Wrestling or Mating?

Hi everyone, I have a question about some strange behavior that my housemate noticed in my birds. I have a cage mounted in a eucalyptus tree, and I put both birds in that cage everyday for about 4 hours. This is when they soak up the sun, get some rain, fresh outdoor air, etc.

I can see how they are doing from my bedroom window, need be. But at this point, I have not had to supervise them all that much. They do not take any interest in one another, and seem keen on maintaining their own space from one another. Chikoo will often stay on her boing if Rumi is on the main perch, vice versa. Occasionally, I will find Chikoo on top of Rumi's cage when he is inside.

Inside the outdoor cage, they keep to themselves, staying on different perches. Two days ago, while I was somewhere else, my housemate noticed Rumi and Chikoo wrestling in their outdoor cage. He said Rumi was on top of her and that they were rolling around. They were not making any sounds at all, however. He said he would occasionally see her wing fold out.

I have never seen them become aggressive with one another, ever. Or show anything remotely like aggression. They are both very calm, even around one another, on the same perch. They have separate cages as well.

So I'm just wondering what this incident could have been about? Were they attempting to mate?? Were they playing around with one another? Was Rumi being negatively aggressive?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

It sounds like fighting. Eclectus don't wrestle like Lori's do for example. And often when they are physically fighting they don't make noise. Noise is often noticed when they have a standoff, like facing each other and beaking at each other, or one raising their wings to the other and opening the beak. But because I didn't see it I cannot be positive of course.

Mating generally starts with the male moving his head from one side of the female's head to the other, when he is facing her. Before this you should have witnessed some mutual feeding. And another early sign of mating behavior might be one or the other reaching over and gently tugging on the other bird's wing or shoulder feather. Also the male may reach out with a foot and grab the hen's leg or touch her wing. Eventually the male will try to mount the female and the female, if she is interested (or if she is soliciting his mating before he's made any moves of his own) will lean her head downward and raise her tail end a bit in the air.

It could have been a one time argument, but you probably should keep a watch.

Thanks Sodakat. I showed my housemate this video of two ekkies mating: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu3r6pQcPIg]Daniel and Annie Eclectus mating.AVI - YouTube[/ame], and he said it looked a lot like that but went on for longer.

I have not seen any of the mating signs that you are describing here, as I said, they are rather aloof from one another in all my observations.

Okay, now wait a minute. You said that she said they were rolling around. Annie and Daniel are not rolling. He has mounted her and is mating her.

They do mate for many, many minutes.

I never saw it, so I have to go by my housemate's observations. He said Rumi was on top of her, but he also said they rolled around. I doubt they were mating, given the lack of any other signs of relatedness. Maybe it was just a fight.

If it was a fight I would be very careful, I know of a female eclectus that chewed off her mates legs.

Well it seems that the male was the one in control from the sounds of it. Chikoo is very subdued and submissive...I am more concerned about her.

Chikoo said:

Well it seems that the male was the one in control from the sounds of it. Chikoo is very subdued and submissive...I am more concerned about her.

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It can be dangerous either way, I was only using the female as a example of how parrots can easily injure one another.

My females might beak at a male to chase him away but have never hurt a male. They will hurt each other (female hurting female). Generally they go for the beak when they want to do serious harm. Biting feet usually is an attempt to get the other bird to move, unless one bird is outside the cage and the biter is inside, but that would be like any species. I cannot imagine how both legs were chewed off, especially if they were mates. Mates behave lovingly to each other. If they were just a pair of Eclectus forced to live together I can see that they might fight.

Hopefully it was a one time thing with the two in the outside cage. If not, that ole tree may need another cage tied into it so they can have separate getaways.