I can't say that I'm an 'experienced' Greenwing owner, because I've only had Salsa since June 14. But I've had my other 3 Macaws for a long while (two of them for decades, in fact).
Salsa was acquired by a special friend of mine when he was a baby. She took over hand-feeding duties for him from the breeder. He's almost 4 years old now. Sadly, his world was flipped upside down when she died. He adored her... and she, him! I can genuinely say that Salsa was the most important part of her life.
She used to tell me that Salsa was nippy when he was in his 2's. His nippiness seemed to fade away though. At least as far as when Sals was with her it did. When I got him, the story changed.
Salsa weighs about 1490 grams and his head and beak are approximately the same size as that of my Hyacinth, Zaffer (who weighs a bit less - Zaf fluctuates between 1400 and 1430 grams).
Salsa has bitten me a few times so far. Most of the bites were within a week after I got him when he was understandably unsure of me and his new living environment. He actually bit the tendon that runs between my right thumb and my wrist, casing some slight nerve damage. I now have an area of skin around the inner part of my thumb knuckle that's somewhat numb. It's probably the best possible place such a thing could have happened though since that small portion of the hand's surface is less essential than most other areas. I don't know if full sensation will ever return to my numb-ish patch of skin there. Oh, and in case you're wondering, the bite incident occurred when Salsa reluctantly stepped onto the back of my hand realizing that he didn't yet know me that well and apparently feeling threatened to some degree. He lowered his head and clamped onto my skin and managed to grasp that particular tendon.
Since then Salsa has become quite affectionate with me. But I have plenty of respect for him - he's not and will probably never be quite like my Hy, Zaf, who is a cuddle bug and has never once harmed me in any way. Still, I hold, pet, scratch and play with Sals each day and he loves it! Sals is mostly soft-ish when he beaks me now but he
can start squeezing a bit hard-ish at times on occasion. When he does I tell him "no bite!" in a firm voice and he usually reduces the pressure considerably.
Salsa is very jealous of my Hy as well. That's one factor that I'm sure contributes to his behavior. Whenever Sals is on the playstand or his cage top, I have to be careful not to walk within a couple of feet from him when my Hy is with me. Because if I do, Sals will literally leap onto us. That's not a pretty scenario. Trust me. As a result of this my Hy is somewhat afraid of Salsa. And I can't say that I blame him
When I'm holding Salsa he loves to flip upside down and be cradled in my arm and he adores it when I crack off the new feather sheaths on his neck and head that he can't reach. A lot of times when he's beaking a bit too hard I can tell it's because he's just being playful and hasn't yet set an acceptable pressure threshold for hand-beak play with me. He may think that since I'm a guy that being a bit rougher than he was with his previous owner should be OK. I'm not sure.
I'm sure that Salsa isn't entirely representative of GWs in general. It's just our situation and the way he is as an individual. So yes, I consider Salsa a bit of a handful. But he's getting lots better and I really love him! He otherwise has such an amazing personality and he's the best talker (with the largest vocabulary) in my flock.
So I'm not sure if any of that is helpful to you. But it's our story.
