Is Olive ok? Strange chirping and head throwing.

[Olive_bird]

Hi, I have a very sweet little female ringneck with a bit of a tough past. She was sold by her original owner, a breeder, because she had strange colouring & some behavioural "oddities" (undisclosed?) to my sister. Olive lived with my sister for some months before my sister said she didn't think she was giving enough time to her with two small children etc. I have recently aquired a beautiful "rescue" male eclectus parrot who I don't like leaving home alone during working hours, so I agreed to a trial period to see if they would like talking to one another while I was away. Unfortunately, Rocky wasn't impressed, got jealous whenever I had to even feed Olive, and Olive's penchant for flying to his cage & eating his food & playing in his bath did nothing to endear her she had a very small cage when I got her, so after finding her a friend of mine who lives alone to agree to care for her, we got her a much bigger cage the next day. She has only been there for three days and I visit her every day to check on her and slip her some nice fruit & veg while chatting to her.

Now, the main issue I'm concerned about is that sometimes, when I'm talking to her, she throws her head down on her chest and chirps three times in rapid succession, while her pupils contract quite small. It almost looks like someone sneezing, and it sounds like a loud, distressed "chee chee chee!" and she looks so sad or upset! I'm not sure when it started, I only noticed it after she moved from my house to my friend's place. I'm worried that she may be lonely or upset at having been moved to too many different houses. What does it mean? I don't know enough about birds yet to understand the behaviour, but I'm fairly certain that it means she isn't happy. Is there anything I should do to help her? Does she just need time to adjust to a new house? Or does she miss Rocky (even though he wasn't very nice to her) and possibly need some company of the bird kind? My friend takes quite good care of her, he brings her cage outside to enjoy the sunshine, and back inside with him and chats to her during the day. He is not confident enough to let her out of her cage yet though, as she hasn't had her wings clipped and can fly. Does she just need time to get used to him? Should I not visit for a few days? When she was startled, she flew to my head and stayed there for a while, so I'm also wondering if she is just angry at me for sending her away after she got to trust and know me. I am very sorry that I had to, she was such a friendly and cute little addition to my home, but Rocky couldn't be trusted with her, and I was worried about leaving them alone together. I am considering telling my friend to get her wings clipped so that she has to get used to him & they can build a bond together outside of the cage, but I'm not sure if that will just cause her more stress, since she really loves to fly around and isn't tame enough to enjoy being handled just yet.

Does anyone have any advice or knowledge on this topic? Please let me know, any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[ellieelectrons]

Is she throwing her head down or throwing it back? The reason I'm asking is most of what you've described is a typical female behaviour but the throwing her head down onto her chest is unfamiliar to me. The eye pinning (the pupils going small) accompanied by clucking sounds, throwing their head back and arching their back is a typical female behaviour.

Ellie.

[Olive_bird]

No, it's definitely down. She pulls a hunchback pose for a few seconds while she's doing it :/

[ellieelectrons]

Hmmm... I'm at a loss.... Can you photograph it? You could send an email to Barbara Heidenreich with a photo - www.goodbirdinc.com. She may answer your question especially if you give her permission to publish your email in her magazine.

Ellie.

[Olive_bird]

Hmm ok I'll see if I can catch it on camera. Thanks

[Sixty Fiver]

My female IRN is very protective of her cage when the door is closed and will pin her eyes, drop her head, make her warning sound and will sometimes lunge / bluff.

Until I open the door... then she lightens up and comes to my hand and will jump a good distance to do so and then runs up to my shoulder.

She will exhibit this behaviour when she does not want to move from the day cage as well but is good at letting me know when she wants to be picked up... her wings are clipped and she can fly the length of the house but often likes me to be her taxi.

She is also a little vindictive and will attack her former mistress when she comes to visit... she loves her madly but also has some resentment that she was moved here.

And she is a happy bird most of the time.

Your friend should open the cage and give your bird the opportunity to come out and explore and develop a bond... if she is difficult to catch / recover you might consider clipping her wings so she depends more on her people.

My female is not as good when she is fully flighted and can be a little feral in her behaviour but once her wings were clipped she turned around 180 degrees.

[silent h]

My male IRN is 25 years old now and was adopted when he was 3. He has spent the last 22 years teaching me how to communicate with him. That doesn't make me an expert but birds are much smarter than we give them credit for, and their resourcefulness should not be confused with anomalous behavior. Your bird may simply be telling you that life was better under your care, and that she is pissed that you haven't taken her back yet. The motion of bowing the head or even beak tapping has proven to be like a horse drawing its front hoof on the ground. Bowing and offering the top of her head can be a submissive motion also. The pupil pinning is simply a mechanism that improves clarity and ranging of the birds eyesight. The bird is probably just asking for attention that she isn't getting otherwise. Especially if she is not being aggressive to you when she is in contact with you. Your friend may not be satisfying the birds needs. But beyond that it seems that you may have expected too much when you first brought the two birds together. They are after all fairly territorial and to have them in the same space is a no no, at least until they are tolerant of each other. Your original bird needs as much attention as it was getting before you adopted the IRN, and the relocated IRN has been traumatized twice in almost as many weeks, so more adjustment time was in order. These birds need to bond to you in order to really shine. They will intentionally annoy you to get your affections. They have feelings too, and when they love you back, there is no mistaking it.
Just an opinion. Good luck

[ellieelectrons]

Hi silent h

I'm so glad you've joined this forum. Sounds like there is a lot we could all learn from you and your many years of experience with your IRN. Looking forward to hearing your wisdom.

Ellie.

[dholari]

Hi Silent h,

Your observation is so interesting , hats off to you, In my case when i come home to feed my parrots (2) , the moment i come and they hear me, they go wild squeaking and shrieking and when i feed them i open the cage , the come out and eat like good kids , and after some eating they try to bit my fingers ( they are still 3 months old so it doesnt hurt or maybe they dont use full strength and then they try to attack my legs and when they attach they make some strange croaking sounds as if they are very very angry .. if they are really i am guilty to it, i am having a winged creature at home in a room .. some respite is that i leave them to fly around the house for 2-3 hrs every evening and then they step up on my fingers and i leave them back in the cage - do let me know if you can decipher something from this behaviour - thanks in advance