg-Binding and be ready to implement the emergency plan to get the egg to pass...If you did not get DNA testing done and aren't 100% certain, I highly suggest that you either have your Certified Avian Vet do the test, OR there are several places that you can order a DNA kit from for beteen $20-$30, they send you the kit, and you send them back a few feathers from your bird, and you'll get the results in a couple of weeks. If Pina turns out to be a male, then you obviously don't have to worry about egg-laying or Egg-Binding...And since Pina is already showing hormonal-behavior, if Pina is in-fact a female, then egg-laying may start any time.

****You want to discourage this hormonal behavior by Pina, for a number or reasons, some behavioral and some health/medical, but mostly because if Pina is a female, the more hormonal she becomes, the more likely she will start laying eggs, which is not good for her health for many, many reasons. If you simply allow Pina to "mate with your hand" and do all of the behavior that you're describing that you allow her to do, then you're encouraging the hormonal-behavior to continue, like it's a "good thing", and by-default encouraging her to lay eggs if she is in-fact a female.

***I highly suggest that ANY TIME Pina starts to display ANY hormonal-behavior, towards you or anyone else, that you IMMEDIATELY PUT HER DOWN! Do not allow his/her to crawl all over you and rub her/his vent on you!!! At the first sign of Pina becoming hormonal, immediately put her down on the floor or back in her cage, or on her play-stand, etc., and totally ignore him/her until the hormonal-behavior stops. This is called "Shunning", and it works great for eliminating not only hormonal-behavior, but also biting/nipping. Just put Pina down at the first sign of hormonal-behavior and then immediately turn your back on him/her, totally ignoring Pina for about 5 minutes. Don't make eye-contact with Pina, don't talk to Pina, pretend that Pina isn't there. Within 5 minutes the behavior should stop, and you must stick to this rule as will every person in your house have to, EVERY TIME Pina starts to become hormonal. This will work very well to not only discourage Pina from wanting to "mate" with you or anyone else, but it will also help to knock Pina out of "breeding-season"...

***In-addition to "shunning" Pina every time he/she starts any type of "hormonal-behavior", you need to put him/her on a "Natural Light Schedule", which is also a great method of knocking a bird out of "breeding-season". You can use the search-bar above to search for "Natural Light Schedule" in this forum, there are many long and detailed descriptions of what this entails, but basically a "Natural Light Schedule" means putting your bird's cage in a spot where he/she will be able to see both the sunrise in the morning and the sunset in the evening. And no matter what time sunrise and sunset occur (obviously these times change depending on the time of year), Pina must be uncovered at sunrise so that he/she can see the sunrise happen, and then also must be able to watch the sunset, and then immediately be covered and go to sleep after seeing the sunset. This "Natural Light Schedule" tends to very quickly knock birds out of "breeding-season", usually within a week or two. It's very natural (wild birds sleep and wake based on the schedule of the sunrise and sunset), and not only aides in kinocking them out of breeding-season, but it also ensures that your bird will get a full 12-hours of uninterrupted sleep every night, which is crucial to a bird's overall-health.

***Also, make sure that Pina has no small, dark places that he/she can get into or under, such as small boxes, drawers, "snuggle huts/tents", under the couch or other furniture, etc., as this will immediately cause his/her hormones to flare-up in a huge way, regardless of Pina's gender...My Green Cheek's "hormonal place" is (or was, lol, we ended this) under the couch or the chair in my living room. He would go underneath the couch, I couldn't find him and he wouldn't answer our regular contact-calls, I was freaking-out thinking he got out the door somehow or was dead somewhere in the house, as he always answers my contact-calls...Well, I found him under my couch, shining a flashlight underneath it, I found him gathering things he found under there and making a "nest" area with them, he was all fluffed-up under there, and was constantly talking to himself in a soft voice, half in English and half in "Birdie-Speak". And he totally ignored me while he was staring right at me, he just kept mumbling to himself while staring right at me...I finally shooed him out and once he was out, he literally charged at me and attached to my hand, the only time he's ever bitten me hard, and he wouldn't let go!!! I had to pry him off of my hand, and then he ran back under the couch...after I cleaned the wound on my hand and put a bandaid on it I shooed him out from under the couch again, and sure enough he again CHARGED AT me, running full-tilt, this time attaching himself to the top of my foot, and this hurt so badly it took every bit of strength I had to not just grab him or slap him away...blood everywhere, I again pried his beak off of the skin on the top of my foot, this time hanging onto him (he then bit my hand again as hard as he could), and I put him in his cage, where he never really goes unless i'm not home...I knew it was all hormonal due to him being under that couch, building his little nest (plus he was just turning two years old, so it was puberty-time for the little guy), but it still really hurt my feelings, which is stupid of me because I know how this works and that it's not personal, but I had just had to clean-up 3 different bite-wounds, the one on the top of my foot was pretty bad and could have used stitches, and this was my little man...So now none of my birds have access to ANY small, dark place in the house, and there are no areas like this in any of their cages or in their play-room...

So the bottom-line is that hormonal-behavior from your Green Cheek can be the type like Pina is currently displaying, where they are trying to actually make you their mate and they want to breed with you, or it can be violent, aggressive, and protected...What is eventually going to happen with Pina, if you continue to allow him to try to "mate with you", is that he's going to become increasingly more and more frustrated as it's not working for him, and this sexual frustration can result in a number of bad behaviors...and these behavioral issues are secondary to the multiple health/medical issues that hormonal-behavior can start, especially if Pina is in-fact a female, as egg-laying will more than likely begin soon...

Just a comment on a natural light schedule. Up here in Seattle, we get 16 hours of daylight in the summer. So the belief that a natural light schedule will ensure 12 hours of sleep is faulty.


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Inger said:

Just a comment on a natural light schedule. Up here in Seattle, we get 16 hours of daylight in the summer. So the belief that a natural light schedule will ensure 12 hours of sleep is faulty.


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True, which is why I mentioned that it's going to vary based on the season. I should have mentioned that once you get your bird on and used-to a Natural-Light-Schedule, and the hormonal-behavior has been curbed, then you can make adjustments to his schedule to ensure that he gets a full 12-hours of sleep every night...But first you must get him on the Natural-Light-Schedule and get him knocked-out of breeding-season, and used to the sunrise/sunset schedule before you can tweak it...My bad for forgetting to add that to my mention of the "changing seasons"...