tips or suggestions?

[suncon1]

So, I've got this beautiful Sunday, less than a week in her new home. Bringing her home, she immediately seemed content in her cage. Getting her to step up onto my hand wasn't really possible. She will sort of let me grab her but becomes noticeably annoyed and will try to bite. For the first couple days, I'd just grab her - then she'd be perfectly fine being held. I thought my approach should change to wait for her to get more comfortable (I think I was inadvertently scaring her by grabbing). The past couple days she has not given in to stepping up at all, so I've just been hanging out by her cage when I've got the time. Today, when I got home from work she seemed happy that I was home (squawked a bit) and hopped right up when I asked her to step up. I suppose my approach is working but after reading a bit, I'm still wondering if the head-bobbing mixed with fluffing feathers and the occasional wing flip is aggressive or not? I can't really tell if she's telling me to back off or enjoying my company but being shy about it. Should I grab her to pull her out of the cage after all or wait til she is good and ready? ...once she is out of the cage, she doesn't waste much time at all flying back!

At any rate, I find her fascinating.

 

[Selestine]

There are two different somewhat similar actions I can think of that you could be describing, but they're vastly different.

This video shows a bird being aggressive. Fluffed up, throws his wings out, does a snaky movement with his head.
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUkzysHYpkE&list=UUlsjmz-Y3FWRg0kgVV9K2mg"]Zephyr and Loki - YouTube[/ame]

I don't have a video of the other, but my eclectus does it all the time. He puffs up and hunches down and almost quivers.. his wings twitch. This is a begging posture. He begs to be held, or when we're eating something he wants.

I would avoid grabbing your bird in the future -- it definitely has the potential to harm your relationship / trust. Hanging out by her cage is an excellent way to gain her trust, and it looks like it is working. A week is not a long time for a bird

It is very natural for her to want to fly back to her cage, since that is where she feels safest. You may have success taking her into a different room once she steps up, to deter her from flying back. Treats, of course, are another way to convince her to want to stay with you.

 

[andrea.b]

I had a similar experience with my conure. She was very scared of our hands at first and did not step up. When we'd put our hands in her cage she would run into a corner. I left the cage open for her to come out on her own and id feed her a lot of treats when she'd come out, that took about a week. If your bird refuses to come out then you could try coaxing her with treats.

This is how I taught her to come onto my hand so that i could take her out of the cage:

I would hold out my hand palm up and then i would put a treat on my hand then reach into the cage so that my fingers were just touching what ever perch she was on.
You might have to stand there for a few minutes while she decides if its safe to come get the treat.
After she's eaten the treat off your hands a few times try putting the treat a little farther up, like on your wrist. This time she has to step onto your hand to get the treat.
The first few times she'd grab the treat and then jump back into the perch. But later she learned that my hand was safe and started eating the seed while sitting on my hand.
At this point I would slowly take my hand nearer to the cage entrance, this part takes time, it might take a few days for her to not jump back into the perch when you move your hand.
Eventually she would let me take her out of the cage like this, then i'd stand near the cage with her in my hand and put a small pile of seeds in my hand and she would sit there and eat them.
Over time she got more comfortable going into other rooms with me and sitting on my shoulder.
From that point on she got more friendly, once she realized how fun it was outside of the cage and that it usually involves seeds.