Tango is being particularly feisty today. He’s lunging at plates of cookies, mugs of waters and any shiny bowls for seemingly no reason. Like all things related to parrots, aggressive behavior can be nuanced. In this article, we do some research into aggressive behavior in parrots and try to understand Tango’s unique behavior this week.
What Counts as Aggressive Behavior?
A parrot’s beak is one of the most important ‘limbs’ that they have aside from their two feet. Similar to our hands it serves as their primary tool in their day to day lives, like movement, eating, and when needed to attack.
It’s important to know that what might feel like a bite to the owner (sharp pinch) doesn’t always mean there is malice or intent behind it. It is very possible that they are ‘biting’ as a way of exploring, we call this ‘beaking’. To learn more read my last post ‘What You Need To Know About Biting vs. Beaking in Parrots’. In this blog, we will dive into aggressive behavior, the type that is clearly an attack to an object or person.
Biting is one of the most common signs of aggression in parrots. Alternative to biting would be lunging, hissing or loud calling. Here is an example of lunging from shishirbhatia on Youtube Shorts:
Types of Aggressive Behavior
In this article, we will review the five key types of aggression identified by Kenneth Welle and Andrew Luescher in their paper ‘Aggressive Behavior in Parrots‘. We’ll review some tactical tips to resolve these sorts of behavioral challenges.
In Welle & Luescher’s paper, they proposed five key types of aggression:
- Fear Based Aggression
- Defensive or Territorial Aggression
- Mate Related Aggression
- Conditioned Aggression
- Redirected Aggression
Fear Based Aggression
What is fear-based aggression?
Like all animals on earth, when faced with danger there are two natural responses – fight or flight. However, for many domesticated parrots they often time have their wings clipped for their safety. So really their only option is to fight.
Fear based aggression is a very natural reaction, it is biting or lunging when your parrot is feeling threatened.
How to fix fear-based aggression?
First and foremost, you must remove the cause of their stress. E.g. your hand or perhaps a toy or new object. Ensure that your parrot no longer feels threatened and is in a relaxed state.
Ultimately, to solve any fear-based aggression will take time intensive training and desensitization. When something or someone is new to your parrot, take time slowly to expose them to it. Use distance as your tool. You can start by having it in view and slowly walking towards your parrot (or alternatively walk your parrot towards it). As soon as you observe a change in their behavior, such as flattening of feathers or batting of the wings, stop where you are. Wait until the parrot to fully relaxed and then take another step forward.
To see an example of how I desensitize Tango to my shower, read Tango’s Exposure Training to Shower Rods.
Fear is a very complex emotion. When trying to correct for this, take note of your parrot’s past and personality. Some questions to ask might be – Where they adopted? What were the socialization levels in their previous homes? Have they always been fearful/are they a naturally afraid or skittish? These will help you gauge their appetite for change and the approach you might want to take.
Territorial Aggression
What is Territorial Aggression?
Territorial Aggression put in human terms is kind of like… home invasion 😲. When your parrot is all settled in their cage, this is their home. Now imagine that one day some random person came into your home and decided to bring in a big yucky colored couch that you didn’t ask for. You’d be annoyed, wouldn’t you? You might even bring out a bat and threaten that person for walking in.
Biting or Lunging in these situations is simply a parrot guarding their nest and their safe space.
How to fix Territorial Aggression?
It is key to catch this behavior early and correct immediately. Territorial aggression is very natural but left too long can become a consistent behavior. This could make changing toys, cleaning cages or just reaching in your hand for step-up challenging.
My philosophy on addressing this is that parrots need to conditioned to be comfortable with change. For example, if they are starting to lunge at your hand; just put your hand on the edge of the cage. Perhaps next time if they don’t react as you reach in, have in your hand a treat. The parrot should learn that a hand in their home is not a bad thing.
With toys, start by making sure they are not reacting to the toy out of fear. Then train the parrot to understand that this toy = fun play!
Mate Related Aggression
What is Mate Related Aggression?
It’s a beautiful thing – did you know that parrots often mate for life? There are even stories that when one parrot dies, their bonded partner passes away shortly too. Is it heartbreak? It’s hard to know but regardless, there is love and emotion between a pair.
Mate related aggression is a symptom of possessiveness between a pair of parrots. Or in the human home, this is more likely to be the parrot and their favorite person who is effectively their mate. To put it in human terms, this would be as if a husband punched another guy for making a move on his girl. 🙅♂️
How to fix Mate Related Aggression?
Fixing mate related aggression involves slightly severing the strong tie between a parrot and their favorite person. Socialization with many people is the key to solving possessiveness. If your parrot gets equal time to everyone, it is less likely to form such a strong bond. Therefore, it is less likely to be defensive.
For example, when we first got Tango 10 years ago. Britney (my sister) was Tango’s #1 person. She had taken him on while I was away for college. As you can see in the image below, as I approached Britney and tried to pick him up. Tango responded in a threatening way. He didn’t want me near him or Britney!
Conditioned Aggression
What is Conditioned Aggression?
Conditioned Aggression is when we (parrot parents) inadvertently teach our parrots that aggression is okay. In Welle & Luescher’s paper, they say:
“This type of aggression is often called dominance aggression… if the bird was able to control the owner’s behavior for some time and the owner does not comply with the parrot’s expectations, there is what is called a “frustration effect” that easily results in an outburst of aggression. If the owner then acts according to the parrot’s expectations, this aggression is reinforced.” – Welle & Luescher
How to fix Conditioned Aggression?
To fix conditioned aggression, be firm with your bird and react immediately. If they are bad put them back into their enclosure. Remember outside time is a privilege. Whatever you do, do not reinforce the behavior by doing what they want.
For all parrot owners, new and experienced, being firm can be scary in the face of a biting/lunging bird. So make sure you draw clear distinctions for your bird on what is their ‘time-out’ and send them there when they are misbehaving.
Optional Tango Story:
This has happened before to Tango (“T”), T was super bonded at one point to my mom, and his favorite thing that he wanted to do was sing. 🎶
The two of them would sing silly songs together and when she stopped. T would at first nibble at his lip. We interpreted this as him asking for more and so mom continued. This happened over and over again, and when mom decided she was tired she didn’t start singing again. T started to click his beak and before we knew it, he lunged and bit her lip.
We immediately put him back on his cage. This for a long time has been his time out because I know he loves being on my shoulder more than anything. I hadn’t known it at the time, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if this was the frustration effect that Welle & Luescher described.
When this happened more than once, we learnt that mom could no longer sing to him (especially when he is asking for it) and that this seemed to become a permanent trigger. To this day, when T is on mom he goes straight to her lip to sit as if waiting for her to start 🥲.
Redirected Aggression
This type of aggression is fascinating. Welle & Luescher suggested that sometimes the one that causes the stimuli for a bite is not the one that gets bitten. They share:
“If a bird cannot reach the person it intends to bite, it will sometimes bite whomever happens to be close”
I’ve seen this happen in two recurring occasions with Tango. First, when he’s on me and I grab him a fruit or grape and he gets overly excited. Second, when he’s on me and there is someone in the room that he doesn’t like. My poor lip took the brunt of it; a hard lesson learnt to remove the stimuli ASAP.
What are your thoughts on this? Have you encountered this before? Please let me know in the comments.
Hormonal Aggression
Last but not least, our greatest opponent – hormones. Depending on the time of the year, parrots can simply be facing hormonal changes and become irritable or aggressive. They might be upset by the same things you did just yesterday; they certainly keeps things interesting!
Final Thoughts on Aggressive Behavior:
Every parrot owner faces aggressive behavior in parrots. That said, our feathered friends are not unreasonable! There is often reason and cause for their actions. As I wrap up this longer guide, here are some top tips to handle this behavior:
- Observe carefully – analyze the changes and reasons for why they may have reacted that way
- Act quickly – the hardest habits to change are the ones that have been cemented, start training them out of bad habits early
- Do not overreact – be calm when bitten, commotion or yelling can be interpreted as excited and be reinforcement. Be cool as a cucumber 😎
- Draw boundaries – set with your bird early, what is reward and what is timeout
- Have patience and unconditional love! for you and your parrot, you can only do your best 💞
Thanks for your time reading through this. What did you think? Did I miss anything? Let us know on the community
References
Aggressive Behavior in Pet Birds – Welle – 2006 – Wiley Online Books – Wiley Online Library