Cockatiel and friendly hissing

[reeb]

Okay, I know hissing is typically a sign of aggression in cockatiels. However, each morning when I uncover Berry's cage she gives me a short little hiss as she scurries up to say hello. Even when she sits on my lap in the afternoon she will hiss when she wants scritches. Sometimes when she has her crazy flying sessions she will hiss before she takes off each time she loops around the room. We are incredibly closely bonded, and she has never been aggressive towards me or any other human, not once in all the time we have been together.

She is the only 'tiel with two budgies, and as a female she has a fairly limited vocabulary: a "weep", a "screetch", a "scritch" and a hiss. The budgies frequently mimic her sounds, but she hasn't been with other cockatiels since she was a baby. I genuinely feel like she just uses her hiss to better communicate with me and her cage mates. Usually she goes "weep" when she is calling to me in the other room, whereas she hisses when we are in the same room.

Moreover, when she does display aggression towards the budgies, she doesn't hiss, she just chases them off perches without lashing out too much. That being said, since she is a very gentle 'tiel, she gets along pretty well with her friends and this is a rare occurrence.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

[Flboy]

Yep, ‘different strokes for different folks’!
My JoJo does a cussing sound when he is really annoyed with someone, but we also do it back and forth when we play together!