Benjamin's morning 'sexy dance'

[Carabella]

Every morning when I come downstairs, my routine is to sing this silly good morning song to Benjamin. He immediately makes his way to the bottom of his cage and starts to fan his tail and do this odd little dance where he walks backwards, presenting his tail and then struts forward. His eyes pin like crazy. Then he rushes to my fingers for scratchies.

So this morning he was strutting more than usual with his tail way more fanned than I've ever seen. My husband warned that I needed to be extremely careful. Now, if the door had been open and my hand had been inside he might have nipped, but he just came over, ducked his head and purred.

I'm seeing this behavior as a sexual mating thing while my husband is seeing it as a warning.

Any thoughts?

I'll have to see if I can get a video tomorrow.

 

[Birdman666]

It's not necessarily mating... it could be simple excitement.

The difference between territorial warnings, and expressions of excitement are subtle.

If the bird is hunched over, neck feathers raised, head lowered, tail fanned, and he's pacing back and forth making "territorial intrusion" calls THAT'S the amazon line of death dance.

If the bird is STANDING UPRIGHT with the tail fanned, and without the haclkes on the neck up, and is pacing around (Sally runs around in circles. Lila does the "happy head bob) then it's the "happy to see you" dance. I can't really explain it, but her face seems to change shape when she's excited vs. when she's mad. It probably has something to do with the way she is breathing to make the call noises.

Confuse the two at your own peril, of course. And if they get too excited, their little bird brains go on overload, and they still bite sometimes.

We have the classic nape hot 3 territorial aggression dance on video. The BFA dance isn't appreciably different. So, if it isn't that, then... it's happy to see you.

And if it was territorial, he wouldn't have lowered his head and let you scratch. He would have rammed the bars of the cage with his beak to let you know he means business!

 

[Amanda_Bennett]

Zilla does pretty much the same thing every morning, except she stays on her top perch and doesn't go to the bottom of the cage.

I would agree with Mark, Birdman, that's it's more than likely "happy" to see you and wanting morning attention and scratches, rather than aggression.

 

[Carabella]

Zilla does pretty much the same thing every morning, except she stays on her top perch and doesn't go to the bottom of the cage.

I would agree with Mark, Birdman, that's it's more than likely "happy" to see you and wanting morning attention and scratches, rather than aggression.

I agree it doesn't appear to be aggression. The dance seems pretty provocative - his back and head are in a straight line, tail very fanned and eyes pinning. His attitude seems to be excitement. When he rushes to my fingers, he presents his head. He's even started the throat movements to the song. One of these days he'll just come out with it. He used to whistle the theme to the Andy Griffith Show, so I'm hopeful.

 

[labell]

Zilla does pretty much the same thing every morning, except she stays on her top perch and doesn't go to the bottom of the cage.

I would agree with Mark, Birdman, that's it's more than likely "happy" to see you and wanting morning attention and scratches, rather than aggression.

I agree it doesn't appear to be aggression. The dance seems pretty provocative - his back and head are in a straight line, tail very fanned and eyes pinning. His attitude seems to be excitement. When he rushes to my fingers, he presents his head. He's even started the throat movements to the song. One of these days he'll just come out with it. He used to whistle the theme to the Andy Griffith Show, so I'm hopeful.

Brady responds to me the same way right before she regurgitates a big wad of I love you food!

Mark.."Confuse the two at your own peril"..LOL Ain't that the truth!

 

[Birdman666]

I know of six or eight different occasions where people have...

"I don't know what happened. One minute he seemed excited and all happy to see me, so I walked over to pick him up, and the second I did that he went crazy, flew at my face, and tried to rip my lips off!"

Ummm... that would be the "line of death" dance...

You are intruding on my territory, take one more step and I will rip your face off...

And somehow, it's always THE BIRD is psychotic, or hates me.

Nope! Just mating season. Protecting the nest...

 

[Birdman666]

I agree it doesn't appear to be aggression. The dance seems pretty provocative - his back and head are in a straight line, tail very fanned and eyes pinning. His attitude seems to be excitement. When he rushes to my fingers, he presents his head. He's even started the throat movements to the song. One of these days he'll just come out with it. He used to whistle the theme to the Andy Griffith Show, so I'm hopeful.

If he is standing upright, then he's excited and happy, and wants interaction... that's the dead give away.

If you go back to that video of ZaZu, that is CLASSIC amazon protect the territory body language. And you see, even though he has to look up to see the person he's chasing, he's still hunched forward, the head is down, and the neck feathers are in "crazed & fierce" mode...

I can get Sally worked into an "altered state" just by standing next to her playstand and whistling to her... BUT she's standing upright, almost leaning backwards, not forwards.

Complete strangers who interest her, and respond to her calling them for attention get the same treatment, problem being she can get nippy with them or me, once she gets worked into a state...

Zons worked into a state often forget to control their bite pressure...

even the sweet ones.

 

[Carabella]

I take no chances. If he presents his head, he gets scratchies. If not, my digits stay out of the cage bars. I always maintain eye contact. There have been many live and learn moments.
I'm learning a lot here - thank you all!