Where NOT to pet a parrot?

[vasiana]

Paco is a Yellow Crowned Amazon and he’s been with me since January. He just turned 1 year old and he is my everything!

Every afternoon, when I return from work, I let him out of his cage so he can fly to a tree-stand and play around. He also likes to be pet A LOT!!!
As I had no previous experience with parrots, I have been very careful of where to pet him, so that I won’t touch any ‘sensitive’ places.
Does anybody have any tips of where not to pet a parrot?
Lately, he is opening his wings a lot, so that I pet him under his wings. Is that safe?
PS. As you can tell, Paco hasn’t bit me yet, so I guess I m just trying to keep it that way!

 

[Spiritbird]

It is not unsafe but will stimulated the bird for mating.

 

[Purl]

I've stopped doing it with Purl..but is it also a sign of trust and love that they lifted the wing to begin with?

 

[lizardsmells]

I don't pet anywhere but the head unless we're wrestling, then I'll grab his legs. Sometimes I'll twitch a tail feather to get his attention, but otherwise my fingers don't go any further than the neck for cuddles and pets.

We are working on training for 'wings' so we can harness train, but that's something we're taking really slowly because we haven't gotten to that level of trust where he's ok with me handling his wings. He is finally starting to feel comfortable on his back though and frequently flips upside down when we're playing. I can do 'upside down bird' for a few seconds before he starts getting nervous.

So basically it's awesome you have that much trust, and he's young enough to not be hormonal yet, so it's probably not a big deal at this point. I'd just be careful you're not encouraging him to feel like you're his mate. Kazi feels like that about me I think, and it's not been the nicest thing to deal with. I'm very careful not to send any mixed signals if I can help it, but he still tries to get me to move into the laundry room with him and he still hates my husband and tries to run him off at every opportunity.

 

[vasiana]

thank you all for your valuable input!
I'll continue to be careful not to stimulate him while playing with him!