Any ideas?

[skmunson]

My tag, Benji, will occasionally wrap his whole beak around one of my fingers--taking the whole width of my finger all the way to the back of his mouth--and, without applying any pressure, will move his head forward and back furiously.

 

What is this? It seems like some kind of affectionate thing not aggressive or hostile.

[SamsDad]

He's doing the birdy equivalent of suckling on your finger. The pumping is his attempt to "feed". In his mind your finger should be regurgitating a yummy crop stew into his beak.

 

Sam will do this too me sometimes, when we are playing and he grabs my finger a certain way. He opens his wings and arches his head back while pumping his head up and down. He's still pretty young so I guess its his desire to be back in the "nest" sometimes.

 

When he does it I usually gently remove my finger. I'm not sure I want to encourage the behavior since it doesn't seem fair to have him want to be fed this way by fingers that can't vomit :sick:

 

Tom

[SamsDad]

I forgot to add that this can be a sign of affection because bonded pairs will feed each other. Often when a bird is feeling "birdy love" for you he'll pump his head up and down to work up a slimey treat for you. You just haven't been loved until you've been offered a gooey, slimey beakfull of, yum, "stuff".

[skmunson]

Tom, thanks so much for the response. I sort of suspected it was some sort of feeding thing.

 

This is my first grey and he's only 6 months old so I'm constantly fascinated by new behviors I discover.

 

Thanks again.

[Georgiesmum]

My Sun Conure Louie does this to and It took me a while to figure out why. :laugh: