Each breed of birds have their own special odor (or lack thereof). My quakers smell great - kinda like corn chips or the fried Chinese noodles they give you with soup. Hence the name nOOdles for my youngest Quaker!
My Sennies, the budgies and the Sun Conure do not have strong odor - they just smell like clean feathers.
My female lovebird, Teacake, has a strong smell at certain times and not much of an odor at others. I think it may have to do with her mating cycle.
Generally, if a pet bird smells "bad", like stinky bad, it usually means there is something very wrong - perhaps infection.
I do volunteer work at a wild bird rescue and many wild birds have very definate smells. Crows smell FABULOUS! A healthy crow smells like a mixture of lemons, leather and cedar. The Roseate spoonbills also smell like this but the smell is much, much stronger and so it is not quite pleasant. A healthy pelican has a great smell, I can't explain it, and white pelicans smell nicer than brown. Ospreys stink! They smell very wild and strong and I don't like to be around the odor for any length of time. I let my mom's dog smell an osprey feather once and she backed away from it and then ran! Woodpeckers have a plastic-y wild sort of smell that is very unique to them.
I guess you all think I'm weird going around sniffing birds all day long,but I guess I use my sense of smell more than I realized. As soon as I read this question I was like, "Oh! I have so much "smell" information to share" Hee hee!
Cathy (the nose knows!!)
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Skylar just got back from getting shaved today so he is smelling especially nice.
Originally Posted by Catherinedana
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