Don't be hard on yourself, it is a big beak and can be unnerving.
Since he is such a baby I wouldn't worry too much about him trying to hurt you. When he pinched your ear and arm, was it because he was unsure or losing balance? He could have been grabbing you in a panic to try to regain his balance.
He bit me on the arm the first time I met him. It's still healing. That was more of a "I wonder if you're edible/how you taste" nip. He bites slow, taking like 2 seconds to close the beak....but when he does, it feels like he's trying to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop!
From what I have seen and read, baby macs can be a little clumsy, just like human babies. So if they feel like they are going to fall, they grab the closest thing to them with their beak. Which could be your face if he is on your shoulder (one of the reasons why many people will not allow their parrots on their shoulder).
He seems pretty stable, though not on the Java tree lol. The branches are smooth and bigger than his feet by a good margin. When he tries to go up the angled parts, he slides right back down. I think the same kinda thing as said above is what happened with my ear; it always seems like he's in slow motion when he does it (like when taking something from your hand).
I would think he would be more interested in exploring with his beak than playing lunge and scare the humans at this point.
Yeah, not looking forward to that...
Birdman666 and lots of other more experienced members can give you lots of advice and I believe there are threads on bite pressure training. My hand is always in Rosie's mouth. For the most part it is like her security blanket and her personal toy. But she also will put pressure on my fingers when I am preening if I hit a sensitive spot. If she gets too rough when playing, I just hold her upper beak and tell her Gentle! That is what works best for us.
I saw that, and read up on it. But even though I kiss on 'em and put my fingers around the beak - he doesn't seem interested in playing with them. He has yet to bite at my hand. It's usually the climbing the clothes or trying to get him to let go of my clothes that he gives me any kind of guff.
I don't think the screaming thing ever gets better (unless the screaming into your ear while on your shoulder causes hearing loss - which is what happened to me). My daughter still cries when Rosie goes into a full blown Mommy get back here! screaming tantrum....and we have had her with us over 2 years!!!
I can do like 0-60% of his maximum dB. Over that, and yeeeeeeeeah...
I could/should have had bad hearing by now, being surrounded by loud things my entire life. But I was always overly cautious and wore ear plugs or over-ear hearing protection. It's not just him that sets my ears ringing, I can't go to concerts and the firing range requires doubling up on PPE. But he is the only one that makes me flinch, mostly because of false sense of security.
He's all nice and quiet, acting calm and content. Usually for hours at a time. Then, out of nowhere, he will KA-SQUAWKKKKKK - and then look like he is surprised as well (expecting me to believe that didn't just come from his lil birdyface)! Munchkin...
And look at that feeding response, HAHAHAH!
