whats the funniest quirk your bird has?

ravvlet

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Jun 25, 2019
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Kirby - OWA, 33yrs old (2019-)
Broccoli - Dusky Conure - 3?mo old (July 2023 -)
~~~
(Rehomed) Sammy - YNA, 45 yrs old (2022-2023)
(RIP) Cricket - Cockatiel (2019-2022)
I love that. Kirby’s funniest quirk by far is that if he hears laughter, he starts cackling like a maniacal robot.

I sometimes take him grocery shopping and that’s his favorite trick- if we are in a crowd of people and someone laughs he just joins in, β€œHA HA HA HA HA HA”. People immediately stop and stare and can’t get enough of it - he’s such a ham!
 

zERo

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Tony-Green QP(M)
Tom-Pineapple GCC(M)
Milly- Sparrow (F)
Whenever I sneeze, Tony my Quaker sneezes too, though he should say bless you! LOL!
When I put the birds to bed and cover their cages I tell Tony goodnight but he doesn't wanna go to sleep so he says back "Good MORNING!" I guess saying he wants to stay up longer.
My GCC Tom will slide his beak down a smooth surface if I do it first, it's really cute!
He also has this neon yellow mini maraca that he loves tossing in the air, angrily, when it lands he runs for it all puffed and mad just to throw it again!
I realize this behavior could be a problem allowing him to play violently with it but he usually stops in 1-2 mins.
 

texsize

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My African Grey Bella has lots of funny quirks.

I don’t know how or why but she makes the association of sneezing with blowing your nose. To me they are completely different things but Bella imitates both sounds. When someone sneeze’s she usually follows up with a blow your nose sound. When my wife sneezes she is more likely to say bless you.

Bingo my Yellow nape gets super angry after I take a shower and have wet slicked back hair. He tears into his toys as if to show me what he wants to do to ME.

The Twins.
When I give out treats I have to give 3 in the twins cage.
1 treat goes in the small side of the cage (the side Luna escapes to) and 1 in each of the two bowls in the larger section. Merlin without fail will drop his treat only nibbled on and then steal Luna’s treat out of her foot. After her treat gets hijacked she goes to the small side and eats the 3rd treat in there.
 

cnyguy

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Quaker parrot, Ralph
Ralph likes to play in the kitchen when it's not in use. He likes to sit in the mostly empty dishwasher and climb around the upper and lower racks and there are a few things that I have to leave in there (he Quaker curses me if they aren't there): an old empty cottage cheese container (we play fetch with that), a soup bowl that he likes to eat popcorn from and a small salad plate that he moves back and forth in the rack. I also had to clear a shelf in one cupboard for Ralph to sit on. He has a few things to play with in there too. I guess that could be considered quirky. :)
 

HeatherG

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Jasper hangs upside down and flails with one leg, trying to grab me, if I stand by his cage. It looks really strange. I don’t know how he learned that!

Willow bops me with his beak if he is β€œout” and I stop petting him. Or he has to have both hands on him and be pressed up against my face, under my eye and next to my nose.
 

wrench13

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Salty likes to play fight with me. He does a fine number on his hanging toys, but he makes a certain sound and then I know its safe to play fight with him. TO others it looks like he is chomping on my fingers and hand, and technically he is, but the bite pressure is very light. I can tease him and fight back a bit and he does not chomp any harder. SO he KNOWS bite pressure and Salty is fully capable of taking a nice mellon-baller size chunk of meat on my hand. But when we play fight he never does. Know thy parrot !

When he is out, he likes to play between the wall and the back of his cage (which has his cover still on in the back). If I can't see him, if I call out "Salty, where are you?", he quickly climbs to the top and his head pops up to see me.

If we put on parrot videos Salty always asks the first one "Are you a bird?? A pretty bird??". That is always a real laugh getter.
 

texsize

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5 Cockatiels
Salty likes to play fight with me. He does a fine number on his hanging toys, but he makes a certain sound and then I know its safe to play fight with him. TO others it looks like he is chomping on my fingers and hand, and technically he is, but the bite pressure is very light. I can tease him and fight back a bit and he does not chomp any harder. SO he KNOWS bite pressure and Salty is fully capable of taking a nice mellon-baller size chunk of meat on my hand. But when we play fight he never does. Know thy parrot !

When he is out, he likes to play between the wall and the back of his cage (which has his cover still on in the back). If I can't see him, if I call out "Salty, where are you?", he quickly climbs to the top and his head pops up to see me.

If we put on parrot videos Salty always asks the first one "Are you a bird?? A pretty bird??". That is always a real laugh getter.
When salty play Fights with you is he upside down?
When Bingo play’s with me he always rolls over onto his back. We play footsies and beak wrestle . Bingo is a bit lacking in bit pressure….. regurgitation. He starts out gentle but gets progesivly harder.
 

HeatherG

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Ralph likes to play in the kitchen when it's not in use. He likes to sit in the mostly empty dishwasher and climb around the upper and lower racks and there are a few things that I have to leave in there (he Quaker curses me if they aren't there): an old empty cottage cheese container (we play fetch with that), a soup bowl that he likes to eat popcorn from and a small salad plate that he moves back and forth in the rack. I also had to clear a shelf in one cupboard for Ralph to sit on. He has a few things to play with in there too. I guess that could be considered quirky. :)
Huh. I wonder if I could use this info to figure out things that Willow would like. For example I thought he would like colored milk caps but he was afraid of them.
 

BirdyBee

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Current birds:
John
Snowy
Pippen

Past birds:
Grumpy
Sunny
Griffen
Jeff
Gertjie
Sunny sometimes likes to sleep hanging upside down from the cage LOL.
 

wrench13

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Yeah, when Salty play fights he is hanging upside down on his play chain. I amazed that he always retains one stranglehold on either the chain or toy with one foot, while he uses beak and other foot to play attack parrot on me. He HATES being on his back now, though he used to be OK with it when he was a baby/ adolescent. He puts up with it now for a few seconds and then its "LET ME OUTA HERE!".
 
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Stormy(M): blue Australian budgie
Picasso(F): green Australian budgie
Apollo(F): sky blue dominant pied Australian budgie
Stormy gives me "the look" if he doesn't like the music I'm playing (or if he doesn't like that I'm dancing to the music, etc.), and he really loves courting Picasso while getting a spray bath, which is cute to watch. It never goes anywhere, though, he'll just sing to her and they'll tap beaks, then be done. He also fluffs up the moment he steps onto my hand. Like, full fluff. It's adorable. He also has to be sitting next to Picasso at all times. Oh, and if I call his name, he'll pop up from wherever he's hiding, like "Yos, what is it?"

Picasso head bobs while twisting her head when she's looking for something, and she also jumps around like a little Caique when she sings. She has this "kiss kiss" face as well, which is really adorable, because it means she wants a kiss on her beak. And she is DETERMINED to figure out how to open the millet container. She frequently flies to the top and observes it from all angles.

Apollo I call my "angry baby", because she is by far the most territorial and stubborn. She is super cute when she self-bathes, though, because none of my other birds do that. Apollo has been with me for less than a year, though, so I don't know her personality that well. Also, she's still in her "bluffing" phase, as well as her "figuring out life in a flock" phase.

As for all of them, once they're tired, they will go into their respective sleeping cages and patiently wait for me to put them to bed.
 

ravvlet

Well-known member
Jun 25, 2019
2,349
7,081
Seattle WA
Parrots
Kirby - OWA, 33yrs old (2019-)
Broccoli - Dusky Conure - 3?mo old (July 2023 -)
~~~
(Rehomed) Sammy - YNA, 45 yrs old (2022-2023)
(RIP) Cricket - Cockatiel (2019-2022)
Sammy is more bonded to my partner than me, but one thing that really makes us all laugh is when she thinks she’s being ignored by us (if we are outside her window playing in the yard, or if we are having a conversation but she isn’t part of it) she’ll just start loudly and in a VERY irate tone of voice say β€œHELLO? HI. HI. HI.”

The kids start falling over themselves laughing every time. She does this sometimes when my partner is in meetings though and she has to mute her mic unless she’s talking. I like to think it helps filter out the meetings that could have been an email. ;)
 

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