Parrots are also known as Psittacines. There are 402 species of birds that make up the order Psittaciformes. They are found in most tropical and subtropical regions but are also found in other region too.
In South-Asia, mostly Rose-ringed parakeet and Alexandrian parrot are found. The rose-ringed are green parrots with Red circle around their neck while Alexandrian parrots are Rah parrots. Parrots are not known to be friendly with humans, and wild parrots can even bite you if you try to catch them. However, even when you keep a parrot at home from its young age, it can hardly be tamed. However, a parrot can be friendly, a happy living bird.
As a pet, a bird is the best choice one can have. Although they are not meant to be caged, if it’s necessary, set a free space for birds inside your house and train them to stay at that place, simple as that. A bird can be so much friendly that humans get attached to it. Sometimes, the pet gets attached too which is the best experience one can have. Parrots and other birds have their own behaviors and languages but a pet parrot represents itself most of the time via body language.
Understanding their body language is rather easy.A parrot can even know about people. For instance, parrots know that humans tend to have a dominant hand and which hand they use more. For example, if the bird refuses to step onto a human’s hand or shows insecurity in doing so, sometimes the bird is exhibiting a preference to step up only onto a dominant hand.
This may be because a pet bird that steps up only to a right hand knows that a right-handed human’s left hand is less stable, and it will prefer to step up only onto a right hand because that hand doesn’t wobble as the bird is lifted. Or maybe the bird knows that a right-handed human will try to pet it with the right hand, and it doesn’t want to be pet.
Generally, a parrot with an upright stance and smooth feathers is wary or frightened. Loose, roughly feathers generally indicate happiness. Same parrots sitting on one foot with feathers puffed out might not feel well or might just be sleeping in a cool room and when all feathers are sticking as far out as possible, tail flared, with shoulders or wings held out from the body may be courting or maybe getting ready to fight.
Mostly parrots dance to seek attention, which is known as please dance. Parrots bring their head forth and back same with feet forms please dance. These are special type of steps done by a parrot.
Unlike humans, birds are able to control their irises, enlarging and shrinking their pupils rapidly called pinning or sometimes flashing. Parrots do this when they are excited, greatly interested in something, or mostly when they are angry, frightened, or aggressive. Eye pinning is taken as body language to get an accurate emotional reading.
A parrot’s body language also includes how they hold their feathers. Parrots ruffle and fluff their feathers during the preening process. This helps remove any dirt and feather dust, and also helps to return the feathers to their normal position. Parrots are also observed fluffing their feathers as a way to relieve tension. If it’s cold, parrots kind of fluff their feathers or it could be a sign of illness and the parrot needs to be checked by a veterinarian.
Some parrots such as cockatoos and cockatiels have a large, expressive crest. A contented and relaxed one will usually have the crest held back, with just the tip tilted up. If excited about seeing you or a food item, it will often lift her crest. If, however, the crest is held very high, it indicates fear and great excitement and is taken as a warning. An aggressive or alarmed one may hold the crest flat while crouching and hissing.
How to understand body language of a content or sleepy parrot? Well a parrot while settling in for the night for a nap, will stand on one foot, while the other foot pulled up inside its feathers, may be a little fluffy and will slightly close the eyes and grind its beak. It is advised to allow your parrot to rest and leave the resting parrot in peace.
A parrot that is happily greeting human or fellow parrots might wag its tail or puff out all its feathers momentarily. A tail wag also refers to be the equivalent of a human giggle. The parrot’s behavior of rapidly wagging the tail back and forth may be a remnant of something it felt when shaking water off its tail. Parrot use it to express the sentiment that a happy occurrence has just happened and that it’s ready for another adventure.
When a parrot meets new people then there is concern that the people can be too forceful in their handling. The parrot, in such a situation, will run away from them and will not like to come to them again. So if the parrot wags its tail almost immediately after being put back on its perch, the new interactions were probably not too forceful. But if it does not wag its tail for several minutes or doesn’t wag its tail at all, nor puffs out its feathers or displays any behaviour of being happy after being put down, then it is telling us that it should be handled in more passive ways in the future.
Some of the happy birds, especially cockatoos, wiggle their tongues or move their beaks up and down when they see someone or something they like. A happy, contented cockatoo might signal a desire to be petted by fanning the facial feathers over the beak and lowering its head to request petting. A happy, healthy Amazon parrot or macaw might signal an invitation to be petted by turning the head upside down, exposing its jaw.
All of these reasons are why we say parrots are more than pets. Yes! they are because when a person interacts with even in form of body language it becomes emotionally attached and when it is emotionally attached, the pet becomes more than just a pet. It becomes like a member of a family becomes a friend, and a friend like this helps a lot in overcoming depression and certain tensions. A human learns how to be happy, stay happy, he has someone to spend time with and if one focuses he or she can learn many things from lovely parrots!
