Parrots 101: Body Language

In which I talk a bit about how to understand how parrots communicate, and how to approach them based on what they're trying to say. For the safety of both you and the bird involved, always approach with caution and never leave parrots and children together unattended.
I don't own any of the photos or footage used in this video, nor am I profiting from them - I just borrowed them to provide better visual examples of some of the nuances of parrot body language.
Like me on Facebook: / thecassafrasstree

[@ElDonAnan]

one of the best videos about parrot body language i found on youtube so far .

[@rosemaryweasley3761]

I\'m not sure but ,if anyone else is searching for how to teach a parrot tricks try Dalz Parrot Tips Discovery (do a search on google ) ? Ive heard some incredible things about it and my mate got great results with it.

[@fizzfi]

Literally the only useful video i found xD

[@mediterraneanmishap5208]

I also live for those tail waggles

[@pandora8458]

I remember meeting my dad's friends African grey , they were heading into the kitchen, so I stopped by cage an tried to say hello , but he opened his beak as if to snap at me so I left him to it an sat in the kitchen with my dad an his friend . As we were leaving I just said to the bird "bye bye nice meeting you" an we left . My dad said when he next called that friend , he said after we left the bird said F#**ING HELL!!! 🤣🤣 I guess I didn't make a very good impression on that bird🤔😁 x

[@ketchup1987]

BAD WORD BIRD

[@TheChickwithguns]

Really informative and you got to the point--no blathering. Great job!

[@bigsky445]

Still the BEST parrot body language video on KZbin!!

[@jilliandreams]

Very informative! Reading cats has always been very easy for me but reading birds is a whole different world.

[@mybeachshack]

Most informative video!! My Blue & Gold was 8yrs old last month. Much less gregarious and outgoing than she was. Moody as well in the mornings usually, but still steps up without hesitation and we can spend quality time always. Seems "cage bound" but will still "come out" and be happy & cuddlesome. Your behavior tips are a welcome inspiration. Thank you very much....

[@leisalee815]

i also have a Blue and Macaw which is 6 years old, we had him from a baby chick and hand fed him with baby parrot food, he is never in a cage, he has a stand with lots of toys and foraging toys as he gets bored, your lovely parrot sounds as if she is going through a depression stage,{as my vet told told me} females seem to be more homely in their cages than the males,,my experience so far with my Macaw is he loves to be off his stand and walk everywhere, even into the bathroom when we are showering,, only thing i can't do with my Macaw is give cuddles,which i would to do,just like your's.

[@EcstasyDeceptions]

Incredibly helpful! Thank you for the visual demonstrations along with the explanations

[@TheCassafrassTree]

+EcstasyDeceptions Thanks for your kind comment! I'm glad my video was helpful to you. :D

[@Agi1969]

Informative and to the point as opposed to some other vloggers who ramble on and give only few snippets of useful info. Well done.

[@thomassturdivant1443]

I am so happy to finally find a video with visuals alongside the explanations!

[@TheCassafrassTree]

I'm really glad you found it helpful! I'm a bit of a visual learner myself, and with this sort of thing it's important to know exactly what to watch for. :)

[@barbeb]

This is SO HELPFUL! I've only ever had cockatiels and I just got a quaker, so not having a crest and pupils to work out how my little buddy is going was difficult. This really helped. Thank you!!!

[@MaxOakland]

Very cool video. Thanks for making it!

[@roki8168]

So Helpful! thank you so so so much for this!! i own an eclectus parrot and nowhere on the internet have i found a better body language video.

[@desmond4714]

Awesome!!!!!!! love the way you talk about parrots. Thanks for info.

[@-val-4091]

A really good video, I’ve been babysitting my grandmas parrot and I have all the knowledge of what the parrot eats and how to clean its cage, but the birds body language still confuses me so I tend to keep my distance, but now I kinda understand what it wants. Thank you :D

[@kmasthan]

Wow! Without wasting any time you have told all the things you knew. Very informative and interesting presentation. .

[@HelloThere-zh7ti]

Thank you so much! I am certain that in the near future this video will turn out to be jolly helpful (at least) to me! I did find your way of explaining the subject truly entracing

[@angelrosez]

I've had a quaker parrot for 3 weeks now,I gwt her when she didn't have any feathers yet. This baby always fluffs up around me and is just SO adorable.

[@TheCassafrassTree]

+Don Anan Hey, thanks for your comment! I'm glad my video could be helpful to you! :)

[@asimiyuadeniyi3372]

thx i my parrotis not easy to understand this helps :D

[@muhammadhamza4077]

thank you

[@jasminevincent9282]

Thank you so much. trying to find a video on here that explains all you said was super hard.

[@TheCassafrassTree]

Glad to hear you found it helpful! Every bird is a little different of course, so you'll have to get to know each individual's style of communication, but these are some pretty good baselines. :)

[@seyiakinbo1749]

No time wasting of any sort-nice!

[@brandonbehning]

Thank you for this!

[@peebleshill777]

Thank you very much for this video. You get to the point quickly. I like that. Ive lost my Congo of 26 years last October. Ive been debating another bird, not a grey tho. Again, thanks.

[@KP-zb1tr]

This was awesome! Thank you! Just subbed.

[@TheCassafrassTree]

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it so much! I haven't been as active here as I would like lately (at least partly because grad school has been keeping me super busy, and partly because my camera and tripod were misplaced when my family moved), but once I have access to a camera again, I'd love to get back to doing videos. :)

[@heipadegdingamlesei]

thank you that was so informative!

[@danp1151]

Thumbs up!! Gotta say this is exactly what inwas looking for! Very informative...u know what...imma sub as well

[@louisguerin8443]

Great video!

[@cherylwilliams9360]

This was GREAT! I may get to pet-sit for a gray and I know nothing about them... I really believe in body language of all animals so this was JUST what I was looking for!! Thank you!

[@TheCassafrassTree]

Great! I'm glad you found my video helpful. If you haven't already, make sure to visit the grey parrot a few times so they get familiar with you and so you can learn about their individual style of communication. Get their owner to write some notes on their bird's behaviour patterns for you! Greys are quite reserved compared to other species of parrot, so they can be a little trickier to read if you aren't familiar with them. Good luck! :D

[@cherylwilliams9360]

TheCassafrassTree Invaluable! That is just what I'll do, thank you!

[@dubaddicted88]

Great content

[@galactawhore5800]

very helpful!

[@Megs24theJokerQueen]

Did you draw those pictures in the background?

[@lucadq2353]

Great video !! You are awesome thank you :)

[@TheCassafrassTree]

+Luca DQ Thanks so much! I'm glad my video was helpful! :D

[@bethciaccio3450]

great video, more parrots pls!!

[@TheCassafrassTree]

Beth Hull Thanks! If there's anything in particular you want to know about, let me know and I'll try to cover it. :)

[@skyrunnernl]

There is a reason people don't talk without small pauses between sentences. That is to digest what is being said for example. I think that is expecially true when explaining things with lots of facts. The video was really informative and useful but I had to pause and rewind all the time.

[@mofkarim]

This is gonna help me when I get my own parrot

[@rib_rob_personal]

Informative and has Pokémon on her wall? I like this lady a lot already.

[@PecintaBurung168Channel]

God job really informatif thanks

[@thesinclairblues5941]

Interesting thankyou

[@2fks625]

mine usually opens its beak and sort of just play with its tongue like it will just wag its tongue up and down, i usually think that something's wrong when they do that but now i know that they're just being friendly!!

[@ActuallyAFungus]

great video, lots of helpful info! I just brought my new yellow-sided conure, Natu home; hes just over a year old! also, kudos for all the pokemon and cool dragons ;)

[@TheCassafrassTree]

I'm glad you found my video helpful! Good luck with your new companion. The best thing I can recommend (I also have a green cheek conure now), is to take everything at the bird's pace and let them decide their limits for themselves. :)

[@maryamgholizad2798]

My ringneck is 5 months and a half I got it when it was around 3 months and during these 2 months I haven’t been at home much to tame it but I do when I am home and so far I’ve gotten to a degree of it sitting on its perch and not moving around so much when I’m sitting next to the cage and that’s about all. Any advice?

[@cameleonfleuri]

Can't find any video about behaviour and sound meanings specific on LOVEBIRDS (cause each specie of parrot act a little different if you go for more specific stuff). Any suggestion?

[@idontevenexist-ql7pt]

your amazing keep on going

[@ssonng]

so helpful

[@desleykakoulidisgallaway3382]

You’re a genius

[@crepamagistance]

Thaank youu!!!

[@claudiamendoza708]

My parrot is very affectionate and playful she does play w her tongue and I'm glad you said it was a friendly hello, and she also bites me and laughs after, which I'm also hoping is friendly haha. How ever I've noticed when we play she sometimes opens her beak wide and shakes her neck weirdly up and down but going foward and back (almost like a cicle) I was afraid she might have been choking or something but she made no sounds and continued as usual. i read somewhere that it could be a show of affection, but should I be worried?? Thank you for you're video it was highly educational and fun to whatch!!!

[@TheCassafrassTree]

Hi, thanks for watching! What you're describing is your bird 'feeding' you. Parrots make that sort of head motion when they're regurgitating food from their crop (food storage pouch in their throat that pre-digests their food before it moves into their gizzard). Parrots only regurgitate food for their mates and their babies, so if your bird is doing this for you, it means she really likes you. She may or may not eventually deposit some food on you... my conure 'courtship feeds' me too, but she's never actually brought anything up. Which I'm thankful for, haha! XD As for the biting and laughing... well, a lot of parrots find it really funny when they bite someone and they jump or squeal. The laughing they pick up from us, and they often use it in context. Or they laugh when other people laugh. Many parrots really do seem to have a sense of humour though - they can be very funny, and human laughter only rewards them more. ;)

[@kayingredients1]

Top notch information, I can tell you love & care for parrots, but next time in my humble opinion. Don't edit out your natural process. 🐦

[@AP-rr8wj]

Great info and you’re adorable haha

[@jeiruskamartinez905]

There are several components to training a parrot. One place I found which successfully combines these is the Parrot ploy plan (google it if you're interested) definately the best resource that I have ever seen.look at all the extraordinary info .

[@vvulxer]

can you do a african rigneck parakeet?

[@MikeValencia]

Great video, but need to slow down, and when you edit it all together, dont have it go immediately to the next part because it’s a lot of info really fast haha

[@leisalee815]

a great parrot video, could you please talk more about Blue and Gold Macaw's as we have one and sometimes i mistake his body language for something else. At the moment he's going through feather plucking and the front of his chest is a bit bald, i try to entertain him and approach him carefully as he is a nervous bird but he has chosen my husband to be his,,,i am just a play toy to him ha,ha, my husband does not interact with him much and when he flies over to my husband my husbnd will then put him straight back on his stand {which really annoys me as our macaw wants my husbands attention}, we also have an African Grey who has taken to me, if anyone comes near me she will fluff her feather's up and her eye dilation will change and she will try and bite but she can be nice to me for a while and all of a sudden she will turn and bite me for no reason? she really hurts when she bites me as she latches on and won't let go. how do i help my babies?

[@aweeanimals970]

This was 👍

[@milanradojevic8266]

Damn this was super fast ..... Like she was goin in race talk 😂😂😂

[@jwrainbowold4191]

I know! great information, but she talks faster than Hank from Scishow

[@Megs24theJokerQueen]

I need to know why cockatoos bob their heads or pace back and forth

[@alexandriagillen3892]

idk if you'll see this, but I can't find an explanation anywhere lol. my bfs grandparents' bf Amazon does this thing. he's a rescue and possibly in his hormonal stage but calming down nicely I'm his two years with them. he was very very shy and bitey at first. now rarely snaps, is very quiet with his chirps, doesnt talk a whole a lot, but dances, is spoiled, and seems to be happy. he's come a long way. he molted for like a year and a half straight and now he's beautiful and happy. doesn't fly and is afraid to step up and doesn't talk much but we don't pressure him. if he's happy, so are we. anyways, the behavior that I'm unsure about, he seems to do it when he's happy, but I don't want to encourage it if it's s sexual behavior. he'll shrug his shoulders a little and shiver the top of his wings. it's not quaking or any flapping and he's not lowering his head or ruffling up. he looks happy. like a mini stretch. but like I said, if it's sexual, I don't want to encourage it.

[@TheCassafrassTree]

I'm glad to hear he's a happy bird, especially for having been rescued! I'm sure with time and the careful cultivation of a trust bond, he'll only get even better. :) So he, like, flicks his wings a little? My conure does that when she wants to go somewhere - she looks like she's about to take off, but she's a lazy bum and prefers to make me carry her places instead of flying there herself. Try looking in the direction the bird is looking and see if there's something or someone there that he might want to go to, or whose attention he wants. Otherwise, I'm not totally sure, sorry. If it's accompanied by other hormonal behaviours (regurgitation, searching for nest sites, increases in protectiveness or territoriality, increases in chewing, masturbation, etc) then I would suggest trying to put him on a solar schedule - He gets up when the sun goes up, and goes to bed when the sun goes down, with some low-light (twilight) transition periods in between. During the spring and summer when there are more hours of light he'll have a few weeks of regular breeding season like wild Amazons do, but he'll mellow out again when it passes and his hormones will be on a more natural schedule. Making sure he has lots of veggies, fruits, and whole grains and that he doesn't get too much protein or fat will help decrease breeding periods too. My conure gets a mix of cooked whole grains, frozen or fresh veggies, and frozen or fresh fruit during the day, and a budgie seed mix (no sunflower seeds, just grass seeds) through the night. Lots of different parrot owners have different recipes and are usually willing to share, so you can find what works best for your species and experiment a little to see what he likes. It's pretty easy to make up lots in advance and freeze individual portions. I know it was long, but I hope this helps! :)

[@angelyanez6658]

Do you have anything on parakeets?

[@TheCassafrassTree]

Hi, I don't have anything specifically on budgies yet, but they're actually pretty similar to other parrots. You can have a wonderful, meaningful relationship with a budgie as long as you're willing to put in the time and work, and let the bird set the pace for your relationship. They aren't naturally tame, so it can take a long time for them to learn to trust you, but they make wonderful companions if you're patient and gentle with them. :)

[@ngz3465]

So basically dont touch parrots because the body language for beeing calm and relaxed is the same as for exitement and aggression, how does that make sense plz explain

[@esthergborde7291]

Hi, I just got my African grey newly and I really need to teach it how to step on. How should I do that?

[@TheCassafrassTree]

Hi there! Congrats on your new friend! :D Flock-Talk here on KZbin has an excellent video on teaching your bird to step up! Just make sure to take it slow and be very patient. Greys can be quite nervous birds, and trust takes a long time to build. It'll be worth it in the end, though! kzbin.info/www/bejne/q3yah6hsqKybgZY

[@esthergborde7291]

@@TheCassafrassTree thanks a lot I'll put that into consideration

[@esthergborde7291]

@@TheCassafrassTree thanks a lot I'll put that into consideration

[@poba_85]

I just adopted a 5yr old Amazon parrot. I dont know her behaviors. If she's upset or happy. This is mew for me. I need some assistance

[@TheCassafrassTree]

Hey there! Thanks for reaching out! It's important to remember that every parrot behaves and communicates a little differently. It takes time to learn about each parrot individually and learn how best to interact with them. Spending plenty of hands-off quality time together (like reading to her, talking to her, sharing meals together, etc) will give you a chance to observe her body language and try to get a feel for how she expresses herself. Remember that it takes time and patience to build your trust bond together, and don't get discouraged by setbacks. Amazons often live 40 years or more, so you have PLENTY of time! No one tells you this outright, but every cute parrot video you see online has months or even years of trust building work behind it. I personally don't have an enormous amount of experience with Amazons specifically. In any case, other more experienced parrot owners are a goldmine of information. If you're on Facebook, there's lots of groups for parrot owners to join (or you can look for online forums as well) where you can ask questions and share experiences. Having a parrot (especially a larger one like an Amazon) is a lot like having a toddler for 40+ years - you're going to need a support network to help you through tough times! Congrats on your new companion, and I wish you all the best!

[@VATSDEEPA]

nice video..but during explaining take some pauses pls.

[@JaMeS-pu3om]

I don’t have a bird but I’ve always wanted one- I’m just wondering if I ever get one how’s they would act lol

[@blahblahblah9245]

When I take my bird to the shower he opens his wings and jumps in to g The water😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣

[@pamelasertich9850]

Great information but how many cups of coffee did you have before filming it? ❤️😘

[@Dynaboy-fv5be]

So long story short any type of gesture they make could mean lots of things so approach them ??

[@Arichimoto]

My parrot opens his wings alot

[@christinebailey9935]

any time my rescue amazon would bite me or chase me was my fault. in retrospect i did not know how to read his body language. once i learned i was happier and he was too

[@TheCassafrassTree]

It's amazing how much of a difference standing back and taking a closer look at how our birds express themselves can make in our relationships with them. I'm glad to hear that you and your Amazon are communicating better! ^_^

[@katbeckstead4737]

Came to learn about macaw body language. Got distracted by supernatural in the back ground 🤦 i had to restart the video. Lol

[@katbeckstead4737]

Dawsons creek is back there too. 😂😂😂😂

[@tropicalflavors8594]

we have a mischievous parrot, he will stay very quiet allow my mom to pet him, scratch his head..let her get comfortable playing with him and then bite her. He will then laugh

[@robertbrey7642]

I've met her parot

[@alterego6571]

thank you very much for the tips but if you talk a bit more slow at your next videos I will wag my tail for you

[@richardshultz2628]

Haven't got a pair yet I haven't grabbed a pair I don't have a parent yet

[@zakkholzfaller762]

You have more jump cuts than Ray William Johnson

[@dkr43]

You are off topic and showing off. Go to a different video.

[@Megs24theJokerQueen]

You remind me of a much more mature version of myself

[@MissSixtiesPennyLane]

Woah! Can barely follow you're talking so fast!

[@dkr43]

Try replaying the video and stopping it and starting it in places. Also the video rewinds.

[@daruso190]

Great video but I would prefer if you speak a littler slower please! 🙏

[@dkr43]

Try replay, rewind, stop and start. You can control the video you know.

[@rwiiiw7335]

EXTREMELY INFORMATIONAL, BUT YOU SCARE ME. PLEASE!!!!!! - BREATHE, ONCE IN A WHILE.

[@TheCassafrassTree]

Hahaha, don't worry, it's all editing! I only wish I could film it all in one take. ;)

[@ravindersinghsingh859]

@Blondie SL you dumb or paralyzed patient to not understand her language

[@feliciau3368]

She's breathing she edited the video from possibly waisting your time - rambling

[@jesseowens1786]

You good, but talk too fast , you also left out many bird body language displays

[@dkr43]

Make your own video.

[@ksenijapopadic5102]

Why are you speaking so fast. If you want to teach someone to understand than try to be understandable

[@EastHaven4life]

Please slow down. Trying to learn and your speaking too fast for me.

[@ScarecrowBloodd]

you can slow down the video if it's too fast for your brain..

[@TheCassafrassTree]

Hey now, no need to be mean. It seems like lot of people had difficulty with this episode. I'm happy to take constructive criticism so I can make better videos in the future.

[@ScarecrowBloodd]

TheCassafrassTree I wasn't trying to be mean. It was more so to be helpful(:

[@TheCassafrassTree]

Sorry. It kinda came across that way, but little nuances are sometimes lost in typed comments. :\

[@marioluigi1743]

You talk to fast.

[@dvt6481]

Damn girl slow down... breath breath

[@myevilplans]

Slow down, your talking too fast for video, I've known birds since 1984 and your info is pretty good, but a noob can't keep up with your rapid fire talk....

[@marylamp]

please speak even more faster... and no one will understand for sure ;-) ...not everyone is a native speaker. THY