Conure Behavior

[Asharion]

Hello!

 

Day two of my rescue Sun Conure's, Chicken, day home, and he has been doing a behavior I am not sure what to think of. It is like the 'pre-flight' gesture, dropping down a bit and fluttering his wings, only when he is not occupied with his toys, preening, or napping, he sometimes sits on a particular perch and does it constantly, quietly making a chirping noise.

 

I couldn't find many answers online, other than 'please pay attention to me, flock buddy!'

 

Is this possibly anything to do with a mating courtship? He hasn't been fanning his tail feathers or strutting around, simply bowing down on the branch and fluttering his wings a little bit.

 

Sometimes he is more than happy to come out of his cage and sometimes he chills out and doesn't come over to be taken out. When he starts doing the motions again or if I walk past his cage with him, he flutters his wings as if to take off for it. (He is currently clipped, but he was flighted before he went into the rescue, so I wonder if it's habit?) He eagerly hops back down into his cage if offered to go in.

[Greytness]

I think he wants to come over to you. My eclectus will point and flutter towards me if he wants to be picked up. He's a rehome who was never allowed to fledge, poor thing. Even though his flight feathers have grown out over 2 years ago, he still hasn't idea what wings are for. So he points and flutters.

[judygram]

I have a sun conure myself and she does the pre flight thing a lot when she wants to come out of her cage and at other times, she is flighted but doesn't come out of her cage unless I take her out and doesn't fly much, only as a last resort. She also does a lot of head bobbing at times, not sure what that means but she can be so funny at times.

 

Oddly as I never knew what sex she was I found out a couple of weeks ago she is indeed a female as she laid 3 eggs, she has been sitting on them and not coming out to spend the evenings on my shoulder but one more week the eggs will magically disappear and all will be forgotten.

 

Conures don't usually spread their tail feathers when sitting.

[Asharion]

Playing with Chicken this morning before I had to go for work, I think you are right about it being him asking to be picked up and come out of the cage. When I came home today he greeted me with a cacophony of calls, doing his pre-flight flutters and walking over to the edge of the cage, before coming out on my hand!

 

I take that as a huge step forward for him, and I wonder if he prefers the towel to step out over a hand because he feels more secure in footing on it. I've noticed he wobbles a bit on my finger because the skin moves. He seems like he is much more comfortable on a shoulder or perch, or a towel.

 

Is your conure very quiet, Judy? Chicken has surprised me by using a quiet chir-rah chirp most the time, only using his loud calls in the evening and when I get home, sometimes when I leave for a short bit. The little bugger has so far been letting me sleep in before I get up to give him breakfast.

 

Edit: I forgot to add; good luck on the egg snatching! ;D

Edited September 4, 2015 by Asharion
Forgot to add a comment

[Peachaburra]

I have three Green Cheek Conures, and they do not do the pre-flight thing, but my Grey and Cockatoo both do it when they want me to come over and/or pick them up.

[kins2321@yahoo.com]

The motion, is wanting to come and be with you. Unfortunately,sometimes when they are given the opportunity... they don't know what to do with it! As your sunconure could fly before... why are they clipped now? Believe me, I am a supporter of clipping with a baby, and slowly grow their feathers out. Any bird that can fly before, now gets clipped, affects their mental security.

Let your bird fly. Practice over and over, if you decide to grow out feathers. Sunconures are amazing and our Sunny that recently died from old age, was fantastic! ( a rescue, that couldn't find a forever home!) We got him when he was older, couldn't talk, but he learned to babble, and practiced his " hello!" ( he was always proud of himself, when he got it!"} Nancy

[Asharion]

Chicken was flighted before he was surrendered to a parrot rescue, and they clip all the bird's wings for safety when they come in. I plan on letting Chicken's wings grow back out and going through flight training with him; as far as I know, he never had any flight recall or exercises in his last home.

 

I'm proud of my baby boy, he's been stepping up onto my hand from the cage when he wants to come out (and tells me so by doing the pre-flight flutters ;D You guys were right!), and I haven't had to put the towel over my hand. He started out only being willing to step up to a hand inside his cage if there was a towel over it.

[kins2321@yahoo.com]

Awesome! Sounds like everything is going well! I laugh to this day, how Sunny would march out and complain how the " girls", were sinking his rope! Baby Amazon was in love with him, and would snuggle him in his cage, then Sophie, decided she should snuggle on the other side! ( He didn't protest as much as he should have!) He would get " disgusted", and complain to me in his babble. Since he was known for " attacking human jugulars", wasn't attacking them or us, I told him to work it out.... go into their cage if he needed an escape! I rarely saw him complaining, but more like he was enjoying snuggles. Sunny had a good life, and was certainly LOVED! Nancy