Beak Up!

Nike virtually never steps up without first grabbing my finger with her beak. When I first met her the previous owner warned me that she would do that and not to worry that she was about to bite.

After two years I find myself offering my finger to her beak when saying step up and not to her feet. I know when she's not in the mood because my command is met with a hiss warning.

I wonder if anyone else's bird does the same thing.

Lincoln does this occasionally. I've gotten good at telling if he's getting beaky or just using his beak to move.

What a sweetheart!

Very ladylike.

The Rb doesn't believe in warnings, no.

Bumble did it for quite a while, but she rarely does it with me anymore. I think she learned to trust that I was going to be a stable perch. Not that Nike doesn’t trust you-I just like to believe that every change in behavior is because she trusts me more!


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My JoJo goes through phases!

I’m a bit inspired by bird tricks recent approach to Morgan (if you’ve tracked that episode at all). Basically if you have a beaky bird who gets a tad unpredictable, don’t let them try to step up with their beak. It’s not actually necessary.

Let them be clear in their intentions: bite vs step up

Several of mine do this as well, Bill. Thankfully most of my flock does not bite, but I'd imagine body-language with many parrots is indicative. Though, some are wily and don't give a clue.... seems the Rb is this way!

Hmmm... depends. Are you asking if anyone else's birds use their beak before stepping up? Or if they hiss a warning if they're not in the mood?

Jolly and Maya love gently grabbing a finger with a beak before stepping up. They don't always, but they often do. Bixby, on the other hand, rarely did. None have ever hissed at me, though, and I've been lucky in that neither Jolly or Maya has ever refused a step up. (Can't include Bixby in that last because there was a period of time while I was visiting him in the store during weaning when he used to actively run from me! This was because of the store's policy that any birds we didn't allow them to clip had to wear a harness if being taken out. And he was not digging that harness!)

Up until a year or so ago, however, Maya was infamous for refusing to get off my finger. It got to the point of being comical, where even putting her belly to her perch wouldn't work. No, she would just allow the pressure to flip her backwards so that she was hanging upside-down from my finger. Smh. You can imagine how difficult that made things when something urgent came up and I needed to leave. Lol! I finally managed to get her target training to the point of 100% reliability, thankfully, but it took some doing.

Yep...Kane, my Senegal, has done this since the day I brought him home at 13 weeks old...it wasn't a big deal then, now at almost 2 years old he sometimes is a bit "rough" with that big beak of his, lol, but that's just how he does it, every single time he steps-up....

This isn't unusual at all, and it seems that the larger the bird, the more often they do it...it's a "balance" thing, i guess some birds feel better about using their beaks to secure themselves, just like we use our hands to do the same thing when we're climbing something...same principle...