Cockatiel Behaviour

Hello, I'm from India and I'm new to the forum.

In my college there is a birds park and they have a cage of cockatiels. There are nine of them in the huge cage -- 7 are the grey type and 2 are Lutinos. I like going to observe them everyday. I've never owned birds before, and I'm curious about some puzzling behaviour the birds have been showing.

For one thing, I really don't know who's who. Who is a boy and who is a girl. I know that, in the grey breed, females have a yellow spotted under-tail pattern, but six of the seven seem to have it. Only one fellow, Orangey, is definitely a boy. Maybe the others are babies, but I don't know -- they look medium-size. I don't know what their age is.
It's even more difficult to tell the sex of the birds with the Lutinos. I've called one of them Lily and the other Ducky (assuming one is a girl and the other is a boy) but I think both are boys.

Both seem to be very very silent, minding their own business and not particularly getting in any other bird's way. Ducky loves to swing upside down by himself, or peck at the birdseed, or dip his feathers in the water and shake them out. Lily likes being in her own corner minding her own business too, and she seems to be the friendliest of them -- I mean, friendly towards humans. She apparently likes my voice, because when she hears me chirping or whistling, she drops whatever she's doing and comes right up to my wall of the cage, and begins to climb it with beak and toes. When I blow at her lightly through the cage, she likes it ruffling her feathers. The others fly off in nervousness when I poke my pinky into the cage, but she loves to give it little licks and test it out with her beak. She doesn't comes to anyone else when they call, or hang onto their side of the cage and bite at the wire. Has she already learnt my voice/whistle though it's been just 3 days?

One more thing that surprised me was that Lily has a broken tail feather that another bird just loves to groom. The feather seems to have some dried blood on it. And a bird I've called Brownie likes to run behind Lily, plucking at the offending tail feather. Sometimes Lily hardly notices, but most of the time she's scuttling away from Brownie's beak. Brownie is very persistant. If Lily climbs to the top of the cage, so will Brownie, at twice Lily's speed. I don't know if it causes Lily pain. Brownie is a girl bird, and I'm not sure what Lily is. Why is Brownie so intent on pulling off Lily's injured feather?

One more thing I'm interested in knowing is, what does the crest straight up mean, and what does it mean when it lies flat on the head with a little curl at the end? Ducky's is forever flat on his head, and Lily's is flat on her head just when I whistle to her. When Brownie begins to worry at Lily's tail, Lily's crest cautiously comes up.

The birds had a fright today -- I think it was a loud sound. Anyway, at Pecky's warning call, eight of them zoomed up to the topmost beam and sat in a line together. They were moving their beaks but I don't think they were making any noise - just moving the beaks, sitting with their feathers ruffled up. Some of them looked half-asleep, but some others were very alert. Lily was on the ground (poor baby!) It took her a while to realise that the others were up there sitting huddled together, peering out of that wall of the cage. Eventually she made her way up there too, and sat at the very end of the line.
Is this how their fright reaction is? Why do they open their beaks with no sound? I've seen Lily also do that a lot -- as if she's yawning, but it goes on and on.

I have SO MANY more cockatiel questions. I've been checking websites to get answers.

In my college there is a birds park and they have a cage of cockatiels. There are nine of them in the huge cage -- 7 are the grey type and 2 are Lutinos. I like going to observe them everyday. I've never owned birds before, and I'm curious about some puzzling behaviour the birds have been showing.

For one thing, I really don't know who's who. Who is a boy and who is a girl. I know that, in the grey breed, females have a yellow spotted under-tail pattern, but six of the seven seem to have it. Only one fellow, Orangey, is definitely a boy. Maybe the others are babies, but I don't know -- they look medium-size. I don't know what their age is.
It's even more difficult to tell the sex of the birds with the Lutinos. I've called one of them Lily and the other Ducky (assuming one is a girl and the other is a boy) but I think both are boys. Well, if you're reading the story of Bennie on Pet General, you will know, right away, that I am no expert on which one is which sex! The only real way to know is to have their DNA tested or figure it out when one lays an egg! I have a "pair" and we know that for sure as when the female (Milly) started laying eggs (we had been told "she" was a boy) and 3 hatched! Bennie was one of those babies and I was convinced it was a male because he looked just like his Daddy, Roger, and he was larger and much more animated than the other two. The other two, I felt certain, were female, because their cheeks were not nearly as bright. They proved us wrong, as well, when they mated and had two babies of their own! :o

Both seem to be very very silent, minding their own business and not particularly getting in any other bird's way. Ducky loves to swing upside down by himself, or peck at the birdseed, or dip his feathers in the water and shake them out. Lily likes being in her own corner minding her own business too, and she seems to be the friendliest of them -- I mean, friendly towards humans. She apparently likes my voice, because when she hears me chirping or whistling, she drops whatever she's doing and comes right up to my wall of the cage, and begins to climb it with beak and toes. When I blow at her lightly through the cage, she likes it ruffling her feathers. The others fly off in nervousness when I poke my pinky into the cage, but she loves to give it little licks and test it out with her beak. She doesn't comes to anyone else when they call, or hang onto their side of the cage and bite at the wire. Has she already learnt my voice/whistle though it's been just 3 days? I think you will find that each Cockatiel has a personality of his/her own. Some are more shy than others. Roger, our male, walked right up my daughter's arm in the pet store, as if they had been friends forever. Milly was a rescue of sorts and we adopted her as an adult and she is very, very shy. She's been here for 4 years now and still will not "step up" on my finger from inside of the cage. Once she comes out, she is so gentle and sweet and loves to step up and sit on our shoulders. Roger is noisy and whistles and talks, but Milly is very, very quiet. I imagine that these birds you are viewing probably haven't been handled much and some just don't know how to react to human voices and touch.

One more thing that surprised me was that Lily has a broken tail feather that another bird just loves to groom. The feather seems to have some dried blood on it. And a bird I've called Brownie likes to run behind Lily, plucking at the offending tail feather. Sometimes Lily hardly notices, but most of the time she's scuttling away from Brownie's beak. Brownie is very persistant. If Lily climbs to the top of the cage, so will Brownie, at twice Lily's speed. I don't know if it causes Lily pain. Brownie is a girl bird, and I'm not sure what Lily is. Why is Brownie so intent on pulling off Lily's injured feather? Roger and Milly "preen" each other all the time. I guess that Brownie might suspect that Lily needs a good grooming and wants to "help". I'm just guessing, though. I'm not an expert by any means.

One more thing I'm interested in knowing is, what does the crest straight up mean, and what does it mean when it lies flat on the head with a little curl at the end? Ducky's is forever flat on his head, and Lily's is flat on her head just when I whistle to her. When Brownie begins to worry at Lily's tail, Lily's crest cautiously comes up. When mine are very alert to a strange sound or the dreaded cat in the room, their crests go up. When they are content and happy, they sit quietly, grind their beaks, and puff up a bit and stretch their legs. That's when I know they are happy to see me walk into the room.

The birds had a fright today -- I think it was a loud sound. Anyway, at Pecky's warning call, eight of them zoomed up to the topmost beam and sat in a line together. They were moving their beaks but I don't think they were making any noise - just moving the beaks, sitting with their feathers ruffled up. Some of them looked half-asleep, but some others were very alert. Lily was on the ground (poor baby!) It took her a while to realise that the others were up there sitting huddled together, peering out of that wall of the cage. Eventually she made her way up there too, and sat at the very end of the line.
Is this how their fright reaction is? Why do they open their beaks with no sound? I've seen Lily also do that a lot -- as if she's yawning, but it goes on and on.

I have SO MANY more cockatiel questions. I've been checking websites to get answers.

It is very nice to meet you and have a new Cockatiel lover in our midst! I answered the question about the bloody feather on the health section yesterday. My name is Logan and I live in South Carolina, USA with my family, our 3 dogs, 1 cat, 2 Cockatiels and a fish. Welcome to Pet Talk!

Quite a long story we have there. I've seen cockatiels in zoos alright and I guess not only birds seem to have very extraoridnary behaviours. All animals actually act differently in the manner that they want to. If birds start to go noisy, it would mean that they are hungry or just wanted to mate . And this behaviur is commonly found in animals. Maybe you should try to observe more and you'd learn soon.


Goodluck with the birds!



Elle Mayson :)
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Lilys broken tail feather should be attended to. It is a blood feather & should be removed by a veterinary or someone that knows how to remove it & knows about the care of cockatiels. Birds that sit on a perch & grind their beaks are content. The crest rising is a sign of exceitment & something they naturally do. I have a hen cockatiel & have learned so much about birds in general from her. Birdsnways. com is a great place to go to. You can click onto Cockatiels & learn so much & ask all the questions you want because they have some great moderators & people on there that can share their knowledge.